Bohumír Matal (13 February 1922

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

– 7 July 1988 Prudká at Doubravník) was a Czech

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

, one of the youngest members of Group 42. He was a significant celebrity in post-war painting in the 20th century in Brno.

Life

Bohumír Matal studied 1937–1941 at School of Arts and Crafts in

(prof. E. Hrbek, František Václav Süsser). In 1941 he was arrested for antifascist activity and sent to the

labor camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especi ...

Lohbruck, Germany. He worked there in a chain factory. Although he couldn't paint anymore, he wrote letters to his family which he supplemented with illustrations. During his stay in the labor camp he wrote more than 200 letters with black and white pencil illustrations. In 1945 he returned from Germany in an ill health. After his recovery he started to paint again. After having an exhibition with the other young painters in Paris in 1946 he had his separate exhibition. His typical themes were human beings, city, civilization and industrialization - cement plants, paper mills etc. His first paintings contained themes as airships, ports and streets in the rain; gradually, his work was connected with the program of Group 42. After political changes in 1948 Bohumír Matal locked himself away in his studio and continued in Group 42 style. He painted portraits and his famous paintings ''Cyclist'' 1952, 1954. In the first half of the 1950s the political situation changed and Bohumír Matal with

Vladislav Vaculka Vladislav ( be, Уладзіслаў (', '); pl, Władysław, ; Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, sh-Cyrl, Владислав) is a male given name of Slavic origin. Variations include ''Volodislav'', ''Vlastislav'' and ''Vlaslav''. ...

and Vladimír Vašíček set up a

Group Brno 57 A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic id ...

. In the 1960s experiment and subtraction appeared in Matal's artwork. Except painting he was also engaged in

scene design Scenic design (also known as scenography, stage design, or set design) is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but in recent years, are mostly trai ...

. After 1968 he left Brno and moved to Prudká at Doubravník, where he bought and renewed a mill as a studio. He died there after a long sickness 7 JULY.KUNDERA, Ludvík a Jaroslav MALINA a Kateřina SVOBODOVÁ. Bohumír Matal. Brno: Akademické nakladatelství CERM, Nakladatelství a vydavatelství NAUMA, 2006. 276 s. Osobnosti, 1. vydání. ISBN 80-7204-430-3.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matal, Bphumir Czech painters Czech male painters Group 42