Marie Uchytilová-Kučová (17 January 1924 – 16 November 1989) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

sculptor and designer of

medals A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be int ...

who created the Memorial to the Children of Lidice and designed the Czechoslovak one crown coin that circulated from 1957 to 1993.

Biography

Uchytilová was born in

Kralovice Kralovice (; german: Kralowitz) is a town in Plzeň-North District in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 3,400 inhabitants. It is known for the former pilgrimage site of Mariánská Týnice. Administrative parts Villages of Buk ...

, Czechoslovakia, the daughter of a clerk. From 1945 to 1950 she studied under

Otakar Španiel Otakar Španiel (13 June 1881 – 15 February 1955) was a Czech sculptor and engraver. Life and career Španiel was born on 13 June 1881 in Jaroměř. After primary education, he studied at the Engraving School in Jablonec nad Nisou and grad ...

at the

Prague Academy of Fine Arts The Academy of Fine Arts, Prague ( cs, Akademie výtvarných umění v Praze; AVU) is an art college in Prague, Czech Republic. Founded in 1799, it is the oldest art college in the country. The school offers twelve master's degree programs and one ...

. In 1956 she won a public competition to design the Czechoslovak one crown coin, secretly basing the figure of a young woman on a current prisoner held by the Czech Communist government. Uchytilová-Kučová was a teacher at Prague’s Vaclav Hollar Art School in Prague 3. Uchytilová died in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

Memorial to the Children of Lidice

In the late 1960s, on her own initiative, Uchytilová and her husband, Jiří V. Hampl, began working on a Memorial to the Children of

Lidice Lidice (, german: Liditz) is a municipality and village in Kladno District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 600 inhabitants. Lidice is built near the site of the previous village of the same name, which was com ...

, a Czech village destroyed by the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The memorial depicts 82 children killed in the

extermination camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...

in the Polish town of

Chełmno Chełmno (; older en, Culm; formerly ) is a town in northern Poland near the Vistula river with 18,915 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is the seat of the Chełmno County in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship. Due to its regional importan ...

. Uchytilová decided not to portray the actual children of the town because she intended to commemorate all children who had become victims of the war. When Uchytilová died in 1989—the day before the November 17th

Velvet Revolution The Velvet Revolution ( cs, Sametová revoluce) or Gentle Revolution ( sk, Nežná revolúcia) was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations agains ...

—her work remained unrealized. In the 1990s, the Danish city of

Albertslund Albertslund is a Copenhagen suburb in Albertslund Municipality, Denmark. It is located west of central Copenhagen, with a population of around 30,000. Albertslund is a planned community or new town mainly built in the 1960s and 1970s. The subu ...

and other—mostly foreign—investors donated money to cast the sculpture in

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

. The first thirty statues were installed in Lidice in 1995, and the last were dedicated on 10 June 2000, thirty years after Uchytilová began her work and eleven years after her death. The sculptures of the children overlook the mass graves at Lidice. In 2013, the

Czech President The president of the Czech Republic is the head of state of the Czech Republic and the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic. The president mostly has ceremonial powers as the day-to-day business of the executive governm ...

Miloš Zeman Miloš Zeman (; born 28 September 1944) is a Czech politician serving as the third and current President of the Czech Republic since 2013. He previously served as the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic from 1998 to 2002. As leader of the Czec ...

called it "the most beautiful and saddest memorial I've ever seen," and he conferred on Uchytilová a posthumous award. Lidice 2001 denkmal der kinder von lidice

Lidice 2001 denkmal der kinder von lidice

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uchytilova, Marie Czech sculptors Czech women sculptors 1924 births 1989 deaths 20th-century sculptors 20th-century Czech women artists People from Plzeň-North District Academy of Fine Arts, Prague alumni Recipients of Medal of Merit (Czech Republic)

Biography

Memorial to the Children of Lidice

See also

References