Architecture

In addition to its traditional acquisition and exhibition activities, the Gallery has since 1987 systematically collected and presented architectural materials as well. This institutional focus has mainly been the result of the specific brand of constructivist functionalism in architecture and urban planning which developed in Zlín in the first half of the 20th century as well as the relation to the cultural phenomenon and legacy of interwar Zlín. Alongside Prague and Brno, Zlín became a third important centre of modern Czechoslovak architecture in the mid-1930s and the aim of the Gallery is to reflect this rich cultural history.

The architecture collection and its documentation is the youngest of all the Gallery’s collections. As of 2010, its photographic documentation comprises 3,200 prints, negatives and slides of architecture in the region with accompanying texts, originals and copies of architectural studies, drawings and plans, period films and 18 models of Zlín buildings constructed during the 20th century. Since the Gallery focuses mainly on contemporary fine arts and current developments in the field, its attention in architecture, too, has been devoted to significant contemporary authors in the region, whose work may be viewed in the broader context of Czech architecture.

Exhibitions of architectural materials have given rise to international symposia on interwar Czechoslovak architecture. The architecture collection’s integration in the broader spectrum of collections makes it possible for the Gallery to present architecture in context alongside related fields and to identify connections between them.

Architecture Collection