Prague's National Gallery announces cooperation with Louvre in 2024

The National Gallery Prague (NGP) has announced its exhibition schedule for 2024. Visitors will be able to see Michelangelo’s work and other masterpieces for the first time in collaboration with the Musée du Louvre, NGP director General Alicja Knast told reporters Wednesday.

Czech artists in interwar France, and a display dedicated to hockey and skating in history, are among several shows that will explore diverse themes. 

“Our program management until 2026 focuses on the themes of solidarity, Czech art in exile, the representation of women in art history, and issues of the environmental crisis. In addition, the digitization of our collections continues, and we are focusing on strategic investments, such as constructing a new depository in the Jinonice district, which the gallery urgently needs,” said Knast.

A group exhibition from the Museum of Contemporary Art collections in Skopje, No Feeling Lasts Forever. Solidarity Collection in Skopje, which is dedicated to the theme of solidarity and the role of art in times of conflict, will open at the NGP premises in the Trade Fair Palace in March. The show reflects the aid given to the city after the 1963 earthquake. It provides a glimpse into the history of post-war modern art.

In April, the Kinský Palace on Old Town Square, another NGP facility, will reopen with the exhibition On Ice! Hockey and Skating in the Visual Arts to present the history of 17th and 18th-century ice skating in the Netherlands and its gradual transfer to Czech territory. It will offer 100 works ranging from old masters, such as Pieter Brueghel II, to 19th-century Czech artists and even experimental artifacts.

In mid-May, the NGP will open the exhibition From Michelangelo to Callot: The Art of Mannerist Printmaking in the Wallenstein Riding School. It depicts the development of Mannerist printmaking, its experiments, and its connections with other art forms. Visitors will see more than 200 works of art, including drawings by Michelangelo Buonarroti.

In November, the same venue will host the exhibition Ecole de Paris: Artists from Bohemia and the Interwar Paris School. It will present names such as Georges Kars, Othon Coubine, and Francois Maurice Eberl, who were successful on the Parisian art scene, as well as works by other world-famous artists, including Amedeo Modigliani and Chaim Soutine.

In the spring of 2025, the Art of Asia: Across Space and Time collection will open at the Salm Palace near Prague Castle.

This year, the NGP will also present Czech Surrealism in Estonia as part of the Surrealism 100: Prague, Tartu, and Other Stories project. At the Venice Art Biennial, the Czech Republic will display a project by artist Eva Kotatkova in April.

Last year, nearly 434,000 visitors saw the NGP permanent collections and temporary exhibitions, 15 percent more than in 2022, and over 46,000 children and adults visited the NG educational and public programs.