He first got into collecting through an interest in Asian and Chinese art, and his first obsession with collecting began with Japanese color woodcuts, which still form the main interest of his collection. In the studio this time we welcomed Oldřich Hejtmánek, owner of the Arcimboldo auction house and the BOLD Gallery in Holešovice. In the interview, the gallerist, art dealer and collector describes his career path and what a life dedicated to art looks like. In the interview you will also learn, among other things, what the relationship between ancient and contemporary works, between the discourse of contemporary art and the art of indigenous cultures can be.
Mr. Hejtmánek got into gallery work when he and his brother founded their first, now-defunct firm, Art Consulting, which specialized in contemporary art. The consulting and virtual gallery sought out coveted objects, antiques, and works of Czech modernism for collectors. Years later, Oldřich Hejtmánek founded the auction house Arcimboldo, which dealt mainly with art from Asia. He also founded the Kunstkomora space on the Lesser Side, where he exhibited both antiques and curiosities from Europe, including natural history and works of contemporary art. This then led him to the idea of surrounding himself with art that is being created in the present day, which involves collaborating with the people who are creating it and being able to talk to them about their inspiration. With this in mind, the BOLD Gallery, located in Prague’s Holešovice district, was created.
in the interview, you will also learn the background to the Ma_Scary exhibition, which is currently running at BOLD Gallery and includes a collection of Mr. Hejtmánek’s tribal masks combined with works by contemporary artists. “Sometimes artworks are created similarly on another continent with a thousand years difference.I have selected from my collection those objects that are both mysterious and graspable.First we selected masks from the collection and then we approached twenty artists to see if they wanted to comment on the subject of masks. And not a specific mask, but rather the concept of the alter ego, which I think describes the present and our hiding within social networks and pretending to be who we are,” Mr. Hejtmánek describes the concept of the exhibition and adds that the artists on display range from recent art school graduates to established artists.
