Czech tradition minister Oto Klempíř dismissed Alicja Knast from her put up as director of Prague’s Nationwide Gallery, producing scrutiny over what precipitated the choice.
Throughout the Czech Republic, the dismissal has been seen by some as a politically motivated gesture. Knast took up the place in 2021, having been appointed to the position by Lubomir Zaoralek, a Social Democrat who was then serving as tradition minister. Klempíř, a member of the right-wing Motorists social gathering, turned tradition minister final 12 months.
Earlier than changing into tradition minister, Klempíř was the lead singer of the funk rock band J.A.R. Many artists within the Czech Republic have raised considerations about his means to allocate funds appropriately. “A tradition minister ought to safeguard the independence and variety of creative manufacturing, not undermine it,” learn a 2025 open letter signed by artists similar to Eva Koťátková, who represented the nation on the 2024 Venice Biennale.
Klempíř didn’t provide a proper clarification for his elimination of Knast. A launch from the Czech tradition ministry stated that the dismissal was finished with a view to assist the Nationwide Gallery “strengthen its place within the European context.”
The museum homes an array of notable artworks, together with modernist work by František Kupka, Alphonse Mucha, and different famous Czech and Slovak artists of the twentieth century. Its assortment additionally consists of works by Gustav Klimt, Peter Paul Rubens, Vincent van Gogh, Lucas Cranach the Elder, and Rembrandt van Rijn.
Olga Kotková, presently the top of the museum’s Previous Masters artwork assortment, will now function interim director. In a press release, Klempíř praised her as somebody “who is aware of the surroundings of the Nationwide Gallery completely and on the identical time has a transparent skilled imaginative and prescient for its additional growth.”
Knast, who was born in Poland, appeared to recommend to the Czech press that she didn’t see the dismissal coming. “I’m considerably shocked by this choice,” she informed the tv channel CT.
Some have raised questions on how the dismissal was carried out. “It isn’t the dismissal of the Director Basic that surprises me, however the way in which it was finished,” Martin Baxa, a former Czech tradition minister, informed Czech Radio’s Rádiožurnál. “The norm is that such a major step is introduced by the Minister of Tradition, ideally alongside the director at a press convention, the place each clarify their positions and conclusions. Nothing like that occurred.”
