Jan Zrzavý

He was born on 5 November 1890 in Vadín - Okrouhlice and died on 12 October 1977 in Prague.

Painter, graphic designer, illustrator, scenographer.

He studied at the grammar school in Havlíčkův Brod, then at the real school in Kutná Hora and at the burgher school in Přibyslav and Havlíčkův Brod. He continued his studies at a private painting school with K. Reisner, F. Županský and F. Ženíšek Jr. And with Professor Dítěte at the UMPRUM from 1907 to 1909. In the 1920s and 1930s he travelled to Italy, Belgium, England and France. The first stage of his work is characterised by a combination of Czech Art Nouveau Symbolism and Expressionism with elements of Cubism. He was a member of the SVU Mánes, where he exhibited until 1917. A new impulse was brought about by his meeting with the critic M. Marten, who encouraged him to study and draw the nature of the Old Masters. Inspired by the Italian Renaissance, he studied the masters of the Italian Quattrocento, especially Raffaele and Leonardo. In 1910, together with J. Váchal, J. Konůpek and F. Kobliha, he founded the free art association Sursum. In 1918 he became close to J. Čapek, V. Špála, V. Hofman, O. Marvánek and R. Kremlička and formed the group Tvrdošíjní. After World War I, his work resulted in a typical lyrical and dreamlike soft form. He created drawings and frontispieces for many works by Czech and foreign authors. He worked on stage sets for the National Theatre. In the second stage of his work, he devoted himself mainly to landscape painting. In 1923, he joined the Art Society and participated in their member exhibitions. In 1924 he rented an independent studio in Paris. From the mid-1930s onwards, he abandoned the pastel-poetic palette in favour of richer colours. During the Second World War, his landscapes were fateful and balladic alongside the motif of death and hope. From 1947, he was a professor of painting and composition at the Department of Art Education at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Olomouc, where he worked until 1950.