LIFE AND WORK
- Sculptor, painter, graphic artist and writer, one of the leading figures in contemporary Czech sculpture
- Born on 23 May 1929 in Hradec Králové and grew up in Josefov in eastern Bohemia
- Completed an apprenticeship as a woodcarver and studied at the Technical School of Sculpture and Stonemasonry in Hořice in 1946-1950 and the Academy of Decorative Arts in Prague in 1950-1955
- In 1958 he started to exhibit his works
- In the 1960s he founded and directed the International Sculpture Symposium in Hořice, and was involved in its revival in the early 1990s
- In the 1990s he became a professor at the Faculty of Architecture and leading teacher at the Institute of Drawing and Modelling
- In 1992 he was one of the founders of an independent Faculty of Visual Arts at the Brno University of Technology and became its first Dean, remaining in this post until 1997
- In 1997 he left Brno and was awarded the Bronze Commemorative Coin of the Rector of Masaryk University
- In 1998 Josef ©»áva opened the Vladimír Preclík Museum in Bechyně
- In 1999 he was awarded the Prize of the City of Brno
- In 2000 he received the Gold Medal of the Rector of Brno University of Technology in recognition of his work for the development of university teaching in Brno
- Vladimír Preclík has put on seventy independent exhibitions and played an important part in dozens of collective ones
- His works are displayed in many galleries both in the Czech republic and abroad (e.g. the cycles "Bottles", "Czech Avant-Garde", "Old Provencal Towns")
- He has represented Czech art with his works, e.g. at the world sculpture exhibition in Montreal
- Since 1982 he has also devoted himself to literature
- He is a member of the Czech centre of the PEN Club
- In 2001 the Universitas Masarykiensis Foundation published a monograph on "Vladimír Preclík and Brno"
- He lives partly in Prague and partly in Velké Popovice near Prague
- The unique exhibition of Vladimír Preclík's works in Bechyně provides an overview of his oeuvre covering fifty years
Included in the exhibition
- Documentation about Vladimír Preclík, portraits from the cycle "Czech Avant-Garde" (Nezval, Čapek, Zrzavý, et al.)
- Examples of the sculptor's paintings
- Metal statues made in the 1990s
- Series of wooden stories in bottles entitled "Fifty-Four Weeks of a Good Year"
- Smaller wooden sculptures
- Series of pictures of guests of Vladimír Preclík (the "Umělecká Beseda" group)
- Larger works from various periods ("Fear of Flying", "Messenger from Helsinki", "Plague Column" and others)
Bibliography
1986 "Trio" (co-written with Ilja Hurník and Miroslav Horníček), published by Melantrich
1988 "Wooden Book", Melantrich
1989 "Changing Places Quietly", Kruh
1990 "Reconciliatory Stones", Československý spisovatel
1992 "Stones of Repentance", Melantrich
1995 "Black Frost", Nevole
1997 "American Carousel", Petrov
2001 "Ten Stopping-Places in Provence", Kant
2001 "Fifty Weeks of a Good Year", Eminent
The books "Journey by Water to Istanbul" and "Praise of a Sculptor's Portrait" so far exist only in manuscript form.