From its establishment in 1890 until 1952, the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts held an annual gathering of artists, authors and musicians to recognise the artistic achievements of their peers. The exhibition *A Sense of Art* is the first to present the artworks that received these prestigious academic prizes in 1891–1952 and in so doing to show how Czech culture changed in this period. The prizes went to major Czech artists such as Vojtěch Hynais, Mikoláš Aleš, Hanuš Schwaiger, Beneš Knüpfer, Josef Václav Myslbek, František Kupka, Vojtěch Preissig, Josef Lada, architects Kamil Hilbert, Josef Havlíček, Karel Honzík and Josef Gočár, the most prominent figures in Czech culture. Some of the award-winning works have remained in the possession of the Czech Academy of Sci ences, though most were dispersed among numerous institutions and private collections. This is the public’s first opportunity to view a collection of works that received these academic awards. The exhibition will also introduce patrons of the arts such as Josef Hlávka, Leopold Schmidt, Leopold Katz and Josef Mauder, long-time supporters of Czech art.
Part of the exhibition are also examples of the prize-winning musical and literary works: recordings of compositions by Antonín Dvořák, Josef Bohuslav Foerster and Leoš Janáček, books and archive recordings of voices of Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic, Růžena Jesenská, Viktor Dyk and Jaroslav Hilbert recorded by the Academy in 1929.
The sixty-year existence of the so-called Fourth Class, which systematically supported the arts despite problematic times, came to an end when the Academy was re-organised by Minister Zdeněk Nejedlý and the word “arts” was removed from its name. The exhibition is part of a cycle of exhibitions called [Arts and Sciences](http://www.umenivedy.cz/) to be held in 2015 on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the establishment of the Czech Academy of Emperor Franz Joseph for Sciences, Literature and Arts, the precursor of today’s Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.
Exhibition author: Taťána Petrasová (Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Sciences)
Curator: Veronika Hulíková
