Vincenc Makovský

Vincenc Makovský (3 June 1900 – 28 December 1966) was a Czech sculptor, industrial designer and university teacher.

Biography

Vincenc Makovský was born on 3 June 1900 in Nové Město na Moravě. After he graduated from the high school in his hometown in 1918, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in 1919–1926. He was a pupil of Jan Štursa, who was also native of Nové Město na Moravě. In 1926–1930, he worked at Antoine Bourdelle's studio in France. From 1930, he lived in Brno. In 1944, he married. He had two sons. He founded the School of Arts in Zlín in 1939 and taught there until 1945. In 1945–1952, he taught at Brno University of Technology (that time called University of Technology of Dr. E. Beneš). From 1952, he was a university teacher at Academy of Fine Arts in Prague.

Sculptural work

Vincenc Makovský was the most prominent representative of surrealism in Czech sculpture, although his surrealist period only lasted from 1932 to 1934. This period also included radical material experiments. Some of his surrealist works are exhibited in the National Gallery Prague.

After World War II, Makovský focused primarily on creation of monuments. The ruling communist regime respected Makovský's efforts to connect architecture and public space in a valuable work. Among the best-known examples of his work from this period is the monument of Alois Jirásek in Litomyšl from 1959. Statue of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk in Washington, D.C., 1937 Fountain with a sculpture group Vintage in Mělník, 1938 Allegorical statue Průmysl ('Industry') in Prague-Vysočany, 1938 Bust of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk in Mouřínov, 1940s Monument to the victims of World War II in Krucemburk, 1946 Monument to Marshal Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky in Brno, 1950 Red Army monument in Brno, 1955, together with Bohuslav Fuchs and Antonín Kurial Statue of Comenius in Naarden, 1957 Monument of Alois Jirásek in Litomyšl, 1959 Bust of John Amos Comenius in Brno, 1961 Memorial to Stanislav Kostka Neumann in Bílovice nad Svitavou, 1964

Industrial design Makovský was also known as an industrial designer. In 1940, he created the first 1:1-scale plaster model of the R50 lathe, in cooperation with designers of the engineering works MAS. In 1941, he designed the first Czech radial drilling machine, known as the VR8.

Honours Makovský received several awards from the Czechoslovak state for his work.