Jan Hladík

Jan Hladik' (21 May 1927 – 3 June 2018) was a Czech textile artist, printmaker, painter and illustrator.

Life In 1942–1944, during World War II, Jan Hladík studied at the State Graphic School in Prague under Prof. Jaroslav Vodrážka and Prof. Karel Müller. His classmates were Václav Sivko, Vladimír Fuka or Mikuláš Medek.

In 1955 he married Jenny Hršelová and returned to handmade textile art. For the exhibition of the newly established Group 7 of textile artists (1958) he wove the first tapestries with abstract motifs based on his own graphic designs.

Hladík's friendship with Josef Topol and the actors of Divadlo za branou (Theatre behind the gate) in the early 1970s inspired him to create tapestries of theatre scenes (Tomášová, Tříska, and others).

He had been a member of Czech Graphic Artists Association Hollar since 1967 and had his first exhibition of graphic work in 1970 just before the regime's liquidation of the association's activities and the closure of the exhibition hall. His second solo exhibition of graphic art took place more than 12 years after the fall of the communist regime in 2002.

He died in June 2018 in Prague.

A trip to Paris in 1947 and direct experience with the artworks of the Surrealists, Picasso, Braque and other painters led to a gradual relaxation of artistic expression. By the end of the 1950s he made his first abstract prints, alongside figurative drawings and paintings.

From the mid-1960s onwards, Hladík's works were part of a stream of New Figuration with overlaps towards material abstraction. At that time he created a coherent series of large-scale monotypes from oil paintings combined with scraps of textiles and other materials, sometimes on unconventional metal matrices (rusted pieces of sheet metal, round metal targets).

The motifs of the prints and tempera drawings range from existential situations (Traces, Abyss, Decay) and strange figures (The Devourers, Big and Small, Grotesque) to abstract motifs (In the Circle, In the Plane, Scar, Composition).

In the 1970s, Jan Hladík interrupted his graphic work and returned to it again only after 1989, mostly using the dry needle technique. At that time, he also created a number of oil paintings on graphic matrices.

Textile art and tapestry Jan Hladík applied his original background in textile art in graduate serigraphs on textiles, designs for decorative fabrics and headscarfs with motifs of highly stylized figures, and especially on a large-scale abstract composition (15 × 3.5 m) for the Expo Montreal in 1967.

The artist's first tapestries, woven from 1959 onwards according to designs created first as graphic prints and drawings (Gemini, monotype 1965, tapestry 1967), range in subject matter from figures with post-Cubist morphology (Shieldmaker, 1968, Tokyo) to abstract motifs (Stele-Scar, 1970).

The mid-1970s marked a radical turn to figurative work in tapestry with The Kiss of Judas of St. Gill (1974), based on a Romanesque relief. The classical tapestry technique, grasped in an original and subjective way, allows Hladík to actively experience every detail and express psychological expression while weaving.

This is followed by a series of expressive scenes with actors from Divadlo za branou (Theatre behind the gate), woven after photographs by Josef Koudelka (Marie, Meeting-not meeting). Hladík's motif is not a mere figure, but "expressive human feelings, their meeting and passing by"

Jan Hladík was also inspired by details of figures in classical works (Jan Vermeer, Botticelli), which he quotes, but treats them freely, capturing movement (The Dancer), the scene (The Blind Men after Brueghel) or psychological studies of faces (Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett, The Scream). A highlight work from 1977 is a difficult reinterpretation of the perspective of the painting Lamentation of Christ after Andrea Mantegna.

Representation in collections (tapestries) Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague Moravian Gallery in Brno North Bohemian Museum in Liberec Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava Jacques Baruch Gallery, Chicago Association Pierre Pauli, Lausanne Gallery Kawashima, Tokyo Musei Vaticani Central Museum of Woolen Arts, Łódź

Exhibitions Author's 1963 prints, tapestries, paintings Fronta Gallery, Prague 1966 prints, tapestries, Jindřichův Hradec (castle) 1970 prints (etching, mixed media), Hollar Gallery, Prague 1973 Jindřichův Hradec (castle), (with Jenny Hladíková) 1990 Atrium, Prague (with Jenny Hladíková) 1992 graphics, tapestries, Staré Hrady 1995 prints, tapestries, Imperial Stables of Prague Castle 1997 tapestries and prints, Convent of the Monastery in Žďár nad Sázavou, (with Jenny Hladíková, curator Kybalová L.) 2001 Jan Hladík and Jenny Hladíková - tapestries and graphics, House of Art Opava, (curator Kybalová L.) 2001 Jan Hladík and Jenny Hladíková - tapestries and graphics, Galerie Klenová in Klatovy, (curator Fišer M.) 2002 retrospective of graphic art, Hollar Gallery, Prague 2002 Figural tapestries, graphics, Letohrádek Ostrov nad Ohří, (curator Vachudová B.) 2002 Prints and one tapestry, Magna Gallery, Ostrava, (curator Šmolka J.) 2004 prints, monotypes, drawings and 3 tapestries from the 1960s, Leoš Janáček Cultural House, Havířov, (curator Hartmann A.) 2005 prints, tapestries, small hall of the Trade Fair Palace, National Gallery Prague, (with Jenny Hladíková) 2007 paintings, Magna Gallery, Ostrava, (curator Šmolka J.) 2009 Transformations and Returns, graphic work 1946–2008, Hollar Gallery, Prague

Collective (selection) 1965–1979 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 8th, 9th Biennale Internationale de la Tapiserie, Lausanne 1967 50 years of SČUG Hollar, National Gallery Prague 1968 Prints, author's woven tapestry, Heilbronn, Kunstverein 1969 Incisori Cecoslovacci, Galleria I Portici, Cremona, Bologna 1970 Künstlergruppe Hollar, Galerie Metternich, Koblenz 1971 Great Exhibition of the Czech Graphic Artists Association Hollar, Mánes, Prague 1995 Members' Exhibition of the Czech Graphic Artists Association Hollar, Mánes, Prague 1995 Czech Graphic Art, Bratislava City Gallery, Bratislava 2000 Alfa 2000 Omega, National House in Smichov, Prague 2000 Art Textile Contemporain - Collection de l'Association Pierre Pauli, Lausanne 2001 International Millennial Contemporary Exhibition, Szépmüvészeti museum, Budapest 2002 Omago alla collezione P. et M. Magnenat, Como 2002 Half a Century of Changes in Czech Modern Graphic Art, [Mánes, Prague 2003-4 Umělecká beseda 1863–2004, Prague City Gallery 2007 Tribute to Václav Hollar, Clam-Gallas Palace