The chronological profile of the painting subcollection naturally reflects the gallery’s curatorial focus, which consists primarily of Czech and, to a lesser extent, Slovak art from the 19th to the 21st centuries. Its foundation was laid by a collection of artworks acquired in the year the gallery was founded from the holdings of the Baťa company (then Svit, a state-owned enterprise). The oldest part of the subcollection consists of a small group of paintings by leading 19th-century artists (Josef Mánes, Vojtěch Hynais, Václav Brožík, and others) and, in particular, a collection of works by artists associated with Julius Mařák’s landscape painting studio, including, for example, Antonín Slavíček, Otakar Lebeda, František Kaván, and Antonín Hudeček. Czech art from the turn of the century is further represented by works by Jakub Schikaneder, Alfons Mucha, and Jan Preisler, as well as by members of the SVUM group (Joža and Franta Uprka, Cyril Mandel, and others).
The most significant part of the painting subcollection is a rich and diverse collection of Czech paintings from the first half of the 20th century, which includes artists representing the developmental trajectory of Czech art from the beginnings of modernism—represented by members of Osma and the Group of Visual Artists—through the neoclassicism of the 1920s and the works of members of the Umělecká beseda, to Surrealism and existential reactions to the events of the war. These include, for example, works by Bohumil Kubišta, Emil Filla, Josef Čapek, Jan Zrzavý, Václav Špála, Antonín Procházka, Rudolf Kremlička, Jaroslav Král, Jindřich Štyrský, Toyen, František Muzika, Skupina 42, and many others. Among the classics of Slovak modern art, the gallery’s collection features, for example, Ľudovít Fulla, Cyprián Majerník, and Ján Želib.
In the context of art from the second half of the 20th century, the works of artists representing the art scene of the 1960s stand out; they enrich the collection with various styles and movements, particularly abstraction, Informel, constructive tendencies, and so-called “new figuration” (Mikuláš Medek, Jiří John, Jan Kotík, Eduard Ovčáček, Dalibor Chatrný, and others) . Another important segment consists of works by artists who emerged on the art scene in the following decades and helped shape the postmodern wave of Czech art (Jiří Sopko, Ivan Ouhel, Vladimír Kokolia, and others). The gallery’s acquisition efforts systematically focus on representatives of contemporary painting, whose works are regularly added to the collection, whether through the purchase of selected pieces from group triennials or monographic exhibitions. The specific character of the painting collection is shaped by works by significant artists of all generations from the 20th century to the present, who are connected to the region and placed within the relevant contexts of the development of Czech and European visual arts (Miloš Boria, Václav Chad, Vladislav Vaculka, Svatopluk Slovenčík, and others).