Gallery of Fine Arts Ostrava – House of Art

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The Gallery of Fine Arts Ostrava (GVUO) is the largest collection-building gallery in the Moravian-Silesian Region. Since the 1960s, the GVUO has focused on extensive acquisition activities and is constantly expanding its collections of fine arts. At the moment the gallery possesses over 23 thousand works of art.

The GVUO exhibition spaces are located in the House of Arts - one of the gems of Ostrava architecture and a protected heritage since 1926. Thanks to its purist appearance and large areas of red brick walls, the Ostrava House of Arts still stands out among the surrounding buildings.

A bit of history and planning

In the first decades of the 20th century, Ostrava became a huge industrial leader of the region and also took a lead in social and cultural activities. However, it very soon began to feel a fundamental lack of exhibition space.

With the formation of Czechoslovakia, the idea of ​​the House of Arts came up, which would present a permanent exhibition (the Jureček Picture Gallery), exhibit contemporary art, associate artists and, last but not least, fulfill educational functions.

The building was finally built on the basis of a public competition announced in 1923. The architectural design, according to which Rudolf Kaulich began construction with minor modifications, was designed by František Fiala and Vladimír Wallenfels.

Prolong your trip

The pleasant location in the city centre, right next to the Elektra tram stop, makes it so you can go in all possible directions from the House of Art. The Ostrava Museum is only a few minutes away and the Silesian Ostrava Castle and the Antonín Dvořák Theatre building are both nearby.

Who to visit with?

The House of Art is an interesting destination for art and architecture lovers.

Concluding curiosities

• GVUO is a grant-in-aid organization of the Moravian-Silesian Region and, thanks to the quality of its collections, is one of the five most important collection-building institutions in the Czech Republic.
• The architects of the House of Arts were students of the famous architects Jan Kotěra and Josef Gočár. In their project, they followed the local environment and the development of architecture in the first half of the 1920s.
• The area in front of the House of Art has been decorated with a sculpture Úsvit (Dawn), by Lukáš Rittstein, since 2005. The sculpture symbolizes Ostrava as an industrial city, as well as a city of art.

There is a 50 % discount for holders of the OSTRAVACARD!!!