.Mikuláš Medek (3 November 1926 – 23 August 1974) was a Czecoslovak painter. He united the artistic tradition of over three generations and thanks to the originality of his expression, depth and spirituality of his extraordinary work, he occupies one of the most prominent places in the Czech art history of the post-war period. Medek's entire work must be perceived in the context of the times, as it directly reflects the oppressive atmosphere of the
communist regime in Czechoslovakia
Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, distrib ...
. He worked freely only for a short period between 1963 and 1969 and had only two exhibitions in
Prague
Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
during his lifetime.
He was the grandson of the impressionist
Antonín Slavíček
Antonín Slavíček (16 May 1870 – 1 February 1910) was a Czech Impressionist painter. He worked mostly in the area surrounding Kameničky.
Life
In 1887, he entered the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, where he studied landscape painting with J ...
, the son of the general and writer
Rudolf Medek and the brother of
Ivan Medek. Medek's studio was one of the meeting centres for artists and art historians during the communist rule in Czechoslovakia.
Life
1926–1960
Mikuláš Medek was the son of
Rudolf Medek, a teacher,
legionnaire
The French Foreign Legion (, also known simply as , "the Legion") is a corps of the French Army created to allow List of militaries that recruit foreigners, foreign nationals into French service. The Legion was founded in 1831 and today consis ...
and
brigadier general of the
Czechoslovak Army
The Czechoslovak Army (Czech and Slovak: ''Československá armáda'') was the name of the armed forces of Czechoslovakia. It was established in 1918 following Czechoslovakia's declaration of independence from Austria-Hungary.
History
In t ...
, and Eva Medek, née Slavíčková. He was the grandson of the painter
Antonín Slavíček
Antonín Slavíček (16 May 1870 – 1 February 1910) was a Czech Impressionist painter. He worked mostly in the area surrounding Kameničky.
Life
In 1887, he entered the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, where he studied landscape painting with J ...
. He had a sister, Eva (1921-1924), who died tragically as a child, and an older brother
, Ivan (1925-2010). His grandmother Bohumila Slavíčková was married for the second time to
Herbert Masaryk
Herbert Masaryk (1 May 1880, Vienna – 15 March 1915, Prague) was a Czech Post-Impressionist painter; son of the future founder and President of Czechoslovakia, Tomáš Masaryk, and his American-born wife, Charlotte Garrigue.
Biography
After ...
, and Mikuláš's aunts were her two daughters - art historian Anna Masaryk and Herberta Masaryk, married to art historian Emanuel Poche. Her daughter Charlotta, was married to
Petr Kotik, son of the painter
Jan Kotík. Mikuláš Medek maintained friendly relations with his uncle, the film director
Jiří Slavíček. Rudolf Medek wrote a five-volume chronicle of the
Czechoslovak Legion
The Czechoslovak Legion ( Czech: ''Československé legie''; Slovak: ''Československé légie'') were volunteer armed forces consisting predominantly of Czechs and Slovaks fighting on the side of the Entente powers during World War I and the ...
s, published legionary short stories, wrote poems for ''Moderní revue'', and was the author of film scripts and the play ''Plukovník Švec'', which was staged by the
National Theatre. A debating club of intellectuals and artists of a wide range of political views - from Catholic poets to communists - met in the Medeks' apartment. Rudolf Medek was friends with General
Jan Syrový
Jan Syrový (24 January 1888 – 17 October 1970) was a Czechoslovak general who was the prime minister of Czechoslovakia during the Munich Crisis.
Early life and military career
Jan Syrový studied building at a technical school. Follow ...
, the architect Strnad, Bishop Antonín Podlaha, the writers
Josef Kopta and
Viktor Dyk, and the poets
Jaroslav Seifert
Jaroslav Seifert (; 23 September 1901 – 10 January 1986) was a Czech writer, poet and journalist. Seifert was awarded the 1984 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his poetry which endowed with freshness, sensuality and rich inventiveness provides ...
,
František Halas
František Halas (3 October 1901 – 27 October 1949) was a Czechs, Czech poet, translator and politician. He was one of the most significant Czech lyric poets of the 20th century. His poor background influenced his work as well as his communist v ...
,
Josef Hora,
Josef Palivec,
Jaroslav Durych,
Jan Zahradníček
Jan Zahradníček (17 January 1905, Mastník, Moravia − 10 October 1960, Vlčatín) was a Moravian (Czech) poet, journalist and translator.
He was one of the most important Czech Catholic poets of the 20th century. Because of his faith and ...
,
Josef Kostohryz Josef may refer to
*Josef (given name)
*Josef (surname)
* ''Josef'' (film), a 2011 Croatian war film
*Musik Josef
Musik Josef is a Japanese manufacturer of musical instruments. It was founded by Yukio Nakamura and is the only company in Japan spec ...
, and others. Mikuláš's mother was also literary active.
From 1929, the Medeks lived in a service apartment in the
National Monument at Vítkov, where Rudolf Medek was the director. In 1939, the
Gestapo
The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
took the apartment, and the family spent a year in their country house in Čejkovice and then from 1940 lived in an apartment at 49 Janáček Embankment in Prague.
Rudolf Medek deliberately asked to be hospitalized at Bulovka hospital to escape arrest, but died of
peritonitis
Peritonitis is inflammation of the localized or generalized peritoneum, the lining of the inner wall of the abdomen and covering of the abdominal organs. Symptoms may include severe pain, swelling of the abdomen, fever, or weight loss. One pa ...
in August 1940. In 1943, the
Nazis
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
occupied their house in Čejkovice and then the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
took it over.
Mikuláš Medek graduated from primary school in
Karlín
Karlín () is a cadastral area of Prague, part of Prague 8 municipal district, formerly an independent town (which became part of Prague in 1922). It is bordered by the river Vltava and Holešovice to the north, Vítkov hill and Žižkov to t ...
and then attended the Academic grammar school until 1942. At that time, he was mainly interested in literature and was going to study
biology
Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...
, but the universities were closed during the war. In the fourth year of grammar school, his interest in fine arts prevailed, and he transferred to the ''State Graphic School in Prague''. He studied under Prof. K. Müller, where his classmates included Jan Hladík, Vladimír Fuka, Vlastimil Sova and Václav Sivko. In the last year of the war, the whole class was "totally deployed" in the ''Dorka cooperative'', where they knitted bags. In May 1945, as a member of an illegal student group, he took part in the
Prague uprising
The Prague uprising () was a partially successful attempt by the Czech resistance movement to liberate the city of Prague from German occupation in May 1945, during the end of World War II. The preceding six years of occupation had fuelled an ...
with the defenders of the
Old Town Hall , and after it was set on fire, he escaped through the sewers. In the summer of 1945, he was admitted to the
Academy of Fine Arts in the studio of Prof. V. Minář and V. Rada. After the first semester, he transferred to the studio of
František Muzika
František Muzika (26 June 1900 – 1 November 1974) was a Czech artist. He was a prominent representative of avant-garde in Czechoslovakia in the first half of the 20th century.
Muzika was a painter, graphic designer, stage designer, illustrat ...
at the
Academy of Arts and Crafts and in 1947, he moved to the studio of František Tichý. His classmates were
Zbyněk Sekal,
Stanislav Podhrázský and
Josef Lehoučka. Mikuláš and his mother joined the
Communist Party in 1945, but after the
1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état, they both left. During the purges organised by the communist students, Mikuláš Medek was expelled from the
Academy of Arts and Crafts in 1949.
Before the end of the war, two girls whose parents were taken to a
concentration camp
A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...
by the
Nazis
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
lived with the Medeks - Jana Krejcarová,
Milena Jesenská
Milena Jesenská (; 10 August 1896 – 17 May 1944) was a Czech Republic, Czech journalist, writer, editor and translator. She is noted for her correspondence with the author Franz Kafka and was one of the first to translate his work from the ...
's daughter, and Gabriela Dvořáková, a student at
Academy of Arts and Crafts, with whom Mikuláš Medek fell in love and married in 1947. At the same time, Josef Lehoučka introduced him to
Emila Tláskalová , and the two began a love affair that deepened the following year when they spent their holidays together. At the beginning of 1949, Mikuláš Medek divorced, and in September 1951, he married
Emila. In 1952, a daughter, Eva (Iviska), was born to the couple. Mikuláš's family lived in a shared apartment with
Ivan
Ivan () is a Slavic male given name, connected with the variant of the Greek name (English: John) from Hebrew meaning 'God is gracious'. It is associated worldwide with Slavic countries. The earliest person known to bear the name was the B ...
's family and with his mother, who married a second time to the lawyer J. Velkoborský, at 49 Janáček Embankment in Prague. One of the two living rooms also served as a studio and a meeting place for Medek's friends.
Emila Medková was employed as a photographer at the Institute of Human Work, and her daughter was looked after by Mikuláš on weekdays or stayed with her grandmother Emilie Tláskalová, and her parents commuted to see her.
After being expelled from school, Medek found himself in social isolation and existential worries. His unfinished studies meant that he could not become a
freelance artist, he was threatened with being drafted for two years of
compulsory military service
Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it contin ...
, and he had to look for a job. A difficult period followed, when he worked for several months at a
revolver lathe in the Škoda engineering plant in Smíchov (1950) and finally had a
nervous breakdown
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is ...
and was hospitalized at Bulovka. He avoided
military service
Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job (volunteer military, volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription).
Few nations, such ...
when he inflicted a knife wound to his chest. In the following years, he received occasional commissions in the field of applied book graphics, as a poster designer for the
circus
A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...
or as a painter of decorations. The artists were commissioned and supplied with painting materials by
Jaroslav Puchmertl, a sculptor and former member of the ''Ra group'' who was employed by the
Central Committee of the National Front.
Mikuláš Medek never gave up his work for the sake of commissions for a living, which developed without interruption from the mid-1940s. In 1945, he exhibited two paintings for the first time at a student exhibition and became acquainted with
Libor Fára
Libor Fára (12 September 1925 – 3 March 1988) was a Czech sculptor and painter.
Biography
Fára was born in Prague. The versatile Fára graduated from the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague in the studio of Emil Filla in the second half of t ...
and, through him, with the circle of the ''Spořilov surrealists''. From 1949 onwards, he was in contact with
Vladimír Boudník,
Bohumil Hrabal
Bohumil Hrabal (; 28 March 1914 – 3 February 1997) was a Czech Republic, Czech writer, often named among the best Czech writers of the 20th century.
Early life
Hrabal was born in Židenice (suburb of Brno) on 28 March 1914, in what was then ...
and his circle (
Egon Bondy
Egon Bondy, born Zbyněk Fišer (20 January 1930 in Prague – 9 April 2007 in Bratislava), was a Czech writer, with prolific and distinctive output in poetry, prose and philosophy, one of the leading personalities of the Prague underground wit ...
) and
Jiří Kolář
Jiří Kolář (24 September 1914, Protivín – 11 August 2002, Prague) was a Czech poet, writer, painter and translator. His work included both literary and visual art.
Life
Kolář was born in Protivín on September 29, 1914, in a work ...
. In 1951, Emila and Mikuláš Medek joined the group of surrealists around
Karel Teige
Karel Teige (13 December 1900 – 1 October 1951) was a Czech modernist avant-garde artist, writer, critic and one of the most important figures of the 1920s and 1930s movement. He was a member of the '' Devětsil'' (Butterbur) movement in the ...
and participated in the
samizdat
Samizdat (, , ) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. The practice of manual rep ...
editions ''Znamení zvěrokruhu'' (Signs of the Zodiac) and ''Object'' and the questionnaires on
surrealism
Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
organized by
Vratislav Effenberger. The whole group of
surrealist
Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
s was monitored and eavesdropped on by the
secret police
image:Putin-Stasi-Ausweis.png, 300px, Vladimir Putin's secret police identity card, issued by the East German Stasi while he was working as a Soviet KGB liaison officer from 1985 to 1989. Both organizations used similar forms of repression.
Secre ...
(Action: ''Mazalové''), and several
StB
State Security (, ), or StB / ŠtB, was the secret police force in communist Czechoslovakia from 1945 to its dissolution in 1990. Serving as an intelligence and counter-intelligence agency, it dealt with any activity that was considered oppositio ...
collaborators were in the vicinity of Mikuláš Medek and reported on him (
Egon Bondy
Egon Bondy, born Zbyněk Fišer (20 January 1930 in Prague – 9 April 2007 in Bratislava), was a Czech writer, with prolific and distinctive output in poetry, prose and philosophy, one of the leading personalities of the Prague underground wit ...
, Jaroslav Puchmertl, Josef Vyleťal, Stanislav Drvota).
In 1955 and 1956, together with
Zdeněk Palcr and
Stanislav Podhrázský, he worked as a fresco
restorer in Strakonice and Klatovy. In 1957, he submitted drawings for the
tapestry manufactory in
Valašské Meziříčí
Valašské Meziříčí (; ) is a town in Vsetín District in the Zlín Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 23,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an Cultural monument (Czech Republic)#Monum ...
, which the company eventually failed to realise; he illustrated books under a pseudonym. The first articles about Medek's work were published in 1956 by the Polish ''Przegląd Artystyczny'' and a year later by
Ludmila Vachtová in the magazine ''Tvar''. In the same year, he met
Václav Havel
Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident. Havel served as the last List of presidents of Czechoslovakia, president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissol ...
,
Jiří Kuběna and
Josef Topol. In 1958, three of Medek's paintings were exhibited for two days at the
Faculty of Arts
A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In North America, academic divisions are sometimes titled colleges, sc ...
and
Ludmila Vachtová introduced him to the theoreticians
František Šmejkal
František () is a masculine Czech and Slovak given name. It is a cognate of Francis, Francisco, François and Franz. It can be also surname (feminine: Františková). Notable people with the name include:
Given name Arts
*Frank Daniel (Franti� ...
and
Zdenek Felix. He became friends with
Jan Koblasa
Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to:
Acronyms
* Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN
* Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code
* Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group
* Japanese Article Num ...
and the ''Šmidra group''. Through Herberta Masaryk, the following year he met the composers
Krzysztof Penderecki
Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki (; 23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer and conductor. His best-known works include '' Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima'', Symphony No. 3, his '' St Luke Passion'', '' Polish Requiem'', '' ...
,
Józef Patkowski and
Luigi Nono
Luigi Nono (; 29 January 1924 – 8 May 1990) was an Italian avant-garde composer of classical music.
Biography
Early years
Nono, born in Venice, was a member of a wealthy artistic family; his grandfather was a notable painter. Nono bega ...
. Medek's requests for exhibition dates were permanently rejected at that time, and he was also excluded from all group exhibitions. In 1960,
Ludmila Vachtová submitted an article about five Czech painters (Medek, Istler, Koblasa, Kotík, Sklenář) to the review ''
La Biennale di Venezia
The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Architecture Biennale (), which are held in alternating ye ...
''. The article was the first report on Czech contemporary art in the West, and Vachtová was investigated by the
StB
State Security (, ), or StB / ŠtB, was the secret police force in communist Czechoslovakia from 1945 to its dissolution in 1990. Serving as an intelligence and counter-intelligence agency, it dealt with any activity that was considered oppositio ...
and fired from the editorship of the magazine ''Výtvarné umění''.
1961–1969
Artists and theoreticians who met at Mikuláš Medek's flat have tried to register the creative group ''Konfrontace'' (Confrontation). In early 1961, a series of arrests and interrogations took place, and members of the group were bugged. The application for registration made in 1961, as well as requests for exhibition dates in 1962 and 1963, went unanswered, and the group gradually disbanded. Only in 1962, thanks to theoretician
Jan Kříž, were Medek's paintings presented in
Vimperk
Vimperk (; ) is a town in Prachatice District in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 7,300 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an urban monument zone.
Historically Vimperk has bee ...
and
Kamenice nad Lipou at exhibitions, organized by the Aleš South Bohemian Gallery in Hluboká nad Vltavou. In the same year he was represented at the exhibition ''Arguments 62'' at the ''Krzywe Koło Gallery'' in
Warsaw
Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
, prepared by
Marian Bogusz.
The situation changed when in 1963 Medek received a number of public commissions for architecture - painting for the
Czech Airlines
Czech Airlines (abbreviation: ČSA, ) is a Czech Republic, Czech aviation brand and privately held holding company. Between 1923 and 2024, it operated as an independent airline and served as the flag carrier of the Czech Republic. Czech Airlines ...
office in
Damascus
Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
, a monumental pano for the
Czech Airlines
Czech Airlines (abbreviation: ČSA, ) is a Czech Republic, Czech aviation brand and privately held holding company. Between 1923 and 2024, it operated as an independent airline and served as the flag carrier of the Czech Republic. Czech Airlines ...
hall in
Košice
Košice is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of approximately 230,000, Košice is the second-largest cit ...
, and an altarpiece for
Jedovnice. He was accepted as a candidate of the ''Czechoslovak Union of Artists'' and in August he had his first major exhibition of paintings at the
Teplice Castle together with the sculptor Jan Koblasa. The following year he exhibited three paintings at the ''D exhibition'' in the Nová síň Gallery in Prague, but the exhibition was not allowed to be accompanied by a catalogue or by a review in the art magazine. The exhibition ''Imaginative Painting 1930-1950'', prepared in 1964 at the Aleš South Bohemian Gallery in Hluboká nad Vltavou by
Věra Linhartová
Věra Linhartová (born 22 March, 1938) is a Czechs, Czech writer and an art historian.
She was born in Brno and studied art history at Masaryk University, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University and aesthetics at Charles University in Prague. She wo ...
and
František Šmejkal
František () is a masculine Czech and Slovak given name. It is a cognate of Francis, Francisco, François and Franz. It can be also surname (feminine: Františková). Notable people with the name include:
Given name Arts
*Frank Daniel (Franti� ...
, was banned by the regional committee of the
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ( Czech and Slovak: ''Komunistická strana Československa'', KSČ) was a communist and Marxist–Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992. It was a member of the Com ...
and was not open to the public. Only after the reform of the ''Union of Czechoslovak Visual Artists'' in December 1964 and the election of a new presidium headed by
Adolf Hoffmeister
Adolf Hoffmeister (15 August 1902 – 24 July 1973) was a Czechoslovak writer, publicist, playwright, painter, draughtsman, scenographer, cartoonist, translator, diplomat, lawyer, university professor and traveller. During the war, he served as ed ...
was Mikuláš Medek accepted as a member and elected as an alternate member of its central committee. At the end of 1964, he won first prize in a competition for the decoration of the new
airport building in Prague-Ruzyně and was commissioned to paint two paintings for the
Czech Airlines
Czech Airlines (abbreviation: ČSA, ) is a Czech Republic, Czech aviation brand and privately held holding company. Between 1923 and 2024, it operated as an independent airline and served as the flag carrier of the Czech Republic. Czech Airlines ...
office in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
(one of the paintings was installed in
Prague Castle
Prague Castle (; ) is a castle complex in Prague, Czech Republic serving as the official residence and workplace of the president of the Czech Republic. Built in the 9th century, the castle has long served as the seat of power for List of rulers ...
after 1989).
In 1965, he had his first solo exhibition of paintings from 1947 to 1965 in Prague's Nová síň Gallery and was represented at several exhibitions of contemporary Czech art in Western Europe (
Bochum
Bochum (, ; ; ; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 372,348 (April 2023), it is the sixth-largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous German federa ...
,
Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the states of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos (river), Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the ...
,
Celle
Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle (district), Celle in Lower Saxony, in north-central Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller (Germany), Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about ...
,
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
,
Munich
Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
,
Liége,
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...
,
L'Aquila
L'Aquila ( ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in central Italy. It is the capital city of the Province of L'Aquila and the Abruzzo region in Italy. , it has a population of 69,902. Laid out within medieval walls on a hill in the wide valley of the A ...
), at the ''Salon of Youth in Paris'', the ''San Marino Biennial'' and the ''European Forum'' in
Alpbach
Alpbach (, ) is a town in western Austria in the state of Tyrol.
History
The earliest written record of the name Alpbach comes from 1150, although human settlement is known to have begun there before and around the year 1000, and a bronze axe f ...
,
Linz
Linz (Pronunciation: , ; ) is the capital of Upper Austria and List of cities and towns in Austria, third-largest city in Austria. Located on the river Danube, the city is in the far north of Austria, south of the border with the Czech Repub ...
and
Graz
Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...
. He was diagnosed with
diabetes
Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...
, for which he was frequently hospitalised in the following years.
In 1966, he was given a spacious studio in Letná after the communist painter Jan Čumpelík and received his first
passport
A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that certifies a person's identity and nationality for international travel. A passport allows its bearer to enter and temporarily reside in a foreign country, access local aid ...
. His paintings were part of important exhibitions of modern Czech art in Prague (''Spring Exhibition'', Mánes, ''Current Tendencies'', AICA Congress, ''Symbols of Monstrosity'', Gallery D) and abroad (
West Berlin
West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...
,
Mexico City
Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...
,
Lausanne
Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...
,
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
,
Worpswede
Worpswede (Northern Low Saxon: ''Worpsweed'') is a municipality in the Osterholz-Scharmbeck, district of Osterholz, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the Teufelsmoor, northeast of Bremen (city), Bremen. The small town itself is located n ...
,
Skopje
Skopje ( , ; ; , sq-definite, Shkupi) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It lies in the northern part of the country, in the Skopje Basin, Skopje Valley along the Vardar River, and is the political, economic, and cultura ...
). Together with
Emila he visited
West Berlin
West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...
,
Worpswede
Worpswede (Northern Low Saxon: ''Worpsweed'') is a municipality in the Osterholz-Scharmbeck, district of Osterholz, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the Teufelsmoor, northeast of Bremen (city), Bremen. The small town itself is located n ...
,
Bremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...
and
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
. He received an award from the publishing house Blok for his illustrations of
Otakar Březina's book ''Hands'' and designed, together with
Josef Wagner, the set for
Josef Topol's play ''Nightingale for Dinner'' for
Divadlo za branou theatre. He had small exhibitions in
Ústí nad Orlicí
Ústí nad Orlicí (; ) is a town in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 14,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Republic)#Monument zones, urban monument z ...
and
Liberec
Liberec (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 108,000 inhabitants, making it the fifth largest city in the country. It lies on the Lusatian Neisse River, in a basin surrounded by mountains. The city centre is well preserved and is pr ...
, but Medek's planned exhibition at the House of Arts in
Brno
Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...
did not take place.
The following year, at the invitation of the ''La Bertesca Gallery'', he spent four weeks in
Genoa
Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...
with
Emila and produced paintings and drawings which he exhibited there in June 1967 at his very first solo exhibition abroad. On the occasion of the exhibition in
Celle
Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle (district), Celle in Lower Saxony, in north-central Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller (Germany), Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about ...
, he travelled for two weeks through northern German cities and took part in further exhibitions in
Kiel
Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...
,
Soest,
Turin
Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...
,
Stockholm
Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
,
The Hague
The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
,
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...
,
Antwerp
Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...
and
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
.
In 1968 he again spent several weeks in
Genoa
Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...
and exhibited twelve paintings made there at the ''Chisel Gallery''. With Emila he visited
Hamelin
Hameln ( ; ) is a town on the river Weser in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Hameln-Pyrmont and has a population of roughly 57,000. Hamelin is best known for the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
History
Hameln ...
and
Celle
Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle (district), Celle in Lower Saxony, in north-central Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller (Germany), Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about ...
. He was represented at international exhibitions in
Dortmund
Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city ...
,
Namur
Namur (; ; ) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is the capital both of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration.
Namur stands at the confl ...
,
Rijeka
Rijeka (;
Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman dialect, Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Ba ...
,
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
,
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
, at the ''May Salon'' in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
and in
Lignano
Lignano Sabbiadoro (; ) is a town and (municipality) in the Regional decentralization entity of Udine, in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of north-eastern Italy. It is one of the main summer resorts in northern Italy and on the Adriatic Se ...
, where he won the first prize for painting. In
Prague
Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
he was invited to the exhibition of ''300 painters, sculptors and graphic artists of 5 generations'' to celebrate 50 years of the
Republic
A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...
. The director Jan Iván made a film about Medek and Aleš Veselý called ''The Road to Abstraction''.
In 1969, he realized the composition ''Signals'' for the
new building of the Prague-Ruzyně airport and received the State Prize for his series ''Designers of Towers'', exhibited in the
Václav Špála Gallery. In addition, he had solo exhibitions at the Regional Gallery in
Hradec Králové
Hradec Králové (; ) is a city of the Czech Republic. It has about 94,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Hradec Králové Region. The historic centre of Hradec Králové is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech R ...
, Galleria La Bertesca in
Genoa
Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...
, the City Museum in
Regensburg
Regensburg (historically known in English as Ratisbon) is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the rivers Danube, Naab and Regen (river), Regen, Danube's northernmost point. It is the capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the ...
and was represented at exhibitions in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
,
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
,
Brno
Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...
,
and Jihlava (''Phases''). The family moved to Šumavská Street in Vinohrady.
1970–1974
After the
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
On 20–21 August 1968, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four fellow Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, and the Hungarian People's Republic. The ...
and the onset of "
normalization
Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Science
* Normalization process theory, a sociological theory of the implementation of new technologies or innovations
* Normalization model, used in ...
", Medek found himself on the index again, his works in gallery exhibitions were removed and placed in a depository, he was not allowed to exhibit, and his contracts for architectural commissions were cancelled. From 1970 onwards, Medek's work was presented only abroad (
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
, 1970,
Leinfelden
Leinfelden-Echterdingen (; Swabian: ''Laefälda-Ächdordeng'') is a town in the district of Esslingen, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located approximately 10 km south of Stuttgart, near the Stuttgart Airport and directly adjacent t ...
, 1970,
Zürich
Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
, 1976,
Bochum
Bochum (, ; ; ; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 372,348 (April 2023), it is the sixth-largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous German federa ...
, 1976). Medek's monograph, prepared in 1970 by
Bohumír Mráz for the publishing house ''Obelisk'', was withdrawn from sale and ended up in the pulp-mill.
Due to worsening
diabetes
Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...
, he was hospitalized several times during 1970 and again in 1972.
Emila Medková gave up her job to care for Mikuláš. In 1973, he submitted two paintings for the
InterContinental Hotel
InterContinental Hotels & Resorts by IHG is a British-American luxury hotel brand created in 1946 by Pan Am founder Juan Trippe. It has been part of UK-based InterContinental Hotels Group since 1998. As of January 2023, there were 208 InterCont ...
, but they were rejected on the grounds that they were "in stark contradiction to the mission of art in a socialist society".
Diabetes
Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...
also manifested itself in thinning bones, and in 1974 Mikuláš Medek suffered a fractured
hip joint
In vertebrate anatomy, the hip, or coxaLatin ''coxa'' was used by Celsus in the sense "hip", but by Pliny the Elder in the sense "hip bone" (Diab, p 77) (: ''coxae'') in medical terminology, refers to either an anatomical region or a joint o ...
, after which he could no longer attend the studio. In June 1974, the family moved to a ground-floor apartment at 6 Estonská Street, Prague. Mikuláš Medek was taken to the hospital and operated on on 21 August 1974, but died two days after the operation, on 23 August 1974, in the hospital. He is buried in the
Olšany Cemetery
Olšany Cemeteries (, ) is the largest graveyard in Prague, Czech Republic, once laid out for as many as two million burials. The graveyard is particularly noted for its many remarkable Art Nouveau monuments.
History
The Olšany Cemeteries w ...
.
Ivan Medek remembered him in 1978: "''Mikuláš was an incredibly gentle and sensitive brother. A terribly beautiful person. I don't know who could have endured what he did - physically and mentally''."
Exhibitions after 1974
A posthumous exhibition of Medek's last paintings was held in his studio in 1975 by
Emila. It was visited by many of Medek's friends, including
Václav Havel
Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident. Havel served as the last List of presidents of Czechoslovakia, president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissol ...
and his wife
Olga
Olga may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Olga (name), a given name, including a list of people and fictional characters named Olga or Olha
* Michael Algar (born 1962), English singer also known as "Olga"
Places
Russia
* Olga, Russia ...
. A posthumous exhibition on the occasion of Medek's 50th birthday was organized by
Jan Koblasa
Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to:
Acronyms
* Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN
* Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code
* Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group
* Japanese Article Num ...
and
Petr Spielmann at the
Museum Bochum in 1976. In the last years of
normalization
Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Science
* Normalization process theory, a sociological theory of the implementation of new technologies or innovations
* Normalization model, used in ...
, Mikuláš Medek returned to the public consciousness thanks to an exhibition organised by
Antonín Hartmann in 1988 in the Gallery of Modern Art in
Roudnice nad Labem
Roudnice nad Labem (; ) is a town in Litoměřice District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 13,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an Cultural monument (Czech Rep ...
. The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue that presented 60 paintings as a representative cross-section of Medek's work from 1944 to 1974. In September 1989, a more modest exhibition was held at the
Aš
Aš (; ) is a town in Cheb District in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 13,000 inhabitants.
Administrative division
Aš consists of nine municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 census):
*Aš (11, ...
Town Museum.
In 1990, after the
fall of the communist regime, monographic exhibitions of Mikuláš Medek were held in regional galleries in
Prague
Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
,
Brno
Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...
,
Hluboká,
Jihlava
Jihlava (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 55,000 inhabitants. Jihlava is the capital of the Vysočina Region, situated on the Jihlava (river), Jihlava River on the historical border between Moravia and Bohemia.
Historically, Jihla ...
,
Olomouc
Olomouc (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants, making it the Statutory city (Czech Republic), sixth largest city in the country. It is the administrative centre of the Olomouc Region.
Located on the Morava (rive ...
and
Ostrava
Ostrava (; ; ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 283,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rivers: Oder, Opava (river), Opa ...
. A major retrospective exhibition, prepared by Bohumír Mráz (†2001) and Antonín Hartmann and accompanied by a narrative catalogue, was held in 2002 at the
Rudolfinum
The Rudolfinum is a building in Prague, Czech Republic. It is designed in the neo-Renaissance style and is situated on Jan Palach Square on the bank of the river Vltava. Since its opening in 1885, it has been associated with music and art.
C ...
Gallery. A retrospective of Mikuláš Medek was prepared in 2020 by the
National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...
in the Wallenstein Riding Hall, the
Convent of Saint Agnes and the Trade Fair Palace.
Work
During his lifetime, Mikuláš Medek was recognized not only as a painter, but also for his strong intellect, deep artistic and literary education, moral firmness, modesty and selflessness. In the times that were moving away from painting and saw modernity in other areas of artistic expression, his work was considered an elevation and celebration of the hanging picture. Although he worked as a solitaire in the Czech environment, he became part of a whole current of world painting, which, after the exhaustion of the vigour of
lyrical abstraction
Lyrical abstraction arose from either of two related but distinct art movement, trends in Post-war Modernist painting:
* European ''Abstraction Lyrique'': a movement that emerged in Paris, with the French art critic Jean José Marchand being cr ...
and after the late branches of
surrealism
Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
fell into academicism, found its way out of the crisis in a new integrity of the world view and the participation of all components of the artist's psychophysical activity in the creative process. Medek's work is marked by a continuous tension, the source of which was dreams and traumatic childhood experiences, disturbing bodily feelings and self-destructive behaviour, as well as the immediate cultural and political situation, especially the complete isolation of
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
from Western culture in 1948–1956. He was deeply influenced by the literary works of
Ladislav Klíma
Ladislav Klíma (22 August 1878 – 19 April 1928) was a Czech philosopher and novelist. He was influenced by George Berkeley, Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche. His philosophy is referred to varyingly as existentialism and subjective id ...
,
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...
and
Richard Weiner, his relationship with
Emila and his friendships with
Zbyněk Sekal,
Libor Fára
Libor Fára (12 September 1925 – 3 March 1988) was a Czech sculptor and painter.
Biography
Fára was born in Prague. The versatile Fára graduated from the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague in the studio of Emil Filla in the second half of t ...
and Jan Koblasa. Medek wrote
surrealist
Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
poems and worked as an illustrator, scenographer and, last but not least, a theorist and interpreter of modern art and an innovator of painting technique. His work can be divided into several periods, which follow each other seamlessly.
Early work (1942–1949)
At the beginning of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Mikuláš Medek was preparing to study
biology
Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...
and later used his drawings of details of flowers and animal tissues in his surrealist paintings. At the same time, his first painting experiments were based on the paintings of
Antonín Slavíček
Antonín Slavíček (16 May 1870 – 1 February 1910) was a Czech Impressionist painter. He worked mostly in the area surrounding Kameničky.
Life
In 1887, he entered the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, where he studied landscape painting with J ...
and reproductions of modern French painters. His relationship to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
, later encouraged by Medek's interest in
medieval panel painting, was also evident in his juvenile work. Already at the age of sixteen, he executed several expressive, almost
Rouault-like tempera drawings with
New Testament
The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
and literary themes. While studying at the ''School of Graphic Arts'', he tried his hand at cubism and oil mannerist painting in the style of
El Greco
Doménikos Theotokópoulos (, ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco (; "The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance, regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time. ...
, with its strong use of colour. The beginning of his work is associated with
surrealism
Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
. The latter was attractive to him as the last programmatic
avant-garde
In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...
movement operating without regard for borders and resonating with the revolutionary mood of society in the second half of the 1940s, with its leftist orientation.
The paintings from the
surrealist
Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
period include quotations from the works of
Paul Klee
Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...
,
Miró,
Yves Tanguy
Raymond Georges Yves Tanguy (January 5, 1900 - January 15, 1955), known as just Yves Tanguy (; ), was a French Surrealist painter.
Biography
Tanguy was the son of a retired navy captain, and was born January 5, 1900, at the Ministry of Naval Aff ...
and
Max Ernst
Max Ernst (; 2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic trai ...
, but the subjects come from the sphere of Medek's immediate interests -
botany
Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...
and
zoology
Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...
. He created several series of paintings on the theme of ''The World of an Onion'' (1944-1946), ''Infantile Walk'' (1946-1947), ''Infantile Landscape'' (1947), and ''Miraculous Mother'' (1948-1949). The picture plane in ''The World of an Onion'' consists of several separated and framed details of real or imaginary tissues on the principle of a picture within a picture. They are painted in oil, by an old master technique, with careful execution of details. By adding sand to the oil paint, he formed plastic structures. In subsequent cycles, he composed seemingly unrelated fragments of reality on the picture surface according to the surrealist principle, creating a poetic collage of them, connected by geometric elements and arrows (''Infantile Landscape'', 1947). Sections of various tissues and organs, microscopic images of cells, protozoa, crustaceans, and details of the human body (''Miraculous Mother III'', 1948) are the subject of the paintings.
Mikuláš Medek, Zátiší se zelenou vázou (1944).jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Still life with Green Vase'' (1944)
Mikuláš Medek, Bez názvu - kukuřice (1946).jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Untitled - Corn'' (1946)
Mikuláš Medek, Zázračná matka II (1948), Národní galerie v Praze.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Miraculous Mother II'' (1948), National Gallery in Prague
Mikuláš Medek, Zázračná matka III (1948), AJG Hluboká.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Miraculous Mother III'' (1948), Aleš South Bohemian Gallery in Hluboká nad Vltavou
Imaginative painting (1949–1951)
Medek did not participate in post-war group life and had reservations about the
Ra group and the
surrealist
Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
group around
Karel Teige
Karel Teige (13 December 1900 – 1 October 1951) was a Czech modernist avant-garde artist, writer, critic and one of the most important figures of the 1920s and 1930s movement. He was a member of the '' Devětsil'' (Butterbur) movement in the ...
. He completely rejected the orthodox conception of
surrealism
Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
and the
occultism
The occult () is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mystic ...
that surrealism as represented by
André Breton
André Robert Breton (; ; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') ...
had resulted in. Although he eventually became a member of the Surrealist group along with Emila in 1951, he stated in questionnaires that he did not consider himself a surrealist and intended to celebrate consciousness as a sibling of reality. In painting, he drew on the magical realism of
Toyen,
Magritte and
Dalí to create compositions put together of fragments of reality into new units of meaning. The paintings are characterized by precise drawing and a maximally illusionistic rendering in smooth flowing oil paint. The post-war psychosis of the
militant communist regime, its constant haunting of
nuclear conflict,
political trial A political trial is a criminal case wherein the defendant is tried for reasons considered ''politically motivated''—that is, those with varying degrees of opposition to government policy—in order to effectively silence or discredit them. It gen ...
s and
Soviet gulags seemed so horrifying to him that
surrealism
Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
was no longer a program, but the starting point of a new poetry that conveyed an analytical image of reality in full intensity.
Medek's images of this period are expressions of the
sadism or masochism of the real world, unclouded by the hypocritical veil of everyday life conventions. The elements of this cruelty consist of claws, sharp beaks of predators, mouths with venomous teeth, eyes hanging from a fishing rod, axes, forks, razors, knives, arrows, revolvers, mouths and breasts wounded with razor and knife or sewn together with rope, flames, strands of hair and smouldering ashes. Medek's poetic texts often anticipate the painter's realisation (the poem and painting ''Magnetic Fish'', 1949, the "forehead full of screaming birds" from the poem ''Trapped in a Window'' in the painting ''Feast I'', 1950). From these he creates situations in which he tests his ability to shock the viewer by referring to a particular horrifying social situation of the early 1950s (Mikuláš Medek: ''...they went to execute each of us and then changed their minds...''). The poem "''In Closed Rooms...''" (1949) contains numerous comments on the
wartime fate of the Jews and has its counterpart in the painting ''Smiles of Noon'' (1950).
At this stage, the motif in the painting creates an imaginative space, the illusiveness of which is betrayed by its direct connection to the objects that escape from or conquer it against the backdrop of a cracked wall, torn and burning paper, or the sky. The veristic rendering by means of illusionistic painting enhances the realism of the poetic vision. The simultaneity of visions and the hallucinatory penetration of the object by the object constitute the essence of the poetic phantasmagoria of the ''Feast cycle''.
Medek's painting ''The Noise of Silence'' is precisely dated and coincides with the day of
Milada Horáková
Milada Horáková (born: Králová, 25 December 1901 – 27 June 1950) was a Czech politician and a member of the underground resistance movement during World War II. She was a victim of judicial murder, convicted and executed by the Communis ...
's execution on 27 June 1950. The painting can be interpreted as a scene of imminent horror - three rods with eyes - three gallows (
Jan Buchal,
Záviš Kalandra
Záviš Kalandra (10 November 1902 – 27 June 1950) was a Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak historian, theatre critic and theorist of literature.
He was born in Frenštát pod Radhoštěm. He studied philosophy at the Charles University in Prague and ...
,
Oldřich Pecl), the fourth gallows - a rod stuck in a mouth cut open with a razor against the background of a woman's torso (
Milada Horáková
Milada Horáková (born: Králová, 25 December 1901 – 27 June 1950) was a Czech politician and a member of the underground resistance movement during World War II. She was a victim of judicial murder, convicted and executed by the Communis ...
). All the symbols of the executed ascend to the heavens, piles of ashes smouldering on the ledge (the bodies of the executed were burnt), a locust hatches from the torso as a
Dalí-like symbol of gluttony and destruction.
Absolute feelings of doom and existential distress are demonstrated in the paintings ''Prolapsed Mother'' (1949) and ''Spring ´51'', or the almost realistic painting of a skinned rabbit based on Emily's photograph (1951). Medek realised that
surrealism
Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
did not have the means to adequately describe the listless, distressing, absurd and indifferent to all questions of the subject reality in which man found himself (in: survey on surrealism, January 1951). This whole period of Medek's painting is closed by the picture ''A Miller's Passion'' (1951), in which some surrealist props are left in a window niche next to a scratched wall.
1. Mikuláš Medek, Magnetická ryba (1949), Národní galerie v Praze.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Magnetic Fish'' (1949), Národní galerie v Praze
3. Mikuláš Medek, Hluk ticha (27.6.1950), Museum Bochum.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''The Noise of Silence'' (27. 7.1950), Museum Bochum
4. Mikuláš Medek, Jaro (1951).jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Spring'' (1951)
5. Mikuláš Medek, Polykač pout (1951).jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Swallower of Chains'' (1951)
Cycles Action, Food, Naked in Thorns, Games, transition to abstraction (1952–1959)
Medek shared a basic
existential
Existentialism is a family of philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. In examining meaning, purpose, and value ...
feeling with the poets of his generation
Karel Hynek and
Vratislav Effenberger, authors of the contemporary black novel ''To Live'' (1952), and like some of his classmates from the
Academy of Arts and Crafts, he experienced a deep creative crisis in the early 1950s. In the first half of the 1950s, he suffered from a sense of impending disaster,
depression, which he tried to suppress with alcohol and the psychopharmacum ''Psychoton'' (
amphetamine
Amphetamine (contracted from Alpha and beta carbon, alpha-methylphenethylamine, methylphenethylamine) is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, an ...
). He suffered from
insomnia
Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder where people have difficulty sleeping. They may have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep for as long as desired. Insomnia is typically followed by daytime sleepiness, low ene ...
and had difficulty concentrating. In his diaries he writes: ''the objective reality of these years is so programmatically mind-numbing that it makes any concentration and orientation in the world of poetry (painting) and the complexities of subjectivity impossible. If this is their program of how to act on the ideological superstructure, nothing can be said except that their work is succeeding'' (27 January 1954). In a January 1953 survey, he answered the question of how black humour arises by quoting the ubiquitous communist slogans of the time and summarized: ''all this is a manifestation of the spontaneous debility of the world, which precipitates in our consciousness into the sour sediment of black humour. Black humour is a reaction to deadly stupidity and the peaceful moronic optimism.'' Medek seeks a background in his family and studio environment, and concretises the internal model with a preparatory drawing. He moved from the imaginative paintings ''Swallower of Chains'' (1950) and ''Feast IV'' (1951), in which the outline of a human body from Medek's dream appears in which Emila walks through a wall, to a direct painting of a figure based on the model. The portraits of
Zbyněk Sekal and
Jaroslav Puchmertl (1952-1953) also date from the same period.
In his notebook he states: ''I think that the phenomenon of the existential feeling of the world is communicable in painting only perhaps by a figurative and concrete formulation of "objects", that is, primarily people. It is a world of absurd concreteness and thunderous materiality without philosophizing and psychologizing, wonderfully plain, simple, but in the intensity of existential feeling enchantingly magical. It requires an image stripped of all the schematic props inherent in artistic endeavours before the war. Hence the apparent non-avant-garde''. Medek began to use a new painting technique - he painted the figures with oily egg tempera, the background with oil. The first model was
Emila (''Emila and Flies'', 1952), and later
Vratislav Effenberger's wife Anna Marie (''The Head that Sleeps the Imperialist Sleep'', 1953, ''Cranachesque Supralyric with an Imperialist Flower'', 1953–1954). The ruthlessly seen female character presents in expressive scenes a drama of brutal animality, sadism, fear, ugliness, endless abandonment and horror (''Žerekuře I / Chicken-guzzler I'', 1952, destroyed, ''Hot Meal'', 1953). Between 1951 and 1953, Medek was also visited by
Anna Fárová, who translated texts from French for him and took turns as a model for some of the titles (''Portrait 53'', ''Hot Meal'', 1953, ''Sensitive Action'', 1954). The details of her figure, which Emila photographed for him at the time, became the basis for later works.
In one of the first paintings of this period, ''The Head that Sleeps Imperialist Sleep'' (1953), raw reality is brutally perverted into the opposite of
socialist-realist optimistic
Optimism is the attitude or mindset of expecting events to lead to particularly positive, favorable, desirable, and hopeful outcomes. A common idiom used to illustrate optimism versus pessimism is a glass filled with water to the halfway poin ...
kitsch
''Kitsch'' ( ; loanword from German) is a term applied to art and design that is perceived as Naivety, naïve imitation, overly eccentric, gratuitous or of banal Taste (sociology), taste.
The modern avant-garde traditionally opposed kitsch ...
- ''black kitsch''. In the ''Action series'', Medek created his figurative type, which was originally based on a real model. Its stylization and deformation have a firm order and do not appear exaggerated.
The characteristic elongation of the arms and the recurring motif of the "needle in the mouth" trace back to a febrile seizure during which he experienced somatic depersonalization.. The basis of the figure is drawing, which he sculpts with colour and light in a single tone. The red figures are mostly set in an empty blue space indicated at first only by lines (''Large Meal'', 1954–1956). Sometimes a labyrinth with ladders is depicted below a low horizon (''Cranachesque Supralyric with an Imperialist Flower'', 1953–1954) or the space is opened up by a window and a view of a wall embedded with shards of glass (''Scream'', 1954). Colour takes on an emotionally symbolic function and is strongest in paintings made only of shades of blue (''Action I (Egg)'', 1955–1956, ''Action II (Wool)'', 1956). The basic
existential anxiety
Existentialism is a family of philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. In examining meaning, purpose, and value ...
and psychological atmosphere of the 1950s is best described by the title of the series of paintings ''Naked in Thorns'' (1956-1958; the first painting in the series, which Medek later repainted, dates from 1954).
6. Mikuláš Medek, Imperialistická snídaně - Emila a mouchy (1952).jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Imperialist Breakfast - Emila and Flies'' (1952)
7. Mikuláš Medek, Křik (1954), AJG Hluboká.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Scream'' (1954), Aleš South Bohemian Gallery in Hluboká nad Vltavou
10. Mikuláš Medek, Velké jídlo (1956), Národní galerie v Praze.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Large meal'' (1956), National Gallery Prague
The expressiveness of the paintings gradually disappears in the ''Games cycle'', when their subject becomes a daughter (''Games II - Children in the City'', 1957). Medek smoothly continues to stylize the figure by depicting short hair in the form of stiff spikes and geometrically reducing heads and hands to squares and triangles. The picture plane gradually becomes the scene of minor events (''The Child and the Tower'', 1957, ''22nd September in the Pouring Rain'', 1958) and ceases to be monochrome. In ''Sleeping IV'' (1957), Medek used synthetic varnishes for the first time along with oil and then developed this technique throughout his subsequent work.
The ''Games series'' in the late 1950s resulted in the increasing stylization and decorativeness of the painting, the loss of thought tension and marked Medek's most significant artistic crisis (''A Walk Through the City'', 1957). The following transitional period, which can be inaccurately described as a transition to abstraction, is the most important for understanding Medek's work. The paintings ''Naked in the Thorns without the Thorns'' (1957), ''Playing the Piccolo'' (1957), ''Black Gambit'' (1958) and ''Blue Venus'' (1958–1959) stand at the boundary of the next phase of Medek's work. These illustrate the process of reducing the plastic form to a surface, omitting concrete signs (hands, hair) and creating new signs within a new pictorial order. The gradual process of sublimation of the figure continues with the paintings ''Hair in the Wind'' (1958–1959), ''Young Man on the Run'' (1959) and ''Red Venus'' (1959), where the pictorial plane itself becomes the carrier of meaning.
11. Mikuláš Medek, Hry IV (1957).jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Games IV'' (1957)
12. Mikuláš Medek, Spící IV (1957), AJG Hluboká.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Sleeping IV'' (1957), Aleš South Bohemian Gallery in Hluboká nad Vltavou
13. Mikuláš Medek, 12. září za velkého větru (1958), GMU Roudnice n.L.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''12th September in a Strong Wind'' (1958), Gallery of Modern Art in Roudnice nad Labem
14. Mikuláš Medek, Vlasy ve větru (1958-1959), Národní galerie v Praze.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Hair in the Wind'' (1958–1959), National Gallery Prague
The National Gallery Prague (, NGP), formerly the National Gallery in Prague (), is a state-owned art gallery in Prague, which manages the largest collection of art in the Czech Republic and presents masterpieces of Czech and international fine a ...
Prepared paintings (1960–1963)
The end of the 1950s marked the transformation of Medek's painting - the subject disappeared and the painting itself became the carrier of all meanings. The whole process had already occurred in the figurative paintings of the previous period, where, for example, in the series ''Naked in Thorns'', internal situations are depicted as psychological micro-dramas. From these Medek moved on to the construction of an optically illustrative model of certain psychological situations that exist in a concrete form and have a concrete effect, but are not communicated by a simple depiction.
The series of ''Prepared Paintings'' represents a new artistic technique of structural painting and does not imply a complete abandonment of the human figure or the subject, but the figure was gradually stripped of all realistic detail. One of the earliest paintings from 1960 is ''Uncle Charles Romantic'', others such as ''Two Coccyxes'' (1960), ''Meat of the Cross'' (1961), etc. Medek treats paint and painting matter as living tissue that is torn and injured with a knife and nail, and the violence done is visible and radiates outwards. Medek builds the paintings gradually from several layers, each of which is definitive in its way and contains meanings that may ultimately be obscured and visually inactive. The emotional impact of one layer, which is completely obscured at the outset, determines the emotionality or expression of the next layer and the next and the next, so that the psychic activity of all the layers is projected onto the top layer. The process of creating the "inner (subjective) model" is parallel to the work. There is far more intellectual activity involved than just the emotional and impulsive.
Medek himself describes this process as a direct imprint of reality without any distance - that is, "''no longer a mirror, a testimony, etc., something as if from the other shore, but something that directly realises the great turmoil and anxiety, something that is directly within him (12 September 1958). The previously optically legible definition of the relation to the world, etc., is intensified into an optically independent element of the prepared image by the progression to non-figurative expression''." Elsewhere, he likened his process to a film scene in
Hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...
where the camera rides up on the back of
L. Olivier's head sitting on the shore of the sea, passes over his head, and finally sees through his eyes.
The painting is a sensitive surface in which the processes and relations of his psyche are imprinted during the process by which the original idea is refined to its final realisation in the form of traces and impressions in the paint. The drama of movement leaves a trace in the form of a smooth surface, which acts as a bare and living wound amidst the drastic structure of the unfolded mass that forms its scab. The black surface in the painting may be the subject of the painting itself, while the membrane of the painting that surrounds it overlaps with the other nothingness and is the negative definition of this little black nothing. The identification of the painter with the mass of the painting is evidenced in the titles of some of the works, where the signifying surface is given a specific dimension (''Place for 6,606 Romantic cm
2'', 1962).
Medek's paintings act as a poetic act, a cry of anguish, a dramatic event and a human message, which, alongside imagination and the intricately encoded consciousness of culture and intuition beyond the threshold of personal experience, contains above all an immediately lived reality. This takes on the unique character of an irrevocable fatality that establishes the urgency of Medek's testimony. Initially non-poetic emotions are charged with high poetic potential during the realization, without losing anything of their brutal immediacy. Printed into the formed painting matter, they eventually become a kind of artistic reality and an emotional appeal of the aesthetic order. Bohumír Mráz finds in Medek's painting the heritage of
Byzantium
Byzantium () or Byzantion () was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name ''Byzantion'' and its Latinization ''Byzantium'' continued to be used as a n ...
, which is manifested in the tendency towards a special form of monumentality, a sense of absolute space and, above all, a celebration of the luminous mass of oil painting. The resulting effect is dominated by the experience of beauty, harmony and perfection of the painter's rendering.
In the series ''Sudden Occurrences'', Medek, with a slightly ironic distance, attributes an independent existence to the painting mass itself, which is the cause of minor catastrophes (''Sudden Occurrence at the Border of 16,200 Pink cm
2'', 1962–1963). The cycle of ''Sensitive Manifestations'' and ''Sensitive Signals'' responds to the situation of the individual in the modern city with its system of instructions, warnings and commands that act on the subconscious and force people to act automatically. The surface of the painting is dominated by small "plots" executed in engraved drawings, which will continue to dominate the subsequent stages of Medek's work.
15. Mikuláš Medek, Mladý muž na útěku - Hlava (1959), Národní galerie v Praze.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Young man on the run - Head'' (1959), National Gallery Prague
The National Gallery Prague (, NGP), formerly the National Gallery in Prague (), is a state-owned art gallery in Prague, which manages the largest collection of art in the Czech Republic and presents masterpieces of Czech and international fine a ...
16. Mikuláš Medek, Velká hlava plná malých nezbedností (1960), Národní galerie v Praze.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Big head full of little pranks'' (1960), National Gallery Prague
The National Gallery Prague (, NGP), formerly the National Gallery in Prague (), is a state-owned art gallery in Prague, which manages the largest collection of art in the Czech Republic and presents masterpieces of Czech and international fine a ...
17. Mikuláš Medek, Kříž železa I (1961), AJG Hluboká.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Cross of Iron I'' (1961), Aleš South Bohemian Gallery in Hluboká nad Vltavou
18. Mikuláš Medek, Oslava 21 870 červených centimetrů (1962), AJG Hluboká.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Celebration of 21 870 red centimetres'' (1962), Aleš South Bohemian Gallery in Hluboká nad Vltavou
1964–1966
Medek's personal situation changed dramatically when, after the democratic election of the new leadership of the ''Union of Czechoslovak Visual Artists'' in December 1964, he was accepted as a member and later as an alternate member of the ''Central Committee of the Union of Czechoslovak Visual Artists''. Along with his rehabilitation, he became the subject of critical evaluation by art historians, some of whom considered Medek's painting to be a conservative relic in the mid-1960s. Medek reacted to the interpreters of his work from those closest to him, whom he came to believe were speaking too much into his art and life, with the ironic cycle ''Inquisitors''.
Medek's fifth creative period transitions seamlessly from the ''Sensitive Signals'' series and represents a return to figuration against the backdrop of pictorial space while maintaining the technique of structural painting. He creates a new figurative typology for his large cycles of paintings, with geometrically stylized necks, limbs and heads, and with elements adopted from earlier periods - for example, hair or hands in the form of long curved spines (or the earlier predator's beaks), the venomous teeth from the painting ''Smoking Feast I'' (1950). The characteristic rectangular shape of the head with dark openings instead of eyes is established by the painting ''Death for 21,870 Fragile Blue Centimeters'' (1964), while in ''The Pity of the Fourth Inquisitor'' (1965) the closed eyes are marked by long eyelashes.
Many of the paintings reflect problems with alcohol (''Too Much Alcohol'', 1965, ''Too Deep Sleep II'', 1965) or are self-portraits of the painter (''Portrait of a Saint'', 1966, ''The Saint Naked in Thorns'', 1966) who had to give up alcohol because of his diabetes (''"The Saint, It's Actually Me Now That I Can't Drink"'', Mikuláš Medek, 1966). An important milestone was the move to a new studio (1 May 1966), which the ''Union'' assigned to him after Jan Čumpelík. Medek initially felt uncomfortable there, and his sensitivity to the elements of reality seen from the window manifested itself in his paintings by changing the colouring and as small models of machines in engravings scratched into the coloured matter. Medek again began to make painterly sketches, testing the viability of his new method on a narrowly defined area of one subject (''Glass Full of Unrest I-V'', 1966). In the series ''Guests without a Host'', he paints portraits of things that symbolically represent a particular person (''The Monster Who Wants to Live Lovingly'', 1965 - V. Effenberger).
19. Mikuláš Medek, Senzitivní manifestace II (1963), Národní galerie v Praze.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Sensitive manifestation II'' (1963), National Gallery Prague
The National Gallery Prague (, NGP), formerly the National Gallery in Prague (), is a state-owned art gallery in Prague, which manages the largest collection of art in the Czech Republic and presents masterpieces of Czech and international fine a ...
20. Mikuláš Medek, 162 cm křehkosti I (1964), KGVU Zlín.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''162 cm of fragility I'' (1964), Regional Gallery of Fine Arts in Zlín
Zlín (in 1949–1989 Gottwaldov; ; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 75,000 inhabitants. It is the seat of the Zlín Region and it lies on the Dřevnice River. It is known as an industrial centre. The development of the modern city ...
21. Mikuláš Medek, Žal IV. inkvizitora II (1965), AJG Hluboká.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Woe IV. of an Inquisitor II'' (1965), Aleš South Bohemian Gallery in Hluboká nad Vltavou
22. Mikuláš Medek, V lednu zblednu (1965), MG Brno.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''I go pale in January'' (1965), Moravian Gallery in Brno
The Moravian Gallery in Brno () is the second largest art museum in the Czech Republic, established in 1961 by the merging of two older institutions. It is in five buildings: Pražák Palace, Governor's Palace, Museum of Applied Arts, Jurkovič ...
1967–1969
The titles of Medek's paintings from the second half of the 1960s, in which figuration predominates, reflect a new relationship to the subject and the creative process, which expresses distance and self-irony. This led to the creation of the entire series of ''Portrayals of a View of ..'' (''Annunciation'', ''The Hungry Saint'', ''Man in Tension''). Some of the paintings refer to older themes (''Miraculous Mother III'', 1967, ''Blue Cry'', 1967, ''Sudden Incident on the Border of Yellow III'', 1967), but are treated in a new form. Small mechanisms in the form of wheels, gears, beak-like folds and levers appear for the first time in the paintings made during his stay in
Genoa
Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...
. In 1967, the so-called ''Madrid sketchbooks'' of
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...
were discovered with a number of technical drawings. Medek, who had been interested in
Leonardo since his student days, when he discovered Fred Bérence's book, ''Lionardo da Vinci, Worker of Reason'' (1939), suggested an erotic or sadomasochistic meaning to his machines. In the painting ''Depiction of the View of a Man in Tension'' (1967), he interprets them as mutually devouring bird heads attached to a common axis. The painting with a technical subject was also inspired by a newspaper photograph of the
aircraft carrier Enterprise (''Mr. Enterprise'', 1968).
The technical motifs in Medek's paintings may also be related to the alienation he felt towards technical civilization. After his return from his first trips to the West, he states quite openly that he prefers the poverty of the East, close to the
Franciscan principle, and the idea of the spiritual man as the bearer of culture (''"No one will take our socialism from our souls, because we are sell-outs"''). He was undoubtedly influenced by the revolutionary ideas of
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...
, whose
Red Book, with selected quotations, became popular among leftist idealists and was available at the
Chinese embassy in
Prague
Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
in the late 1960s.
Image ''Attempted portrait of J. Ch.'' (1967) recalls a situation in which art critic
Jindřich Chalupecký
Jindřich is Czech form of the English name Henry. People with the given name include:
* Jindřich Bačkovský (1912–2000), Czech physicist
*Jindřich Balcar (1950–2013), Czechoslovak ski jumper who competed from 1974 to 1976
* Jindřich Chmela ...
was wrapped in a roll of wrapping paper as part of a happening. The same motif foreshadows the entire series ''The Tower Designers'', in which Medek throws in a number of ironic meanings and demonstrates a critical distance from technical civilisation. The paintings are above all an intellectual construction in which contour, drawing and shape are emphasized, while the structure of the painting recedes into the background. The whole theme may also be related to the commission for the decoration of the
new airport building in Ruzyně, which was preceded by frequent meetings and consultations with architects. The motif is renewed in a number of variations, and sometimes the top of the tower extends beyond the surface of the painting as a symbol of transcendence (''Tower Designer's Table'', 1968). The last paintings of the entire series from 1969: ''Head of the Tower Designer'', ''The Cry of the Tower Designer'', and ''The Desk of the Pink Tower Lover'' return to earlier motifs from the painting ''Scream'' (1954), ''The Grim Reaper'' (1964), and ''Banquet I'' (1950). Paintings dedicated to
Hieronymus Bosch
Hieronymus Bosch (; ; born Jheronimus van Aken ; – 9 August 1516) was a Dutch people, Dutch painter from Duchy of Brabant, Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, gene ...
, the
Marquis de Sade
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade ( ; ; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814) was a French writer, libertine, political activist and nobleman best known for his libertine novels and imprisonment for sex crimes, blasphemy and pornography ...
or
Wernher von Braun
Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( ; ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German–American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and '' Allgemeine SS'', the leading figure in the development of ...
are also related to this cycle. In 1968, Medek created a painting that stands out from the other cycles and was probably a reaction to the
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
On 20–21 August 1968, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four fellow Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, and the Hungarian People's Republic. The ...
in August 1968 – ''Stones In the Mouth, a Bump in the Head'' (first published in Listy, 14 November 1968).
24. Mikuláš Medek, Zobrazení pohledu na hladového svatého I (1966), Národní galerie v Praze.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Portrayal of a View of a Hungry Saint I'' (1966), National Gallery Prague
The National Gallery Prague (, NGP), formerly the National Gallery in Prague (), is a state-owned art gallery in Prague, which manages the largest collection of art in the Czech Republic and presents masterpieces of Czech and international fine a ...
25. Mikuláš Medek, Červený svatý (1967), MU Olomouc.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Red Saint'' (1967), Museum of Art Olomouc
26. Mikuláš Medek, Zobrazení pohledu na muže v napětí (1967), VČG Pardubice.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Portrayal of a View of Man in Tension'' (1967), East Bohemian Gallery Pardubice
27. Mikuláš Medek, Pokus o portrét J. Ch. (1967), GHMP.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Attempt at a portrait of J. Ch.'' (1967), Prague City Gallery
28. Mikuláš Medek, Stůl projektanta věží I (1968).jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Tower Planner's Table I'' (1968)
29. Mikuláš Medek, V ústech kamení, v hlavě boule (1968), GHMP.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Stones in the Mouth, a Bump in the Head'' (1968), Prague City Gallery
1969–1974
The vindictiveness of the cultural
normalizers was cruel to Medek, and his exclusion from society after 1970 was not much different from the 1950s. Moreover, Medek was plagued by his illness and devoted all his remaining energy to painting. He returned to some of his subjects well into the 1950s and completely reworked them formally (''Golden Scream III'', 1969, ''Miraculous Mother V'', 1970). At the same time, his paintings from the 1970s include quotations of motifs from his previous work as well as returns to the biomorphic inspirations of his early years as a painter. In the painting ''Ivishka II'' (1970) and several paintings from the angel series (''Head of the Thirsty Angel II'', 1970, ''Thirsty Angel II'', 1970), the structures of the heads resemble a cross-section of a plant tissue. The book on the medieval religious movement was the basis for the cycle of expressive paintings ''
The Beguines I-III'' (1970) and the painting ''The Lamp of the Frenzied Nun''.
In 1970, Medek created an altarpiece for the chapel in
Kotvrdovice, which was preceded by several studies with geometric solids executed with illusory plastic painting. The 1970s also marked an extraordinary creative upsurge in his illness-ridden life. Medek's personal martyrdom is depicted by the screaming head in the painting ''The Grim Abstainer'' (1970), or by the instruments of
Christ's Passion
The Passion (from Latin , "to suffer, bear, endure") is the short final period before the death of Jesus, described in the four canonical gospels. It is commemorated in Christianity every year during Holy Week.
The ''Passion'' may include, amo ...
from the altar of Kotvrdovice used again in the painting ''The Hollow Head'' (1970). The theme of
death
Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...
and
suffering
Suffering, or pain in a broad sense, may be an experience of unpleasantness or aversion, possibly associated with the perception of harm or threat of harm in an individual. Suffering is the basic element that makes up the negative valence (psyc ...
recurs in various variations in all his works after 1970.
For a pair of paintings, ''Shooting Range'' (1973), he borrowed the title from ''Toyen'', who made a set of twelve drawings on this theme between 1939 and 1940. He treated the arrival of the ''Angel of Death'' in his extensive series ''Angels of the Painful Window'' (1970), ''Thirsty Angels'' (1970-1973), ''Angels of the Evil Birds'', and ''Dancing Angels of the Black Grim Reaper''. A pair of (
Veronica's) ''Veils'' (1971-1972) date from the same period. Medek's work concludes with the ''Moving Graves'' series, where obelisks from his early drawings for
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires ''Decli ...
's short novel ''
The Loved One Loved Ones, Loved One, The Loved Ones, or The Loved One may refer to:
Films
*The Loved One (film), ''The Loved One'' (film), a 1965 American satire based on the Evelyn Waugh novel
*The Loved Ones (film), ''The Loved Ones'' (film), a 2009 Australia ...
'' (1948) and motifs from his painting ''Shooting Range'' (1973) reappear, this time in red against a backdrop of black nothingness. The deceptive perspective of the building blocks - curbs, slabs, threshold guards - decompose and sovereignly confuse the space of agony. The paintings are constructed from elements whose secrets only the painter himself knew, and according to
Linhartová, take a form that recalls the womb as a symbol of the renewing power of the universe (''Moving Grave II, like a toddler'', 1973). Medek's work concludes with the small painting ''Four Circles'' (1974).
Mikuláš Medek was one of the most consistently sanctioned painters, if not the most persecuted, by various bans and restrictions until the mid-1960s and, after a brief loosening, again from the 1970s onwards. His life and his paintings come across as a scream. It is a succession of intoxications and deadly falls. It is a kaleidoscope of human suffering, artistic doubts, mental anguish, physical pain. Mikuláš Medek is an exceptional personality of Czechoslovak art scene. His work is astonishing, inimitable, hardly redeemed.
30. Mikuláš Medek, Pokus o portrét Markýze de Sade II (1969), GMU Hradec Králové.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Attempt at a Portrait of the Marquis de Sade II'' (1969), Gallery of Modern Art in Hradec Králové
31. Mikuláš Medek, Hlava projektanta věží X (1969), MG Brno.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, Head of tower designer X (1969), Moravian Gallery in Brno
The Moravian Gallery in Brno () is the second largest art museum in the Czech Republic, established in 1961 by the merging of two older institutions. It is in five buildings: Pražák Palace, Governor's Palace, Museum of Applied Arts, Jurkovič ...
33. Mikuláš Medek, Žíznivý anděl v okně (1970), GMU Hradec Králové.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, Thirsty Angel in the Window (1970), Gallery of Modern Art in Hradec Králové
34. Mikuláš Medek, Velká Iviška (1970), Galerie Kodl, Praha.jpg, tMikuláš Medek, Large Iviška (1970), Kodl Gallery, Prague
35. Mikuláš Medek, Tančící smrtka II (1972), soukr. sb.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, Dancing Grim Reaper II (1972), private collection
File:36. Mikuláš Medek, Anděl zlých ptáků I (1972), soukr. sb.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, Angel of the Evil Birds I (1972), private collection
37. Mikuláš Medek, Pohyblivý hrob IV (1973), GMU Roudnice.jpg, Mikuláš Medek, Moving Grave IV (1973), Gallery of Modern Art in Roudnice nad Labem
Medek's painting technique
Early works of smaller formats are on cardboard, plywood or masonite, later works exclusively on canvas. He chalked the panels with added alabaster plaster and grinded them to achieve a smooth surface. He assembled the frame himself and began work on the painting by stretching and preparing the canvas, gouging and scribing with floating chalk. During the period of imaginative and figurative painting, he used a thickly bound canvas and added white chalk for a vibrant ground. For preparatory ink drawings, he painted with oil paints in light glaze layers. For figurative paintings, he made preparatory drawings on wrapping paper and then transferred these to canvas. He painted the figures with oily egg tempera and the background with oil paints. As an unregistered painter in the 1950s, Medek had trouble sourcing materials, so he removed some canvases from the frame and reused them from the opposite side.
At the end of the 1950s, he began to use synthetic enamel paint (''Industrol'') diluted with turpentine to create the plastic structure of the painting and painted the first layers of the painting horizontally on the ground. He mixed the synthetic enamel with floating chalk or sand and stiffened and coloured with oil paints. He did the base layer with a wide spatula and then used smaller spatulas to carve out the edges of the drawing and details. When dry, he applied a thin layer of oil paint over the enamel layer and gradually made décalque with an attached newspaper and brush, sometimes repeatedly. After the ground had cured, he did the actual painting with flat brushes and oil paints. He used Stolo oil paints, mostly Paris blue, cadmium and dark kraplak. After the painting had completely dried, he varnished it with damask varnish.
Until the mid-1950s, he marked the paintings with an exact date; later, he signed the paintings after the fact for exhibition or sale, and the dating may be inaccurate.
Commissions - works in public space
* 1963 Painting ''Penetration of Space'' (182 x 401 cm) for the Czech Airlines office in Damascus
* 1963 fourteen-piece
Pano (248 x 1701 cm) for the Czech Airlines office in Košice
* 1963–1965 ''Cross'', altarpiece, dean's church of St. Peter and Paul in Jedovnice. The frame of the painting is the work of Jan Koblasa.
* 1966 Wall painting of ''Fragility'' (''Blue Rotation of the Universe'') for a travel agency in Paris (one part now in
Prague Castle
Prague Castle (; ) is a castle complex in Prague, Czech Republic serving as the official residence and workplace of the president of the Czech Republic. Built in the 9th century, the castle has long served as the seat of power for List of rulers ...
)
* 1969 ''Signals'', 319 x 1747 cm, originally for the transit restaurant of
Prague – Ruzyně Airport, now in the possession of the
National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...
* 1970 ''Sacred Heart of the Lord'', altarpiece, 180 x 140 cm, Chapel of the Divine Heart of the Lord in
Kotvrdovice
* 1970 ''The Great Iviska'', 215 x 120 cm, for a travel agency in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
* 1971 ''The Fourteen Stations of the Cross'', 122 x 1050 cm, St. Joseph's Church in Senetářov
* 1973 Mosaic of the ''Sun'' on the facade of a school in Žďár nad Sázavou (made by the workshops of the Centre for arts and crafts)
Mikuláš Medek, Románský kříž ( kolem r.1963).jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Romanesque Cross'' (around 1963)
Mikuláš Medek, Kříž, oltářní obraz v Jedovnicích (1963).jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Cross'', altarpiece in Jedovnice (1963)
Mikuláš Medek, Zuřivá monstrance II (1967).jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Furious Monstrance II'' (1967)
Mikuláš Medek, Studie k oltářnímu obrazu v Kotvrdovicích II (1968).jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Study of the altarpiece in Kotvrdovice II'' (1968)
Mikuláš Medek, Oltářní obraz pro kapli Božského srdce Páně v Kotvrdovicích (1970).jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Altarpiece for the Chapel of the Divine Heart of the Lord in Kotvrdovice'' (1970)
Mikuláš Medek, Modrá rouška I (1971).jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Blue Veil I'' (1971)
Mikuláš Medek, 14 zastavení Křížové cesty pro kostel sv. Josefa v Senetářově (1971).jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''14 Stations of the Cross for the Church of St. Joseph in Senetářov'' (1971)
Mikuláš Medek, Rouška I (1972).jpg, Mikuláš Medek, ''Veil I'' (1972)
Book illustrations
* Evelyn Waugh, The Loved One, World Literature No. 4, 1957 (under the pseudonym Dagmar Kozakova)
* Tage Aurell, Three Stories, World Literature No. 2, 1962
* Jorge Luis Borges, The Library of Babel, Labyrinth (Committee of Western Science Fiction Stories), SNKLU, Prague, 1962
* Taijun Takeda, The Luminous Moss, World Literature No. 5, 1964
* Otokar Březina, Hands, Blok Publishing House, Brno, 1965
* Vladimír Holan, Death and Dream and Word (From Macha's Region), North Bohemian Regional Publishing House, Liberec 1965
* Pain (verses from 1949 to 1955), Československý spisovatel Publishing house, Prague 1966
* František Langer, Painterly Tales (Volume I.), Československý spisovatel Publishing house, Prague 1966
* Magnetic Fields, KPP, Československý spisovatel Publishing house, Prague 1967
* Zdeněk Lorenc, Hollow Lamp, Československý spisovatel Publishing house, Prague 1967
* Vladimír Holan, Babyloniaca, Odeon, Prague 1968
* Rio Preisner, Kapilary, Blok Publishing House, Brno 1968
* Jiří Mahen, The Moon (Fantasy), Odeon, Prague 1968
* Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago (excerpts), World Literature No. 1, 1969
* Jiřina Hauková, Letorosty (Selection of poetry 1940–1965), Československý spisovatel Publishing house, Prague 1970
* Franz Werfel, Song of Bernadette, Vyšehrad Publishing House, Prague 1989 (published in 1972 without illustrations)
Unpublished
* Alfred Jarry, The Supermale, 1947
* Lautréamont, Songs of Maldor, 1947
* Leonard Frank, The Song of the Fifth of May, 1949
* Karel Hynek, Icarus Plays, 1951
* Henry Miller, The Tropic of Cancer, 1968
Author's exhibitions
* 1963 Paintings and sculptures by Jan Koblasa and Mikuláš Medek from 1959 to 1963, Regional Museum of National History, Teplice Castle
* 1965 Mikuláš Medek: Paintings 1947–1965, Nová síň Gallery, Prague
* 1966 Mikuláš Medek: Paintings 1961–1966, Unified Racing Club ROH, Ústí nad Orlicí
* 1966 Mikuláš Medek: Twenty previously unexhibited paintings from 1960 to 1965, Regional Gallery Liberec
* 1967 Mikulás Medek, Galleria La Bertesca, Genoa
* 1969 Mikuláš Medek: Drawings and Illustrations, Small Gallery of the Czechoslovak Writer, Prague
* 1969 Mikuláš Medek, Museen der Stadt Regensburg, Regensburg
* 1969 Mikuláš Medek, Galleria La Bertesca, Genoa
* 1969 Mikuláš Medek: Designers of Towers, Václav Špála Gallery, Prague
* 1969 Mikuláš Medek: Paintings 1944–1969, Regional Gallery, Hradec Králové
* 1970 Mikuláš Medek, Kunstkreis Leinfelden, Leinfelden-Echterdingen
* 1975 Mikuláš Medek: Moving Graves, Mikuláš Medek Studio, Prague
* 1976 Mikuláš Medek, Galerie ASA AG, Zurich
* 1976 Mikuláš Medek 1926–1974, Museum Bochum
* 1988 Mikuláš Medek: Paintings 1944–1974, Gallery of Fine Arts, Roudnice nad Labem
* 1989 Mikuláš Medek, Municipal Museum, Aš
* 1990 Mikuláš Medek: Collected Paintings, Brno House of Art
* 1990 Mikuláš Medek: Collected Paintings, Municipal Library, Prague
* 1990 Mikuláš Medek: Selected works. Selected Paintings, Alšova jihočeská galerie in Hluboká nad Vltavou
* 1990/1991 Mikuláš Medek: Selected Works. Paintings, Regional Gallery of Highlands in Jihlava
* 1991 Mikuláš Medek, Gallery of Fine Arts in Ostrava
* 1991 Mikuláš Medek: Selection from his work. Paintings, Cabinet of Graphic Arts, Olomouc
* 2002 Mikuláš Medek, Rudolfinum Gallery, Prague (the exhibition was prematurely closed due to the flood of 11.8.2002.)
* 2012 Mikuláš Medek: CSA Košice 1963–64, Dvorak Sec Contemporary, Prague
* 2014 Mikuláš Medek: Moving Graves, Galerie Zdeněk Sklenář Chambre à part, Prague
* 2016 Mikuláš Medek: Portrait of Jiřina Hauková, 1967, Museum of East Bohemia in Hradec Králové
* 2017 Mikuláš Medek: Nightingale for Dinner, Gema Gallery, Prague
* 2018/2019 Mikuláš Medek, Gallery of Modern Art, Roudnice nad Labem
* 2019 Hommage à Mikuláš Medek, Galerie Zdeněk Sklenář, Prague
* 2019–2020 Mikuláš Medek: Naked in Thorns, Wallenstein Riding Hall, Veletržní Palace, Agnes Monastery, National Gallery in Prague
Pavla Pečinková, Zazděný Medek, Bubínek Revolveru, 12.1.2021
/ref>
Mikuláš Medek, Nahý v trní, Valdštejnská jízdárna (2019) I.jpg, Mikuláš Medek: Naked in Thorns, Wallenstein Riding Hall (2019) I
Mikuláš Medek, Nahý v trní, Valdštejnská jízdárna (2019) II.jpg, Mikuláš Medek: Naked in Thorns, Wallenstein Riding Hall (2019) II
Mikuláš Medek, Nahý v trní, Valdštejnská jízdárna (2019) III.jpg, Mikuláš Medek: Naked in Thorns, Wallenstein Riding Hall (2019) III
Mikuláš Medek, Nahý v trní, Valdštejnská jízdárna (2019) IV.jpg, Mikuláš Medek: Naked in Thorns, Wallenstein Riding Hall (2019) IV
Mikuláš Medek, Nahý v trní, Valdštejnská jízdárna (2019) V.jpg, Mikuláš Medek: Naked in Thorns, Wallenstein Riding Hall (2019) V
Mikuláš Medek, Nahý v trní, Valdštejnská jízdárna (2019) VI.jpg, Mikuláš Medek: Naked in Thorns, Wallenstein Riding Hall (2019) VI
Mikuláš Medek, Nahý v trní, Valdštejnská jízdárna (2019) VII.jpg, Mikuláš Medek: Naked in Thorns, Wallenstein Riding Hall (2019) VII
Mikuláš Medek, Nahý v trní, Valdštejnská jízdárna (2019) VIII.jpg, Mikuláš Medek: Naked in Thorns, Wallenstein Riding Hall (2019) VIII
Mikuláš Medek, Nahý v trní, Valdštejnská jízdárna (2019) IX.jpg, Mikuláš Medek: Naked in Thorns, Wallenstein Riding Hall (2019) IX
Mikuláš Medek, Nahý v trní, Valdštejnská jízdárna (2019) X.jpg, Mikuláš Medek: Naked in Thorns, Wallenstein Riding Hall (2019) X
Mikuláš Medek, Čtrnáctidílné nástěnné pano, letiště Košice (1964).jpg, Mikuláš Medek, 14-piece wall panel for Košice Airport (1964)
Mikuláš Medek, Signály, letiště Praha Ruzyně (1969).jpg, Mikuláš Medek, Signals, for Prague Ruzyně Airport (1969)
References
Sources
* Mirek Vodrážka, Fine Art and its Subversive Role in the Normalization Period, Centre for Documentation of Totalitarian Regimes, Prague 2019, ISBN 978-80-270-5668-2
* Iveta Zenklová, Reflection on the informal art of painter Mikuláš Medek in contemporary and later literature, Bachelor thesis, ÚDU FF UK Prague 2014
* Mikuláš Medek, a closed problem or a current phenomenon of Czech art? Proceedings of the Scientific Research Institute of the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, 2002
* Jiří Ševčík, Pavlína Morganová, Dagmar Dušková Svatošová, Czech Art 1938–1989, 520 p., Academia, Prague 2001, ISBN 80-200-0930-2
* Vogelová, Pavlína: Mikuláš Medek and Emila Medková: Shadows of paintings, texts and photographs, In: Proceedings of the National Museum in Prague. Series A - History. Vol. 70, No. 1-2, 2016, pp. 53–64
* Ryszard Stanisławski, Christoph Brockhaus, Europa, Europa: Das Jahrhundert der Avantgarde in Mittel- und Osteuropa, 351 p., Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Bundeskunsthalle), Bonn 1994
* Petr Král, Le surréalisme en Tchécoslovaquie, 359 p., Gallimard, Paris 1983, ISBN 2-07-021692-6
* Hommage à Mikuláš Medek, anthology 66 p., Paris-Tökendorf-Wien 1976
* Surrealist starting point 1938–1968, 290 p., Čs. spisovatel, Prague 1969
Monographs
* Bohumír Mráz, Medek, 178 p., publisher: Obelisk, Prague 1970
* Mikuláš Medek - Texts, 1995, 436 p., Torst, Prague, ISBN 80-85639-56-4
* Antonín Hartmann, Mikuláš Medek, 211 p., Gema Art Group, Prague 2002 ISBN 80-86087-34-4
Catalogues
* Mikuláš Medek: Selection of paintings from 1947 to 1965, Antonín Hartmann, Bohumír Mráz, 40 p., SČSVU Prague 1965
* Mikuláš Medek: Paintings 1961–1966, Antonín Hartmann, Bohumír Mráz, 7 p., Unified Racing Club ROH, Ústí nad Orlicí 1966
* Mikuláš Medek: Twenty unpublished paintings from 1960/65, Čestmír Krátký, 24 p., Regional Gallery Liberec 1966
* Mikulás Medek, Antonín Hartmann, Silvio Ceccato, Germano Beringheli, 56 p., Galleria La Bertesca, Genoa 1967
* Mikuláš Medek: Peintures, Paintings, Bilder 1958 - 1967, Antonín Hartmann, 52 p., Art Cenrum, Prague 1968
* Mikuláš Medek: Designers of Towers, Libor Fára, Bohumír Mráz, 12 p., SČSVU Prague 1969
* Mikuláš Medek: Drawings and Illustrations, 4 p., 1st exhibition Faces 1969
* Mikuláš Medek: Paintings 1944 - 1969, Bohumír Mráz, 48 p., Art Centrum, Regional Gallery, Hradec Králové 1969
* Mikuláš Medek, 6 p., Ausstellung Regensburg, Museum d. Stadt 1969
* Mikuláš Medek Prag, Im Kunstkreis Leinfelden, Christoph Wilhelmi, 8 p., Leinfelden-Echterdingen 1970
* Mikuláš Medek: Exhibition of paintings, 1 sheet, Exhibition of paintings by Mikuláš Medek in his studio in Prague 7, Letohradská 5, 20–22 September 1975
* Mikuláš Medek 1926 - 1974, Jan Koblasa, Mikuláš Medek, Bohumír Mráz, Petr Spielmann, Milan Nápravník, 32 p., Museum Bochum 1976, ISBN 3-8093-0027-6
* Mikuláš Medek: Selected Paintings from 1944/1974, Hartmann Antonín et al., 1988, exhibition catalogue, 52 p., GMU Roudnice nad Labem; 1990 House of Art Brno
* Mikuláš Medek: Paintings, Selected works, Berinhelli G et al., 1990, cat. 86 sheets, OGVU Olomouc
* Mikuláš Medek: Paintings (Selected works), Jan Koblasa et al., 77 + 9 pp., Alšova jihočeská galerie v Hluboká nad Vltavou 1990
* Mikuláš Medek: Paintings 1942–1974, Effenberger Vratislav et al., cat. 60 p., DU of Brno 1990
* Mikuláš Medek: ČSA Košice 1963–64, Karel Srp, 48 p., Dvorak Sec Contemporary (DSC Gallery), Prague 2012
* Mikuláš Medek: Moving Graves, Karel Srp, Věra Linhartová, Josef Topol, 59 p., Galerie Zdeněk Sklenář, Prague 2014, ISBN 978-80-87430-42-2
* Mikuláš Medek: Naked in Thorns, Karel Srp, Lenka Bydžovská (eds.), 204 p., National Gallery in Prague 2020, ISBN 978-80-7035-761-3
External links
Mikuláš Medek in the abART information system
List of works by or about Mikuláš Medek in the Complete Catalogue of the Czech Republic
Portrait of Mikuláš Medek: I don't paint, I vomit my paintings, Czech TV, directed by Aleš Kisil, 2003
Mikuláš Medek: Naked in Thorns, National Gallery Prague, Youtube video
{{DEFAULTSORT:Medek, Mikulas
1926 births
1974 deaths
Czech modern painters
Czechoslovak painters
Czech male painters
Czechoslovak illustrators
Czech collage artists
20th-century Czech painters
Recipients of Medal of Merit (Czech Republic)
Painters from Prague
Czech resistance members
20th-century Czech male artists