Proč má NGP expozice v adaptovaných historických budovách – Proč nemá Národní galerie jednu budovu?

The Society of Patriotic Friends of Art, the predecessor of today's National Gallery, did not have a permanent home for its exhibitions. It held them in various Prague palaces. It was not until 1918, when it became the State Gallery, that it announced a competition for a permanent building. It chose a beautiful but completely unsuitable location for it – on the banks of the Vltava River in Kampa. It eventually exchanged it with the city of Prague for a plot of land in Letná. And in 1939, construction could begin. A noble building designed by architect Josef Gočár. However, due to the times, nothing was built. After the war, the gallery's collections were distributed throughout Prague, gradually moving to the Šternberk Palace and the Kinsky Palace, and then to other buildings. The idea of a single permanent building reappeared in 1967, but in the end, the current situation remained unchanged. Although some buildings have already been handed over to other institutions, such as Zbraslav Castle, St. George's Monastery, and the exhibition floor of the Municipal Library. The National Gallery is located in palaces throughout Prague, and a visit to it also leads to an exploration of Prague and its multi-layered architecture. From Gothic to Functionalism.

Lecturer: Radomíra Sedláková is a prominent critic, educator, theorist, and curator of architecture. She founded and curated the architecture collection at the National Gallery in Prague (1985–2020). For more than 10 years, she wrote about architecture for Mladá fronta. She has prepared dozens of exhibitions on architecture and written a number of books on the subject, including Karel Prager (Titanic Publishing House, Prague 2013) and Unreal Socialism (NGP, 2018). She also contributed to the series of books Famous Villas of Prague (FOIBOS Publishing House). From 1993 to 2019, she was chair of the Building of the Year competition. She lectures on the history of architecture at the Faculty of Applied Sciences of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen and at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague.