Fodor's Expert Review Veletržní palác

This sometimes overlooked gallery, boasting the National Gallery's The Art of a Long Century (1796–1918), as well as the art of The First Republic (1918–38), has a real claim to being the city's best. Touring the vast spaces of this 1920s functionalist exposition hall filled to the brim with quirky, stimulating, comprehensive modern and contemporary local art is the best way to see how Czechs surfed the forefront of the avant-garde wave until the cultural freeze following World War II. Keep an eye out for works by František Kupka, credited as one of the first-ever abstract artists, and other Czech giants like Josef Čapek. Also on display are works by Western European—mostly French—artists from Delacroix to the present, with paintings by Gauguin, Picasso, and Braque an unexpected bonus. But painting is only the beginning—also occupying the many levels of the museum are collages, cubist sculptures, vintage gramophones, futuristic architectural models, art deco furnishings, and an exhaustive gathering of work from this new century, some of which is just as engrossing as the older stuff. Also, watch the papers and posters for information on traveling shows and temporary exhibits.