Although floral still lifes constitute the most extensive part of Václav Špála’s oeuvre, they have never before been presented in a dedicated exhibition. Previous exhibitions and the specialist literature have mostly dismissed them as a less interesting segment of his work, without attempting to highlight their specific qualities. However, the perspective offered by contemporary art enables us to re-evaluate aspects of Špála’s floral still lifes that modernism regarded as problematic. Variations on a theme, craftsmanship and temporality gain fresh and appealing significance in the context of contemporary art.

In August 2025, one hundred and forty years had passed since Špála’s birth and, in May 2026, it will be eighty years since his death. Yet these anniversaries have been more or less forgotten, even though it has been twenty years since his last major exhibition at the National Gallery. Museum Kampa is preparing an exhibition focusing exclusively on Špála’s floral still lifes in early 2026. This exhibition will run from mid-February (opening on Friday, 13 February 2026) until mid-May 2026 on the upper floor of the Sova’s Mills building in Prague. Over eighty paintings from public and private collections will be on display, presenting a selection of Špála’s works from the 1920s to the 1940s.

Špála himself graded his paintings and, out of the nearly eight hundred floral still lifes he painted, he only gave thirty-two his highest rating of “rare” or “primissima”. Ten of these will be on display at the exhibition. 

Curator: Jan Skřivánek

For an interview with the exhibition curator on ART+, see the link here.