The Galerie Rudolfinum (part of The Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague) started its activities on January 1, 1994 and is a state non-profit institution directed and financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

, and has its seat in the reconstructed building of Rudolfinum

Rudolfinum

The Rudolfinum is a music auditorium in Prague, Czech Republic. It is designed in the neo-renaissance style and is situated on Jan Palach Square on the bank of the river Vltava.-Overview:...

,

J. Zítek and J. Schulz, architects of the National Theatre

National Theatre (Prague)

The National Theatre in Prague is known as the Alma Mater of Czech opera, and as the national monument of Czech history and art.The National Theatre belongs to the most important Czech cultural institutions, with a rich artistic tradition which was created and maintained by the most distinguished...

 in Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

, designed the representative neo-renaissance building of the Rudolfinum, completed in 1884, to house both a concert hall and a gallery. Located in the vicinity of the Museum of Decorative Arts, the Faculty of Philosophy, and the Academy of Decorative Arts, on the edge of the historical city districts Old Town

Old Town

Old Town is the typical designation of a historic or original core of a city or town. Although the city may be larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations...

 and Lesser Town.

Galerie Rudolfinum's exclusive orientation on temporary exhibitions (the gallery has no collection of its own – runs on the princip Kunsthalle

Kunsthalle

Kunsthalle is, generally, in German speaking regions a term for a facility mounting temporary art exhibitions. Some are run or supported by a local Kunstverein, an art association of local collectors and artists...

), which provides background for a wide range of accompanying programmes, makes it possible to develop several main themes in its program at once. Within the few years of its operation, Galerie Rudolfinum has acquired a firm position on Czech art scene.

Currently about a thousand and five hundred square metres of exhibition area are available in the gallery as well as Café Rudolfinum, shop and completely Wheelchair access.
Director of the gallery is PhDr. Petr Nedoma.

Selected exhibitions

Propaganda for Happines, Josef Váchal

Josef Váchal

Josef Váchal was a Czech writer, painter, graphic designer and book-printer.Váchal was the illegitimate son of Josef Aleš-Lyžec and Anna Váchalová - his parents never married...

, Louise Bourgeois

Louise Bourgeois

Louise Joséphine Bourgeois , was a renowned French-American artist and sculptor, best known for her contributions to both modern and contemporary art, and for her spider structures, titled Maman, which resulted in her being nicknamed the Spiderwoman...

 – Locus of Memory, Jürgen Klauke, Along the Frontier, Faces and Bodies of the Middle Kingdom, Angel, Angel - Legends of the Present, Kiki Smith

Kiki Smith

Kiki Smith is an American artist classified as a feminist artist, a movement with beginnings in the twentieth century...

: Sculptures, František Drtikol

František Drtikol

František Drtikol was a Czech photographer of international renown. He is especially known for his characteristically epic photographs, often nudes and portraits.- Life and work :...

 – Photographer, Painter, Mystic, Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is an American photographer and film director, best known for her conceptual portraits. Sherman currently lives and works in New York City. In 1995, she was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. She is represented by Sprüth Magers Berlin London in and Metro Pictures gallery in...

 – Retrospective, Nan Goldin

Nan Goldin

Nancy "Nan" Goldin is an American photographer.-Life and work:Goldin was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in the Boston, Massachusetts suburb of Lexington, to middle class Jewish parents whose ideas, moderately liberal and progressive, were put to the test when on April 12, 1965 their eldest...

 – I’ll be your mirror, Nests of Games, Qiu Shihua

Qiu Shihua

Qiu Shihua is a notable Chinese landscape painter born 1940 in Zizhong, Sichuan Province, China. He lives and works in Beijing and Shenzhen.-Life and work:...

 - Landscapes, Jiří David - The Glow, Michael Biberstein – Towards Silence, Reality Check, Czechoslovak socialist realism 1948 - 1958, A Strange Heaven – current Chinese photography, Czech photography 1840-1950, Ivan Pinkava – Heroes, Skála in Rudolfinum, Alén Diviš

Alén Diviš

Alén Diviš was a Czech painter known for his melancholic art. Having spent much of his life abroad, often working in solitude, he remained rather unknown during his life but has had a postmortem revival in the art world....

, Annelies Štrba, Václav Jirásek - Industria, Rineke Dijkstra

Rineke Dijkstra

Rineke Dijkstra is a female Dutch photographer.-Life and work:Dijkstra concentrates on single portraits, and usually works in series, looking at groups such as adolescents, clubbers, and soldiers. Her subjects are often shown standing, facing the camera, against a minimal background...

 – Portraits, Shomei Tomatsu

Shomei Tomatsu

is a Japanese photographer.Born Teruaki Tōmatsu in Nagoya in 1930, Tōmatsu studied economics at Aichi University, graduating in 1954. While still a student, he had his photographs published by the major Japanese photography magazines. He entered Iwanami and worked on the series Iwanami Shashin Bunko...

 – Skin of the Nation, Neo Rauch

Neo Rauch

Neo Rauch is a German artist whose paintings mine the intersection of his personal history with the politics of industrial alienation. His work reflects the influence of socialist realism, and owes a debt to Surrealists Giorgio de Chirico and René Magritte, although Rauch hesitates to align...

: Neue Rollen, Uncertain States of America, Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson is an American photographer who is best known for elaborately staged scenes of American homes and neighborhoods.-Life and career:Crewdson was born in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY...

, Gottfried Helnwein

Gottfried Helnwein

Gottfried Helnwein is an Austrian-Irish fine artist, painter, photographer, installation and performance artist.-Work:Helnwein studied at the University of Visual Art in Vienna...

, Chinese Painting - Zhang Xiaogang

Zhang Xiaogang

Zhang Xiaogang is a contemporary Chinese symbolist and surrealist painter. Paintings in his Bloodline series are often monochromatic, stylized portraits of Chinese people, usually with large, dark-pupiled eyes, posed in a stiff manner deliberately reminiscent of family portraits from the 1950s...

, Fang Lijun

Fang Lijun

Fang Lijun is an artist based in Beijing.He has shown work internationally in exhibitions including The Next Ones at Alexander Ochs , Beijing, New Work, New Acquisitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Alors, la Chine? at the Pompidou Centre in Paris...

, Feng Mengbo

Feng Mengbo

Feng Mengbo is a contemporary Chinese artist who works mainly in new media.Born in 1966 in province, in 1992, he graduated from Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, Hangzhou. He now lives and works in Beijing....

, Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol

Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...

– Motion Pictures, Georg Baselitz – Paintings 1960-2008, Herbert Tobias, Decadence Now! Visions of Excess,

External links

• Galerie Rudolfinum – official website of Galerie Rudolfinum
• Press Releases
• Publications
• The Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague – official website of The Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague