Tom Samek (11 March 1950 – October 2021) was a Czech artist who lived and worked in Australia.
Bett Gallery, Hobart. Retrieved 24 May 2010. He was a painter, stage designer and printmaker."Prints and printmaking"

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

. Retrieved 24 May 2010.

Life and work

Tom Samek was born in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. He moved to Germany and Switzerland in 1969, then Austria the following year and Australia in 1971. In 1972 he studied printmaking with Eric Smodic in Austria for a year, then returned to Australia the following year. He settled in Tasmania. In 1997, he painted a mural in the foyer of the School of Engineering at the

University of Tasmania The University of Tasmania (UTAS) is a public research university, primarily located in Tasmania, Australia. Founded in 1890, it is Australia's fourth oldest university. Christ College, one of the university's residential colleges, first prop ...

. Samek's largest, and perhaps finest, work is ''Flawed History of Tasmanian Wine'', a floor mural in a gallery above the tasting room of the Meadowbank Estate winery and restaurant in Tasmania. The floor is painted, carved and etched in Samek's "unique style", and integrated with his friend Graeme Phillips' comic and nonsense poetry. The work was finished in December 2005, half of the $160,000 cost being met by the Federal Government. In 2009, he returned to the University of Tasmania School of Engineering to create a mosaic mural, featuring names of notable engineers, and staff and students. It was unveiled during the 50th anniversary celebration of the school. Samek made prints, including etchings, which "revel in the indulgences of food and drink." He adopted a whimsical view of Australian customs and language, at one time concentrating on faces and wine glasses, and in 2006 focusing on parrots as subject matter. In the latter part of his life, he was based in Hobart, Tasmania. He died in October 2021 after a long battle with

motor neurone disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most commo ...

Collections

Samek's work is represented in the Australian National Gallery, South Australian Art Gallery, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Auckland City Gallery, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Australia Council, and Artbank.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Samek, Tom 1950 births 2021 deaths Australian printmakers Australian people of Czech descent Czechoslovak emigrants to Australia Artists from Prague

Life and work

Collections

See also

References