Mucha’s Slav Epic, Kupka’s first abstractions and the Czech cubists — where to see the country’s greatest art.
Czech art has an odd international profile: one artist everybody recognises without knowing his name, and a dozen who deserve to be far better known. Alfons Mucha’s posters are on student walls worldwide; František Kupka helped invent abstract painting and is barely a footnote outside the country. Here is who matters, and where their work hangs.
Alfons Mucha (1860–1939)
The definitive Art Nouveau artist, made famous overnight by a Sarah Bernhardt poster in 1894 Paris. He resented being remembered for it. His real ambition was the Slav Epic: twenty enormous canvases on Slavic history, painted over eighteen years and given to the city of Prague. He also designed the stained glass in St Vitus Cathedral and the first Czechoslovak banknotes.
František Kupka (1871–1957)
One of the first painters anywhere to abandon representation entirely. Amorpha: Fugue in Two Colours was shown in Paris in 1912, at the very beginning of abstract art. He is represented at the Veletržní palác in Prague.
The Czech cubists
Prague produced the world’s only cubist architecture — buildings, lampposts, furniture and even a cubist café. Josef Gočár’s House at the Black Madonna is the landmark. Nothing quite like it exists anywhere else.
Later figures
Toyen (Marie Čermínová) was central to Czech surrealism. Josef Čapek, brother of the writer, was a painter and illustrator who died in Bergen-Belsen. Jan Švankmajer carried the surrealist line into film.
Where to see it
Der Mucha-Museum for the posters; Veletržní palác (National Gallery) for Kupka, the cubists and the modern collection; Museum Kampa for Central European modernism; the Gemeindehaus for Mucha’s interiors in situ.
Häufig gestellte Fragen
Who is the most famous Czech artist?
Alfons Mucha, by a distance — though many people know the style without the name.
Where is the Slav Epic?
Its location has moved between Prague and Moravský Krumlov over the years. Check the current arrangement before making a special trip.
What is Czech cubism?
A style unique to Bohemia that applied cubist geometry to architecture and design, not just painting. Prague has the only cubist buildings in the world.
Read more: Art Nouveau architecture, art museums in Prague Und Prague galleries.
Last reviewed in August 2026.
