(b Pardubicky, nr Pardubice, 15 Aug 1919). Czech painter, sculptor and illustrator. In 1938-9 he studied at the Czech Technical University in Prague and in 1941-2 at the School of Applied Art in Prague. His first exhibition in the capital was in 1942, at the El?n Gallery. In 1943 he became a member of the M?nes Union of Artists and in 1945 of the Hollar Society of Czech Artists. In the 1940s he produced a number of paintings of female figures in which he strove to recapture the style of Modigliani, endeavouring to link it with the German Renaissance tradition. After 1943 his interest in Cubism led him to re-evaluate the Cubist conception of nature, as seen in his paintings of grass, birds, butterfly wings, etc. (e.g. Grasses, White Cabbage Butterfly, both 1948; both Prague, N.G., Trade Fair Pal.). In the late 1940s he returned for a while to a realistic approach to art, working at drawing and illustration as well as painting. In Paradise (1949; Prague, N.G. Czech. Eur. Graph. A.), for instance, he was evidently inspired by folk art. By the late 1950s his work began to show the influence of Paul Klee and of Seurat's pointillism, which inspired him to create new vibrant colour effects, as in Suburban Garden (1957; untraced). These effects became a permanent feature of his work. In this period he concentrated mainly on drawing, particularly female nudes and portraits. His interest in capturing natural elements led him to non-figurative brushwork, paraphrasing the richness of natural forms, as in the cycles Organisms (1960-61; some works, Prague, N.G., Trade Fair Pal.) and Forms (1961-3; Prague, N.G., Trade Fair Pal.) as well as sculptures, e.g. Form (1962-3; Litomerice, Gal. F.A.) and Sculpture (1962-6; Brussels, Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas). By the early 1970s he had arrived at a stylistic synthesis of his previous themes and artistic ideas, which continued to reflect his personal lyricism.
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