Eduard Ovčáček Explained

Eduard Ovčáček (5 March 1933 – 5 December 2022) was a Czech graphic artist, sculptor, lettrist, painter, and professor at the University of Ostrava.[1] His main artistic focus was classical graphic art, visual and concrete poetry, serigraphic art (screen-print), collage, lettrist photography, events and installations, structural and digital graphic art. Paintings, sculptures, and geometrical objects fell within his interest as well.[2]

Biography and activities

Ovčáček was born in Třinec, Czechoslovakia on 5 March 1933.[3] Between 1957 and 1963 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Slovakia under professor Peter Matejka. He also studied at Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague under professor Antonín Kybal (1962). Already at that time he was strongly involved in graphic art and started to use it in order to express his own artistic potential. Together with Miloš Urbásek, friend and fellow artist, Ovčáček founded, in 1960, an independent group of artists called "Konfrontace". This artistic group explored and dealt with informel, one of the then attractive forms of abstract art.

From the beginning of the 1960s, Ovčáček kept close contacts with Polish artists, those contacts continued even after the occupation of the Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw pact forces in 1968. He established very friendly relations especially with Marian Bogusz, the principal protagonist of Polish art scene of that period, as well as with his friends. He also kept contacts with similarly oriented artists from other countries.

In 1967 Ovčáček co-founded the Club of Concretists. After that, he commenced to devote himself intensively to the serigraphic art, that being then popular especially in United States (pop-art and op-art). His serigraphic works often contain and mix classical scripture, once-and-future signs and human, often very erotic and suggestive, figures.

Ovčáček criticised strongly the occupation of the Czechoslovakia in 1968. He took part in a lot of dissident and illegal activities. His series Lesson by Great A was created immediately after the invasion of Warsaw Pact armed forces to Prague, in the moment when the censorship has not yet been firmly re-established. This series of artworks thus had the chance to be published in Czechoslovak magazine "Literární listy" and in some other periodicals in the Czechoslovakia and abroad. Also, similarly to e.g. the former Czechoslovak and Czech president Václav Havel, Ovčáček was one of the signatories of Charter 77.[3]

At the end of 20th century Ovčáček organised installations and events with burning ropes (e.g. event "Zastavený čas II., Třebíč, 1994). He was later focused on, examines and improves the possibilities of use of digital technology in serigraphy. Sometimes he exploited his own older themes that he had already applied under another technique earlier.

First author's summary exhibition of lettrist photographs (often with erotic motives) took place in 2009 in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

Ovčáček participated in lot of international exhibitions and symposia (for example I. International plein air in Osieki, Poland in 1963 and II. Biennale form przestrzennych – Elbląg (Poland) in 1967). Also, he was the founder of the serigraphic workshops (Ostrava university, first workshop in 1997).

His favourite number was "3", i.e. the number prevailing in his date of birth. Ovčáček used this number very often and in various formats and shapes in his artworks, e.g.: serigraphs 333 B or Trojky (2007) or oil on canvas 333 (1968).

Ovčáček worked as professor at the College of Arts of Ostrawa University (Czech Republic) and kept contacts with academic fellows namely in Slovakia and Poland (above all, universities in Katowice, Kraków and Łódź). He lived in Ostrava, Czech Republic. His artworks are in numerous public and private collections in the Czech Republic, Europe, Asia and America.

Ovčáček died on 5 December 2022, at the age of 89.[4]

Awards

Books

Pedagogic activity

Membership in artistic groups

Individual exhibitions (selection)

Sources

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Prof. Eduard Ovčáček, akad. Malíř / Faculty of Fine Arts and Music.
  2. http://moravskoslezsky.denik.cz/kultura_region/20080304_vytvarne_ovcacek_ostrava.html "Eduard Ovčáček slaví pětasedmdesátiny"
  3. Web site: Ostravské stopy: Minulý režim Ostravu zničil, říká výtvarník Ovčáček. Czech. Mladá fronta DNES. 27 January 2014. 21 March 2014.
  4. Web site: Zemřel výtvarník Eduard Ovčáček . Novinky . 5 December 2022 . 5 December 2022.

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