Egon Schiele Art Centrum

The Egon Schiele Art Centrum (ESAC) is a museum and gallery in Český Krumlov, Czech Republic, devoted to the Austrian painter Egon Schiele. Established in 1992, it stands as the principal institution dedicated to Schiele in the town where he was born in 1890. The centre combines a permanent documentary exhibition on Schiele's life and work with rotating displays of 20th-century and contemporary art, operating as a private non-profit organization with international founding roots.

The Egon Schiele Art Centrum was founded in 1992 by a trinational group: Hana Jirmusová from the Czech Republic, Gerwald Sonnberger from Austria, and Serge Sabarsky from the United States. Since 1993, the institution has maintained a permanent exhibition devoted to Schiele, supplemented by annual thematic and solo exhibitions. The centre has also pursued broader cultural projects, including from 1997 onward a collaboration with the Jewish Community of Prague to renovate the profaned synagogue in Český Krumlov, where exhibitions on Jewish history and fine art were installed. Regular international symposia have been held at the centre, such as the 2014 Visegrad Symposium honouring Jiří Kolář on his centenary, with participants from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Austria, and the 2018 Visegrád Symposium + Austria: View of Women.

The collection and exhibition programme centres on Egon Schiele, presented through a permanent documentary display that incorporates graphics, watercolours, drawings, and items from his personal estate. Beyond this core focus, the Art Centrum mounts exhibitions spanning classical art of the 20th century and contemporary art. Its programming has included thematic shows on regional identity, fashion history, opera in painting, traditional Chinese landscape painting, and accessible art for blind and visually impaired visitors. The institution also presents works by international and Czech contemporary artists, reflecting a dual mission: scholarly attention to Schiele and curatorial engagement with wider modern and contemporary practice.

The permanent exhibition features works by Egon Schiele, including watercolours and drawings. The centre has hosted significant temporary exhibitions drawing on major collections, notably the 2002 show Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt: Watercolours, Drawings from the Collections of the Serge Sabarsky Foundation New York and the National Gallery in Prague, and the 1993 exhibition Egon Schiele: 80 Watercolours and Drawings from American Private Collections. Other landmark exhibitions have included Klimt, Kokoschka, Schiele: 100 Watercolours and Drawings in 1996; retrospectives of Alfred Kubin (2004), František Kupka (2001), and Miloslav Chlupáč (2001); and solo shows of Salvador Dalí (2003), Andy Warhol (1999), and Keith Haring (2007). In 2020-2021, the centre presented Josef Seidel (1859-1935), Krumlov at the Time of Egon Schiele, with photographs from the Museum Fotoatelier Seidel by Josef Seidel, Josef Wolf, and Wenzel Mick.

The Egon Schiele Art Centrum is housed in the former municipal brewery of Český Krumlov, a complex with origins stretching back to the early 16th century. The site originally comprised four burgher houses, which the city administration acquired in stages. After obtaining brewing rights in 1503 to cover high municipal expenses, the city purchased a house in 1523 for use as a maltings, supplying the surrounding small civic breweries that had held brewing privileges since 1347. Adjacent properties were added in 1584 and 1606. Following substantial reconstruction by local master mason Hans Haas and the renowned Budweiser builder Domenico Benedetto Cometta, brewing commenced at the end of 1608, predating the aristocratic Eggenberg brewery in the Latrán district. During house numbering in 1882, the leftmost building received the separate number 70, while the brewery itself took number 71. The building features a unified sgraffito facade, though this has been altered multiple times over the centuries; around 1900 the brewery displayed sgraffiti with dark diamond-shaped shadows, whereas today a shadowless ashlar plaster is visible.

The Egon Schiele Art Centrum is located in the inner city of Český Krumlov, within the Český Krumlov District of the Czech Republic. As a private non-profit organization, it operates as an active cultural venue accessible to the public, continuing to present its permanent Schiele exhibition alongside changing annual exhibitions. The centre's location in the historic former brewery places it at the heart of the town's architectural heritage, contributing to Český Krumlov's cultural tourism and scholarly profile as the birthplace of Egon Schiele.