The Online Collection
This digital collection catalogue project – ‘the online collection’ – is the first in a series of presentations through which we wish to show the public our museum’s fine art collection, which was accessible to viewers in a broader selection for the last time at the permanent exhibition in Nelahozeves during the 1960s. We will soon be opening our new permanent exhibition at the Jesuit College in Kutná Hora, which will be accompanied by a detailed exhibition catalogue. In future the digital ‘online collection’ will be integrally followed by another digital project, the ‘collection guide’ that will simulate a professionally guided tour of the virtual exhibition with special focus on individual parts of the collection as well as individual works of art.
In contrast, the ‘collection online’ presentation is more reminiscent of a ‘live’ virtual depository that will grow with new acquisitions as further works are digitised. We have included a selection of paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints from our collection, either for their high quality or for their interest value in a period context. The images are supported by various pieces of information, including basic biographical facts about the artists who created these works.
Thanks to the latest technology, you can view all the works close-up, right down to the smallest detail. This way you can compare the unique style of individual artists as well as differences in how they used various artistic techniques.
You can view the works according to various criteria: by artists, periods, themes and artistic styles. In working on this presentation we didn’t lay claim to a universal validity of this kind of classification. We aimed, on the contrary, to highlight the multiple meanings to be found in art as well as its uniqueness that naturally defies all forms of ‘pigeon-holing’. This is why individual works appear in various – and often unexpected – contexts. And precisely for that reason they can also be explored from a broad variety of viewpoints.
The names of the thematic areas are derived from traditional categorisation (such as genre, landscape, still life and the nude); they often, however, indicate new and more specific themes (the café, music, the theatre) as well as more universal ones (cosmos, history, the countryside, people) though also more subtle and diffuse themes related to the general mood of the work (melancholy, idyll). It was 20th-century art, the specialised focus of our museum’s collection, that introduced a new diversity of themes into the development of art. Our categorisation is therefore meant to make viewers think about the complex character of art and its purpose, though also about the changes that individual themes have undergone in various historical contexts, and finally about the ephemeral or, on the contrary ‘eternal’ character of several themes during the history of art. It is also intended to arouse an interest in understanding the mysteries of art that are often hidden under the surface. A single work can have several different features, each of which reflects different themes determined by the historical period or the artist’s personality.
The classification according to stylistic areas is rather more complicated. We are aware of the fact that stylistic classification is only one aspect of the art-historical characterisation of a particular period or individual work. This question is even more complicated in the Czech context, which is typified by the mixing of styles, their belated adoption and original transformation. This is why we have adapted the names of the stylistic areas and their classification to a looser interpretation. For example the term ‘echoes of Impressionism’ expresses the fact that although the pure ‘French’ form of Impressionism essentially never appeared in the Czech lands, several artists in the Czech context were partially inspired by it. The index of artistic styles listed here does not correspond to the broad spectrum of styles in the general history of art, nor is it meant to. It is intended above all to help uninitiated visitors gain an initial orientation in a context they are not yet familiar with. It is used simply as a tool to help structure the collection and ‘tailor’ it to the visitor’s needs. For this reason it only features styles that refer to works that are represented in the collection itself. The range of styles will, of course, broaden with the gradual expansion of our virtual depository. We are using certain stylistic terms in correspondence with the contents of the collection in a more specific sense (such as stylistic terms relating to particular periods such as neoclassicism, Lettrism and Op art), while others, on the contrary, in the sense of a broadly conceived trend that transcends the boundaries of a historically limited stylistic period (the notion of expressiveness, for instance, relates to a series of artistic expressions throughout the 20th century characterised by the powerful expression of inner psychic states through the deformation of form and colour). One of the aims of the assisting classification is to help the viewer to realise the diverse forms of development that styles undergo and the vitality they demonstrate during this development. This is demonstrated, for example, by the many works classified under the term ‘Cubism and its changes’. The category of styles can at the same time provide another view of various stages during the career of a single artist (such as the expressive and neoclassical chapters in the work of Otakar Kubín). A significant number of works defy explicit classification and are best suited to a richer verbal description. These more subtle characteristics will, however, form part of the collection catalogue and the digital collection guide. In the ‘online collection’ project they feature in texts on selected works.
The ‘online collection’ project makes use of the latest digital technologies to encourage interest in the sphere of art among the broad public, especially among young people for whom the world of computer networks is often closer than a visit to a ‘real’ museum. We offer you the chance to embark on in a fascinating journey of exploration and learning. We consider our project a ‘living organism’ that will develop as further artworks are added to it and also in reaction to your opinions as visitors to our ‘online collection’. We look forward to hearing your response.