Juliana Jirousová (17 September 1943 – 25 August 2023) was a Czech artist and painter, known for her paintings of

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...

s. Jirousová was an anti-Communist dissident during the

communist era A Communist Era is a sustained period of national government by a single party following the philosophy of Marxism–Leninism. Many countries have experienced such a period of Communist rule. Current communist states China The Chinese Communist P ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

and a signatory of

Charter 77 Charter 77 (''Charta 77'' in Czech and Slovak) was an informal civic initiative in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members and architects were Jiří Něm ...

. Her former husband, poet

Ivan Martin Jirous Ivan Martin Jirous (23 September 1944 – 9 November 2011) was a Czech poet and dissident, best known as the artistic director of the Czech psychedelic rock group The Plastic People of the Universe, and later one of the key figures of the Czech ...

, was also a dissident and major figure in the

underground movement Resistance movements during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation to propaganda, hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns. In many countries, r ...

during the Normalization period.

Biography

Jirousová was born Juliana Stritzková in

Stará Říše Stará Říše (; german: Alt Reisch) is a market town in Jihlava District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 600 inhabitants. Administrative parts The village of Nepomuky is an administrative part of Stará Říše. Geog ...

on 17 September 1937 to a strongly religious

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

family. Her parents, and , were both artists and painters who passed on their artistic interests to their daughter. Jirousová's maternal grandfather,

Josef Florian Josef Florian (9 February 1873 – 29 December 1941, both in Stará Říše in Moravia) was a Czech book publisher and translator. He was famous for the high quality of books he published in his small publishing company in Stará Říše. Both lo ...

, was a prominent Catholic publisher and thinker. She graduated from secondary school in

Telč Telč (; german: Teltsch) is a town in the Jihlava District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 5,100 inhabitants. The town is well known for its historic centre, which is protected by law as an urban monument reservation ...

in the early 1960s, but was not allowed to continue higher education due to political pressure from the communist authorities. In response, she worked in several jobs and began painting, leading to her career as an artist. One of her early jobs involved painting with psychiatric patients at a hospital in

Havlíčkův Brod Havlíčkův Brod (, until 1945 Německý Brod; german: Deutschbrod) is a town in Havlíčkův Brod District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 23,000 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law a ...

as a form of

art therapy Art therapy (not to be confused with ''arts therapy'', which includes other creative therapies such as drama therapy and music therapy) is a distinct discipline that incorporates creative methods of expression through visual art media. Art thera ...

. Jirousová moved to Prague for work, where she met

, a poet, dissident, and leading figure in the Prague underground movement, in 1972. Jirousová married Jirous in 1976 (his second marriage). The couple had two daughters, (born 1980), who became a novelist, and (born 1981), a poet and teacher. Both Juliana Jirousová and her husband signed Charter 77 and she raised their daughters while he was imprisoned for anti-communist activities during the 1970s and 1980s. Jirousová was placed under

surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as c ...

by the secret police for much of this time. Their marriage ended soon after his release from prison. Jirous died in 2011. Juliana Jirousová died on 25 August 2023, at the age of 79. Her funeral was held in

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jirousova, Juliana 1943 births 2023 deaths Czech painters Czechoslovak dissidents Charter 77 signatories Czech women painters Czechoslovak painters 20th-century Czech painters 21st-century Czech painters Catholic painters People from Jihlava District