Drawing

Adolf Hölzel from the collection of Heinz and Monika Röthinger

Thanks to a generous donation from Berlin collectors Heinz and Monika Röthinger, the Olomouc Museum of Art has acquired a representative collection of drawings by one of the founding figures of modern European painting and a pioneer of abstraction, Olomouc-born Adolf Hölzel (1853 Olomouc - 1934 Stuttgart). He was born into the family of Eduard Hölzel (1817 Prague - 1885 Salzburg), a prominent Olomouc bookseller, publisher and art dealer. After apprenticing as a typesetter in the printing house of F. A. Perthes in Gotha, he first went to Vienna for art studies and completed them in 1882 at the Academy of Arts in Munich. He co-founded the Dachau School of Painting, where he worked from the early 1890s until 1905, when he was appointed professor at Stuttgarts Royal Academy of Fine Arts. His pedagogical methods and sophisticated doctrine of colour influenced several generations of his pupils, including Johannes Itten, Willi Baumeister, Oskar Schlemmer, Ida Kerkovius, Albert Müller, Max Ackermann and others. In addition to the donated collection of 15 drawings by Hölzel, the exhibition will also present one work by Hölzels Stuttgart pupil Albert Müller and two works by Hölzels assistant Ida Kerkovius.

The sub-collection of drawings is one of the oldest collections of the Olomouc Museum of Art and is the second largest after the graphic collection. It was created as a sub-collection of works on paper as early as 1952. Its basis was part of the collections of the former municipal museum, the collection of the National Renewal Fund and the Friends of Art Club and deposits. At the beginning of the 1980s, the graphic collection was separated from the collection of drawings and graphics. The oldest compact authorial collections of drawings are connected with the collecting activity of publisher Romuald Promberger at the beginning of the 20th century (Stanislav Lolek, Adolf Kašpar). A larger and more dynamically developing part of the collection shows the drawings of the 20th century. Apart from the great generation of Czech symbolism represented by names such as František Bílek, Jan Konůpek, Josef Váchal, Vojtěch Preissig, Alfons Mucha, the collection also presents the work of prominent authors of Czech classic Modernism (Josef Čapek, Emil Filla, František Foltýn, Adolf Hoffmeister, František Muzika, Jan Zrzavý atd.). Sculptors drawings are represented by the works by Jan Štursa, Otto Gutfreund, Vincenc Makovský, Josef Wagner, Ladislav Zívr. The generation of Skupina 42 and Skupina RA groups is represented by a remarkable collection of drawings by František Hudeček, Václav Zykmund, Josef Istler and Zdeněk Sklenář. The collection of drawings was expanded through several donations, such as the estates of Vladimír Pukl, Karel Svolinský, Jaromír Šolc and Stanislav Menšík. Important acquisitions were made in connection with the preparations for different exhibitions. In particular during the preparations for the exhibition Mezi tradicí a experimentem. Práce na papíře a s papírem v českém umění 1939–1989/ Between Tradition and Experiment. The Works on Paper and with Paper in Czech Art 1939 – 1989 collections were expanded by almost 350 works of art, thus significantly increasing the value of the whole collection, enriching it in particular with art experiment (visual poetry, graphic scores) and conceptual work. A unique specific feature of the sub-collection of drawings of the Olomouc Museum of Art is a vast collection of lart brut which is unparalleled in Czech galleries and museums in its scope and quality.

Ivo Binder