From Paris to Pilsen: Jiří Kolář’s works find new home in West Bohemian Gallery
The West Bohemian Gallery in Pilsen has received a collection of 66 works by the world-renowned Czech writer, poet, and artist Jiří Kolář. The works, acquired directly from Kolář in the late 1990s, have been donated to the gallery by ČEZ. I asked the gallery’s international project coordinator Tomáš Hausner to tell me more about the collection:
“Until now, there were about 16 collages and other works by Jiří Kolář in the collection of the Gallery of West Bohemia in Plzeň. The collection donated by ČEZ to the gallery contains 66 works in various techniques used by this famous Czech artist living in Paris.
“It includes classical collages, but also various techniques that he actually invented and named them, too. It is rather difficult to translate their names into English, but some of them are called rollages, chiasmages, prollages, or crumplages.
“So this present means really a substantial enrichment to the collection, especially for the period of the second half of the 20th century that is still rather underestimated. And the works we were given by the ČEZ company date from the early 1960s to the late 1990s, with the oldest collage dating from 1957.”
As you said, the collection was donated to your gallery by ČEZ. Could you elaborate on how they came to acquire it?
“The history of the collection is really remarkable. As it happens, it is connected with a little coincidence, a little bit of luck, and above all, with the person of Zdeněk Valeš, the former director of the regional energy company ZCE, which is non-existent today, as its activities have been eventually taken over by specialized companies of the ČEZ group.
“As Mr. Valeš recalled, shortly after the Velvet Revolution, he went on a business trip to the Paris headquarters of EDF, a French company that produces and distributes electricity. He noticed some pictures on the walls there, and he realized that they were works by Jiří Kolář.
“The French managers were very helpful and gave Mr. Valeš the home address of the Czech artist who was then still in French exile. And although unannounced, Zdeněk Valeš was lucky to get a come-in from Kolář and the two hit it off, perhaps because Mr. Valeš, as an electrician, repaired a broken electrical installation on the spot in Kolář's apartment.
“Kolář then asked him if he could take something with him back to Czechoslovakia, where he was planning to return, and so the pieces made it to Pilsen.
“And then in the late 1990s, as Kolář returned to the Czech Republic, the ČEZ company represented then still by Mr. Valeš offered him that they would buy the collection and subsequently exhibit the collages on the current ČEZ premises in Pilsen. And Kolář agreed, perhaps because he still remembered his very first meeting with Mr. Valeš in Paris.”
That is really a remarkable story. My final question is, when and how will the public have the opportunity to view these works?
“Well, that's the easiest question to ask and the hardest to answer. We estimate that the time needed for registering, documenting, and processing the individual works and the collection as a whole will take approximately three years. So with a grain of salt, we can promise to have the works exhibited sometime in 2027 or 2028 to introduce them to both the expert and general public.”
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