How to Collect Art: The Karel Tutsch Story

One of the ways in which members of modern society express themselves is by collecting fine art. The cosmos of their burgeoning collection conveys their passions, pursuits, and opinions on what is good, high-quality, meaningful and beautiful. It is possible to think of collection-building as an open and dynamic process with an unknown endpoint, because as the collection grows, so does the collector’s knowledge and experience, and the future of the collection is slowly reshaped.

How to Collect Art: the Karel Tutsch Story is a long-term exhibition presenting the lifelong work of Karel Tutsch (1941–2008), a connoisseur, collector and tireless supporter of young artists. For more than a quarter of a century, he kept his Na bidýlku gallery in Brno going by personally underwriting its expenses. He helped to promote Czech art abroad, while giving foreign artists a platform back in his hometown.

This exhibition attempts to trace Tutsch’s journey from an amateur collector of small prints and bookplates to an acclaimed expert and owner of one of the most important collections in the Czech Republic at the time. The individual artworks amassed by Tutsch in his flat in Brno form a subjective and thus one-of-a-kind encyclopaedia of Czech art spanning from the mid-1960s to the turn of the millennium. The exhibition ends with a section devoted to the early-noughties Berlin art scene, with which the gallerist maintained contact and which, back then, was in its heyday, attracting aspiring artists from all over Europe.

The Gallery of Modern Art in Hradec Králové (GMU) purchased the collection in 2021. The next year, it added a set of original drawings for catalogues published by Na bidýlku. An online catalogue of nearly 1,300 paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, objects, incomplete conceptual installations, pieces used in performances at private views, and rarities is available on the GMU website.