About ArtotecaAbout Artoteca of Pilsen City
Dear friends of art,
welcome to the Artoteca of the City of Pilsen. The Artoteca is a system project supported by the City of Pilsen, which is a lively collection of contemporary local art. The Artoteca project was prepared in 1995 by employees of the Department of Culture of Municipality of Pilsen, which was managed by the head of the department at that time, Mr. Vladimír Líbal. The whole project is focused on two main areas: presentation of current art of Pilsen authors at public areas of the city and the support of current production of Pilsen artists or artists connected with the city.
The Artoteca of the City of Pilsen was established by the resolution of the Pilsen Council No. 512/95 on 5th October 1995 to the date of 1st January 1996. Selection of the artworks for the inclusion into the Artoteca collection is carried out by expert commission.
At present, Artoteca covers more than 160 works of art in the total value of more than CZK 4 million and includes significant artists of the Pilsen region, such as Jiří Patera, Miroslav Tázler, representatives of Pilsen Painting School 70th - 80s of the 20th century (the so - called Patera´s ring) - V. Havlíček, V. Malina, M. Maur, J. Samec and others. In addition the collection inludes works by Bronislav Losenický, Květa Monhartová, Jarmila Dytrychová, Marie Lacigová, Jiří Rataj, Benedikt Tolar etc. The painting of Ladislav Sutnar, a world designer and Pilsen native, named "Venus/Pilsen is a Woman", is in the long-term loan of West Bohemian Gallery In Pilsen.
In the course of the existence of the Artoteca 15 art-works were donated by the City of Pilsen to individual winners, such as the ceremony of the City of Pilsen and the awarding of the 1st June Award. These included works by Jiří Patera, Jaroslav Zapletal, Jarmila Dytrychová, Jan Vlček or Jiří Kornatovský.
In December 2015-January 2016 the Department of Culture of Municipality of Pilsen in cooperation with the Gallery of the City of Pilsen organized the exhibition "20 Years of the Artoteca" (1996-2016) - a selection of works of contemporary art from the collection owned by the City of Pilsen. In March 2016, the Council of the City of Pilsen approved by Resolution No. 208 the nomination of new members of the Board of Artoteca and the Statute of the Artoteca was also changed.
The mission of the Artoteca of the City of Pilsen is to connect direct support of contemporary art with the presentation of authors in public urban buildings. This project builds on the traditional cultural patronage of the City of Pilsen and becomes an interesting living collection of contemporary Pilsen art.
During its existence, the Artoteca of the City of Pilsen has become an important memory of the development of Pilsen art and the cultural history of the city.
PhDr. Květuše Sokolová
Head of the Department
Department od Culture of Municipality of Pilsen
January 2018