History

Today’s Gočár Gallery, until 31 December 2022 The East Bohemian Gallery in Pardubice, was established by a decision of the Pardubice Regional Council as the Regional Gallery in 1953, at the time when the network of state galleries was being established in the Czech Republic. At that time the Municipal Panting Gallery was still a vivid memory in Pardubice, operating in the local château for a short time during the Second World War. The local intelligentsia had been striving to establish it since 1908, but it was only opened to the public in November 1942 in two rooms on the first floor of the château, rented to the town authorities by the local Museum Association. The further fate of the painting gallery is still well known in Pardubice. After 18 months of operation, the most valuable part of the collection was hidden from German air raids in the town hall in Holice, which burned down during the May 1945 uprising.

In the second half of 1954, the first two (and for a long time the only) employees joined the new Regional Gallery, and the Gallery began its professional activities. From the beginning it was housed in the Pardubice Château outbuildings, which it initially shared with the Regional Museum. The first own or borrowed exhibitions were created here, and a significant part of exhibition activities also took place at the branches in Chrudim, Vysoké Mýto, and Litomyšl, which became independent during the reorganisation in 1960. The end of the 1950s brought very significant and somewhat uncoordinated changes to the gallery. In three consecutive years the institution changed its status three times. In 1959, it was merged with the Regional Museum and Heritage Institute into one colossal institution – the Regional Institute of Local History. The functionality of an organisation with such a broad focus was understandably not successful and from the following year the gallery only functioned in conjunction with the museum as the Museum and Gallery in Pardubice.

After the reorganisation of the territorial administration in 1961, the gallery became independent, this time under the name of the East Bohemian Gallery in Pardubice (EBG). Its regional scope was established for the entire southern part of the East Bohemian region, in 1963 it was administratively limited to the districts of Pardubice and Chrudim. In the same year the gallery came under the administration of the ONV Pardubice. The 1960s marked a significant development for the gallery in terms of its collections, the reconstruction of the exhibition space in the château and its professional activities. In 1962 the first permanent exhibition of 20th century Czech art was opened, with an emphasis on the art of East Bohemia. Two editions of the unique Artchemo sculpture symposium, which focused on exploring the possibilities of using artificial materials in visual art and was organised by the East Bohemian Gallery in cooperation with the then VCHZ Synthesia national enterprise, took place in 1968-69. At the end of the decade, the East Bohemian Gallery participated in the preparation of several editions of the Hlinecko Art Festival and from 1971 until 1990 organised the annual Nasavrky Palette show in nearby Nasavrky.

However, the following years of the 1970s were not a happy period for the gallery. All the activities of the then director were guided by the desire to build a museum of socialist realism. In 1972, however, the gallery managed to acquire exhibition space in Jonah’s House on Pernštýnské Square, where the Jaroslav Grus Gallery was opened in 1978. In the 1980s, the gallery's activities primarily focused on the addition and presentation of a collection of classical Czech landscape art; at the end of the decade, along with the noticeable political relaxation, interesting additions of contemporary painting, drawing and graphic art appeared, as well as ground-breaking exhibitions by Eva Kmentová and Karel Malich, and repetitions of the exceptional Line, Colour, Shape and Contemporary Czech Graphic Art exhibitions.

In the post-1989 period, its exhibition activities focused on the presentation of essentially unknown personalities and artistic groups of our post-war visual art, discriminated against by the former regime. The aim was to convey to the public a true picture of modern art of the previous decades, not distorted by politically tinged selections or recommendations. Over the years, such exhibitions became a certain part of the East Bohemian Gallery’s image. In the same spirit the gallery sought to update its permanent exhibition, and a number of successful purchases for the collections were made with this aim in mind. Works by key artists from the 1960s to the 1980s were purchased, thus introducing an exhibition of art from the second half of the 20th century. On 1 January 1991, the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic became the founder of the East Bohemian Gallery. In the first half of the same year the gallery lost its conveniently located Jonah’s House in restitution proceedings and, therefore, concentrated its exhibition activities in the château building and its surroundings. In 1993 it organised the first year of the successful Pardubice Mounds sculpture exhibition, the other rounds were held in 1994, 1995 and 1997. The gallery also participated in the repetitions of important exhibitions of the 1960s – New Sensibility, Route, New Figuration – and organised an exhibition commemorating the history and works from the Artchemo sculpture symposium of 1968 and 1969. On 1 December 2000, the East Bohemian Gallery regained the reconstructed Jonah’s House, expanded with premises in the rear wing, where it started its exhibition activities almost immediately. On 1 July 2001, the East Bohemian Gallery was transferred to the administration of the Pardubice region.

Each of the past six decades of the East Bohemian Gallery’s history brought into its life a specific ideological focus, a specific focus of acquisition activities and a characteristic leading personality. From the point of view of exhibition and acquisition activities and the overall development of the gallery, the end of the 1950s, 1960s,1990s and present period can be evaluated as fruitful periods. A major change in acquisition activities took place in 2017. The gallery staff produced the “Acquisition strategy of the East Bohemian Gallery in Pardubice, public-benefit organisation of the Region of Pardubice’ document, which was approved by the Pardubice Regional Council on 15 May 2017. This year the Gallery received a special-purpose contribution of CZK 1,000,000 from the Pardubice region for new acquisitions. At the same time, the East Bohemian Gallery succeeded in obtaining additional funds in subsidy procedures announced by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic. The acquisition activities of the East Bohemian Gallery are systematically focused on filling the noticeable gaps in some generational units in its collection and on completing the representation of exceptional individuals. The selection of the works takes place with a view to preparing exhibitions for the new spaces in the Winternitz Automatic Mills.

In 2017 the Pardubice Regional Council approved the General Plan for the long-term presentation of Pardubice Château, which determines the future development of the unique complex in order to increase its attractiveness, promote tourism and strengthen the significance of the Renaissance Pernštejn residence. It was decided to use the former farm buildings for the needs of the East Bohemian Museum and to relocate the facility of the East Bohemian Gallery to the building of the former automatic mills designed by architect Josef Gočár. For the purposes of a modern gallery, the former industrial building is extremely attractive. Exhibition halls for changing exhibitions and expositions, modern depositories and additional high-quality facilities for working with collections will be created here. At the same time, some authentic elements from the original mill will be preserved, such as the transmissions, hoppers, etc. Visitors will also enjoy a unique view of the city and its surroundings from the roof terrace. This major conceptual decision offers the gallery a unique chance and opportunity to become a modern, sought-after cultural institution of the 21st century.