The exhibition of drawings representing the collection of the Moravian Gallery in Brno concentrates on the most substantial aspect of drawing which also makes it irreplaceable – an ability to immediately record reality or a mere idea using an easily available medium.
The selection of exhibits took into consideration even pieces not necessarily intended for the general public - rarely displayed or published sketches, works driven by an inner need, private affairs, travelogues, study or occasional records, juvenilia and similar. An important role is also played by works where the use of drawing was enforced by the circumstances - records of passing, transient actions, studies of movement, as well as drawings from prison, war, etc. Drawings and prints, so-called "works on paper", have become a customary accessory - albeit often outnumbering the other exhibits - at most larger exhibitions of painting or sculpture, whether monographic or thematic in nature. A drawing is traditionally taken to be a preliminary stage of the actual realization and also an emotional record, which may often be in contrast to the defi nitive form of the finished work. Apart from a design or experiment, a drawing can be an autonomous work of art in its own right. The collection of modern and contemporary drawing of the Moravian Gallery in Brno encompasses more than 11,000 items. It is a highly varied collection of drawings in terms of their quality and theme including works by artists who left a clear mark in the history of Czech art (members of artists' associations such as the Osma - Emil Filla, Bedřich Feigl, Otakar Kubín, Bohumil Kubišta, Antonín Procházka, Vincenc Beneš; Sursum - in particular Jan Zrzavý, etc.), high quality solitary works of foreign provenance, regionally important works (numerous sets of drawings by Jan Konůpek, František Kobliha, etc.) and an abundance of less important or marginal works (illustrations, ex-libris, etc). A majority of the items were acquired for the collection through gifts from private collectors. Further acquisitions were made by purchases from secondhand bookshops, exhibitions or directly from the artists. An important section of the collection are drawings by sculptors - Jan Štursa, Otto Gutfreund, Vincenc Makovský. Since 1989, the curators and the gallery management have endeavoured to enrich the collection with works by contemporary Czech artists who until that year represented the unoffi cial or semi-offi cial art subculture - Václav Boštík, Karel Malich, Stanislav Kolíbal, Ladislav Novák and others. At present, the collection of drawing and prints does not have at its disposal facilities within the gallery dedicated to the presentation of the collection adequate to its importance. An exception consists in the periodic alteration of the set of drawings and prints, amounting to about 13 to 15 exhibits, complementing the permanent exhibition of contemporary art in Pražák Palace. The importance of the collection is suggested by the number of loans to art museums at home and abroad.
