Mgr. Pavla Machalíková, Ph.D.

Researcher and Head of the Department of Art of the 19th-21st Centuries.

Pavla Machalíková studied art history at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University (Ph.D. 2004) and has completed research stays at Collegium Budapest (2001–2002) and Mt. Holyoke College (1992–1993). She works at the IAH since 2001. In her research she concentrates on art of the 19th century and its institution with a special focus on painting in the Czech lands and its fluctuations between traditional and modern topics (folk art, children´s art). Currently she is the leader of a research project Spaces, Objects, Authors and Curators: Building a Cultural Public in the Czech Lands 1790–1918 (GAČR 24-12190S. 2024 - 2026). Based on these project, she parcitipates in interdisciplinary discussions Bourgeois Public Discusses Art (in coop. With the Institute of Literary History CAS) which aims at a research of the modern art publics in East Central Europe. She participated in research projects on Czech painting of the 19th century and in a number of publications and exhibitions (”And Then I Saw a New Heaven and a New Earth. Apocalypse and the Arts in the Czech Lands, Go into the Countryside!, Not A Single Snake in Sight, Rembrandt´s Tram). Currently she is a co-author of an exhibition Between Between Wilderness and Delirious Megalopolis: American Experience of Central Europeans in 19th Century Visual Culture (Western Bohemian Gallery, Pilsen, 2025) which maps the images and stereotypes connected to the cultures and societies of the Americas, including a critical view of the approaches to native nations.

Research outputs (selection):

Pavla Machalíková, Flowers and Windows: The First Art Exhibitions in Prague in the Nineteenth Century and the Shaping of Modern Exhibition Spaces, Art East Central 3, 2023, 111–141

Kateřina Kubínová – Pavla Machalíková – Tomáš Winter (edd.), „... a viděl jsem nové nebe a novou zemi...“ Apokalypsa a umění v českých zemích, Praha – Plzeň 2023

Pavla Machalíková (ed.), Let s voskovými křídly. Josef Mánes 1820–1871, Řevnice 2022 (Pavla Machalíková (ed.), Flying with Wax Wings. Josef Mánes (1820–1871), Prague 2024)

Taťána Petrasová – Pavla Machalíková, Dílo a proměna umělecké scény, Plzeň 2022

Current projects:

Spaces, Objects, Authors and Curators: Building a Cultural Public in the Czech Lands 1790–1918.

Between Wilderness and Delirious Megalopolis: American Experience of Central Europeans in 19th Century Visual Culture (exhibition, Western Bohemian Gallery in Pilsen, March 2025)

Space of the Exhibition 1820–1950 (Ministery of Culture; pragramme AV ČR Strategy AV21 – City as a Laboratory of Change) – project coordinator