Czech art

Czech art is the visual and plastic arts that have been created in the Czech Republic and the various states that formed the Czech lands in the preceding centuries. The Czech lands have produced artists that have gained recognition throughout the world, including Alfons Mucha, widely regarded as one of the key exponents of the Art Nouveau style, and František Kupka, a pioneer of abstract art.

The Czech lands have produced several important finds of prehistoric art, notably the Venus of Dolní Věstonice, a pottery Venus figurine of a nude female dated to 29,000–25,000 BC, and a distinct style of Celtic art. For most subsequent periods, Czech art was especially close to Austrian and German art, and participated in most phases of this. In periods when Prague was the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, it was a key centre of the current artistic style, using artists of both Czech and foreign origin. This was especially the case for the International Gothic style of the 14th century, and the Northern Mannerism of the late 16th and early 17th. After the Thirty Years War, when the largely non-Catholic Czech lands were returned to Catholic Habsburg control, a massive propaganda effort by the church has left rich remains of Baroque art and architecture. From the 19th century, Czech nationalism had a strong influence on all the arts.