Above all, the Kampa Museum is a "fun" place. Yes, there is serious art, and yes, you can hear echoes of 1968 and the "Prague Spring" in many of the works, but the museum itself is such a relaxed, friendly and humorous place that it simply delights the visitor. The Kampa Museum for Central European Modern Art is located in a 15th century mill house situated within a park on Kampa island in Prague. The building, which was rebuilt and renovated in a contemporary style provides an intimate, humorous and friendly environment. Broad glass walls, a central glass tower and terraces containing contemporary sculpture (often spilling out into the adjacent Vltava river, as with the Cracking Art Groups' illuminated yellow penguins in 2009) blend the museum into its surroundings. The museum owes its existence to the well-known Czech-American art lover and historian, Meda Mladek, and the fulfillment of her vision to transform the historical Sova Mill complex into a museum for Central European modern art, which could publicly exhibit and preserve her bequest to the city of Prague of the unique art collection that she and her late husband, Jan Mladek, collected over their lifetime. Jan and Meda Mladek believed that culture is the basis for a nation's survival. For many years they supported and promoted artists who were persecuted, exiled or driven underground during the communist era. The museum's opening was not without incident, originally it was intended to open in 2002, but just before the completion of reconstruction and interior design, the Vltava River burst its banks and flooded the building up to a height of five metres, delaying the opening until 2003. The fate of one of its exhibits, the huge wooden chair carved by artist Magdalena Jetelova was followed by the media as this work of art drifted some fifty kilometres down the river and was eventually found close to the town of Melnik. In the permanent collection is František Kupka /1871 - 1957/ - The František Kupka exposition in Museum Kampa represents one of the largest and most famous collections of this great pioneer of modern art. The collection, which amounts to more than 200 pieces, covers works from his time as a student to his later abstract period. Also Otto Gutfreund /1889 - 1927/ - Museum Kampa is home to artworks by this famous Czech sculptor of the 20th century. Several of his sculptures are displayed in the museum, including his bronze cubistic pieces. Visit the museum's website at: http://www.museumkampa.cz/new/en/

The original Mladek bequest has subsequently been supplemented by donations from Jirí and Bela Kolár (Jiri Kolár already featured in the Mladek's collection) and the collection of the renowned art theorist Henry Chalupecký. Amongst the highlights of the Kampa's collection are; the František Kupka exposition, containing more than 200 works, covering his time from a student to his later abstract period; sculptures by Otto Gutfreund; and a unique collection of modern Czech art, including works by Vaclav Cigler, Hugo Demartini, Stanislav Kolibal, Adrien Šimotová, Vladimir Janousek, Vera Janoušková, Eva Kmentova, Magdalena Jetelová. Radek Kratina, John Kubicek, Karel Malich, Alena Kucerova, George Naceradský, Otakar Nightingale, and Charles Nepras. Art from other Central European countries is represented by artists including Magdalena Abakanowicz, Edward Dwurnika, Izabella Gustowské, Joseph Lukomského, Akos Birkáse, György Jovánovicse, Ivan Kozarica and Branko Popovic Mitzi. The collection includes hundreds of paintings, sculptures, drawings and graphics by prominent Czech, Slovak, Polish, Hungarian and Yugoslavian artists. Temporary exhibitions (such as Andy Warhol's "Disaster Relics") allow the local art to be shown alongside its contemporary western art. In the old stables buildings, the Kampa is currently showing John Schmid's Ypsilon Theater posters (until 13 February 2011) and a second exhibition: Josef Svoboda - Robert Wilson, a comparative exhibition of works by two of the twentieth centuries greats of stage design is also showing at the Kampa until 6 February 2011. Also currently on show is Georg Baselitz's “Volk Ding Zero” (Zero Folk Thing). This 3' tall painted bronze casting was created in 2009, about half a ton of bronze went into the seated figure. Deliberately humorous and ambiguous, the figure has classic women's high-heeled shoes, but otherwise appears to be male (and the head is modelled on the artist himself, including the folded-newspaper hat that he wears to keep paint off his head).

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