Theodor Pištěk (born 25 October 1932 in Prague) is a Czech painter, costume designer, set designer and former

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

. His costume designs and film sets are internationally acclaimed. He won an

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

for his costumes for

Amadeus Amadeus may refer to: People and fictional characters * Amadeus (name) Amadeus is a theophoric name, theophoric given name derived from the Latin words ' – the Imperative mood, imperative of the word ' ("to love") – and ' ("god"). As a Compou ...

, directed by

Miloš Forman Jan Tomáš "Miloš" Forman (; ; 18 February 1932 – 13 April 2018) was a Czech Americans, Czech-American film film director, director, screenwriter, actor, and professor who rose to fame in his native Czechoslovakia before emigrating to the Uni ...

. For Forman's next film, Valmont, Pištěk won a

César Award Cesar or César may refer to: Arts and entertainment * César (film), ''César'' (film), a 1936 French romantic drama * César (film), ''César'' (play), a play by Marcel Pagnolt Places * Cesar, Portugal * Cesar Department, Colombia * Cesar R ...

and was nominated for an

. In 2003 he received the

Czech Lion Award for Unique Contribution to Czech Film Czech Lion Award for Unique Contribution to Czech Film is an annual award given to person who contributed to Czech cinema by his or her life work. Winners References {{DEFAULTSORT:Czech Lion Award For Extraordinary Contribution to Czech C ...

, in 2013 he was awarded the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema, and in 2017 he received the Golden Slipper for Outstanding Contribution to Films for Children and Young People.

Life

Theodor Pištěk is the son of two actors, Theodor Pištěk and Marie Ženíšková. He inherited his family's artistic talent and love of automobiles: his great-grandfather František Ženíšek was a painter, and his grandfather Julius Ženíšek worked for the

Wright Company The Wright Company was the commercial aviation business venture of the Wright brothers, established by them on November 22, 1909, in conjunction with several prominent industrialists from New York and Detroit with the intention of capitalizing on ...

and was the founder and owner of the

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...

's branch in Austria-Hungary; in 1895 Julius Ženíšek became one of the first to own a

racing car Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including ...

. The actions of his business partner bankrupted the company, and the family was forced to sell František Ženíšek's valuable collection of paintings. After four years at a grammar school, Theodor Pištěk switched to the School of Applied Arts in Prague (1948–1952), where his fellow students included Aleš Veselý and Milan Ressel. Pištěk learned to drive when he was just 16 years old, and at the age of 18, after passing his driving test, he joined the ''Automotoklub'' and started competing in car races. In 1952 he was accepted by the

Academy of Fine Arts in Prague The Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (; AVU) is an art college in Prague, Czech Republic. Founded in 1799, it is the oldest art college in the country. The school offers twelve master's degree programs and one doctoral program. History Starting ...

, where he was studying under Vratislav Nechleba, a prominent portrait painter. At the time of his studies, a number of respected pre-war artists and historians (Miloslav Holý,

Vlastimil Rada Vlastimil Rada (5 April 1895 – 22 December 1962) was a Czech painter and book illustrator. Rada was born in České Budějovice in 1895. His father, Petr Rada, was a drawing teacher. In 1904 he moved to Prague with the family. In Prague, Rada gr ...

, Vladimír Sychra, Otakar Španiel, Jan Lauda, Václav Vilém Štech) held professorships at the Academy, and among the students were Jan Koblasa, Karel Nepraš,

Bedřich Dlouhý Bedřich Dlouhý (2 August 1932 – 30 May 2025) was Czech painter and a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Life Bedřich Dlouhý's family moved from Plzeň to Most, and after the annexation of Sudetenland in 1938, settled in P ...

, František Mertl, Jiří Valenta, Milan Ressel, Hugo Demartini,

Aleš Veselý Aleš Veselý (3 February 1935 – 14 December 2015) was a Czech sculptor, graphic artist, painter and academy teacher. Life Aleš Veselý was born on 3 February 1935 in Čáslav. He came from a mixed Jewish family of an insurance clerk and d ...

and Jaroslav Vožniak. His graduation painting, ''Boxer'', earned him an extension to his studies in the form of an honours year in Antonín Pelc's studio. A mastery of painting was important, but Pištěk and his fellow students and friends were more interested in modern art. They countered the oppressiveness of communist rule with all manner of absurdist extracurricular activities. In 1962 Pištěk and a group called ''The Šmidras'' founded an amateur ice hockey club called ''Palette of the Motherland'', whose president he was in 1977–1979. In 1958 Theodor Pištěk married Věra Filipová, an assistant film director, with whom he had two sons (Jan, born 1961 and Martin, born 1967). In the following year he designed costumes and sets for

František Vláčil František Vláčil (19 February 1924 – 27 January 1999) was a Czech film director, painter, and graphic artist. From 1945 to 1950, he studied aesthetics and art history at Masaryk University in Brno. Later, he worked in various groups an ...

's film The White Dove. He had a studio in Břevnov in Prague, next door to

Zbyněk Sekal Zbyněk Sekal (12 July 1923 – 24 February 1998) was a Czech sculptor, painter and translator. During World War II he was imprisoned for three years in the Mauthausen concentration camp. After the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August ...

's studio, thanks to whom Pištěk met the art critic Jindřich Chalupecký and exhibited as a guest with the ''May 57'' group in 1964–1968. The two artists remained close friends until Sekal emigration in 1968; Pištěk subsequently visited him in Vienna, where he met the sculptor Karl Prantl. Pištěk's first solo exhibition was in 1960 at the ''Film Club in Prague''. In 1964–1968 he was included in exhibitions by the Concretist Club. In 1964 he acquired a new studio from Hugo Demartini in Vinohrady. In the 1960s he was a

, and he competed on circuits and in the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

(1967–1969). In 1967 he worked as a

costume designer A costume designer is a person who designs costumes for a film, stage production or television show. The role of the costume designer is to create the characters' outfits or costumes and balance the scenes with texture and colour, etc. The costum ...

's films

Markéta Lazarová Markéta is a feminine Czech given name, equivalent to English Margaret. Notable people with the name include: *Markéta Hajdu (born 1974), Czech hammer thrower *Markéta Irglová (born 1988), Czech musician and actress *Markéta Jánská (born 198 ...

and

The Valley of the Bees ''The Valley of the Bees'' () is a 1968 Czechoslovak historical drama film directed by František Vláčil. The film follows a young man Ondřej who's sent to join the Teutonic order by his father. When he flees the order and returns home, his fri ...

, and was one of the artists who designed the Czechoslovak pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal. In 1972–1973 he was nominated for the Czechoslovak national circuit racing team. Pištěk stopped racing in 1974, but he drew on his experience as a

to co-write with Vláčil the screenplay for a film called ''Rally''. Since 1975 Pištěk has concentrated on painting. He is usually considered a photorealist, but in the

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...

such paintings almost always had a clandestine symbolism that could be read between the lines. In 1977 a cycle of paintings by Pištěk received a special mention from the jury at the ''International Festival of Painting'' in

Cagnes-sur-Mer Cagnes-sur-Mer (, literally ''Cagnes on Sea''; ) is a French Riviera town near Nice that is in the Alpes-Maritimes department, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in southeastern France. Geography Cagnes-sur-Mer is a town in southeaste ...

in France, together with a grant that allowed him to visit artists’ studios. After his success in France several Czech galleries bought his paintings. In the 1980s he worked as a

for

, winning an

for

(1984), for which he was also nominated for a

British Academy Film Award The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs or BAFTA Awards, is an annual film award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to f ...

. For his work on Forman's next film, Valmont (1989), he was nominated for the same two awards, and he won a

from the

Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, th ...

. In the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

he accepted an invitation to become a member of the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., with the stated goal of adva ...

. In 1987 he exhibited artworks and costume designs at the

Henry Art Gallery The Henry Art Gallery ("The Henry") is a contemporary art museum located on the campus of the University of Washington, in Seattle, Washington, United States. Located on the west edge of the university's campus along 15th Avenue N.E. in the Un ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

and the

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, as well as

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

and

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

in Australia. Pištěk's exhibition in Seattle was curated by

Meda Mládková Marie Magdalena Františka "Meda" Mládková ( Sokolová, 8 September 1919 – 3 May 2022) was a Czech art collector. Her husband, (1911–1989), was an economist and a governor of the IMF. Having spent several years in exile, she returned to Cz ...

and introduced by

Zbigniew Brzezinski Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzeziński (, ; March 28, 1928 – May 26, 2017), known as Zbig, was a Polish-American diplomat and political scientist. He served as a counselor to Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and was Jimmy Carter's National Securi ...

. In 1990 Theodor Pištěk became the chairman of

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 ...

's ''

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 ...

's arts council'' and was commissioned to design new uniforms for the

Prague Castle Guard The Prague Castle Guard or simply the Castle Guard () is a specific and autonomous unit of the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic directly subordinate to the Military Office of the President of the Czech Republic. Its main task is to guard and de ...

. He initiated the

Jindřich Chalupecký Award The Jindřich Chalupecký Award () is a prize awarded annually to young visual artists. Candidates must be Czech citizens under the age of 35. History The prize was established in 1990 by Václav Havel, Jiří Kolář and Theodor Pištěk. Until ...

for young artists, becoming one of its founders (alongside

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 1996 Pištěk had to vacate his studio, and he moved from Prague to Mukařov, where he had earlier designed and built a house. In 2000 President

awarded him a First Grade Medal of Merit, for his achievements in art. In 2004 the Czech Film and Television Academy gave him the Czech Lion Award for Unique Contribution to Czech Film. At the 2013 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival he received a Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema. In 2012–2013 he had a major retrospective at the National Gallery in Prague. and in 2019/2020 another retrospective in the Brno House of Arts.

Work

Paintings, reliefs, installations

Theodor Pištěk mastered classic realistic oil painting while studying under then prominent portrait painter professor Vratislav Nechleba. For his graduation painting, Boxer, his studies were extended to include an honours year. At the end of the 1950s he worked on portrait painting, but surprisingly his subsequent paintings did not draw on his training at the Academy, instead anticipating a Constructivist element in his art, to which he periodically returned in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and after 1990 in his three-dimensional installations. In 1960–1961 he created geometrical relief compositions in plaster as positive and negative diptychs (''In and Out'', 1960; ''Reverse'', 1961). In the early 1960s he was in close contact with Zbyněk Sekal, whose studio was next door. They influenced one another when creating material paintings, and their work was based on similar feelings about life. It was at this time that Pištěk made a series of relief assemblages from automobile components (''Synagogue'', 1962; ''Crucifixion'', 1963) and

Art Informel Informalism or Art Informel () is a pictorial movement from the 1943–1950s, that includes all the abstract and gestural tendencies that developed in France and the rest of Europe during the World War II, similar to American abstract express ...

reliefs from dismantled car radiators (''Notes from a Missing Person'', 1963; ''Execution'', 1964). He also made his first three-dimensional installation, ''The Ten Commandments'' (1964). As a counterpart to his material relief paintings, Theodor Pištěk painted airy black and white compositions in ink and nitrocellulose lacquer that combined simple geometrical forms with structures he had observed in the organic world. They are also his response to post-surrealist symbolism, something a fellow student from the Academy, Jaroslav Vožniak, was working on at this time. The subjects of these paintings were sometimes light-hearted (''How to Play Ball'', 1966) and sometimes fraught (''How to Escape'', 1965; ''Trap'', 1965; ''Unsuccessful Attempt'', 1966). File:01. Theodor Pištěk, Opak, 1961.jpg, ''Reverse'', 1961 File:03. Theodor Pištěk, Leť motýlku leť (1962), Galerie Zlatá Husa.jpg, ''Fly, butterfly, fly! '', 1962, Zlatá Husa Gallery File:Theodor Pištěk, Synagoga (1962), Galerie Zlatá husa.jpg, ''Synagogue'', 1962, Zlatá Husa Gallery File:04. Theodor Pištěk, Zápisky zmizelého, 1963.jpg, ''Notes from a Missing Person'', 1963 File:Theodor Pištěk, Nezdařený pokus 2 (1966).jpg, ''Unsuccessful Attempt 2'', 1966 Following 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 1968, Pištěk's drawings resembled targets with bullet holes, and their composition was accented by the use of monochromatic blocks of colour (''August Picture I–III'', 1968–1969). His series of drawings in ink and nitrocellulose lacquer continued until the beginning of the 1970s (''View Inside'', 1970; ''Half-Life'', 1970) and was followed by coloured compositions of geometrical forms (''Reflection'', 1971) and small-format oil paintings in which the geometrical order of blocks of colour was broken by small irregularities (''Fall'', 1973; ''House'', 1973). He returned to monochrome paintings in ink and nitrocellulose lacquer in the early 1980s in compositions of artificial architecture (''Where I Will Live Next'', 1982), which later became three-dimensional labyrinths (''City'', 1997). File:05. Theodor Pištěk, Srpnový obrázek I, 1968.jpg, ''August Picture I'', 1968 File:06. Theodor Pištěk, Srpnový obrázek II, 1968.jpg, ''August Picture II'', 1968 File:Theodor Pištěk, Srpnový obrázek 3 (1969).jpg, ''August Picture III'' (1969) File:Theodor Pištěk, Srpnový obrázek 4 (1969).jpg, ''August Picture IV'' (1969) File:Theodor Pištěk, expozice v Domě umění města Brna, 2019 (7).jpg, ''Where I Will Live Next'', House of Art, Brno, 2019 At the height of communist repression during the normalization era, Pištěk's work featured wrapped figures and objects that served as abstract existential symbols. Fingers emerging from the wrappings indicate that these are not statues inside (''Family Portrait'', 1976; ''The Nude Maja'', 1980). The motif of a wrapped head (''Self-Portrait by the Window I-II'', 1981) is in itself terrifying, and the emptiness or ornateness of the background makes this symbol of cruelty even more disturbing. Also from this time is a cycle of illusionistic paintings in which crumpled fabric or paper bound with twine veils a hidden reality that can be glimpsed in places where the fabric or paper has been ripped. Usually the opening reveals an endless blue sky with little clouds, but the painting ''Czech Horizon'' (1979) shows only black earth under a dark sky. In the triptych ''Farewell to Youth'' (1981) Theodor Pištěk symbolically bid his racing career goodbye. File:Theodor Pištěk, Rodinný portrét (1976) Museum Kampa.jpg, ''Family Portrait'', 1976,

Museum Kampa Museum Kampa is a modern art gallery in Prague, Czech Republic, showing Central European, and in particular Czech work. The pieces are from the private collection of Meda Mládek, wife of Jan V. Mládek. The museum opened in 2003 and is housed in ...

File:Theodor Pištěk, Autoportrét u okna 1 (1981).jpg, ''Self-Portrait by the Window I'', 1981 File:10. Theodor Pištěk, Autoportrét u okna II, 1981.jpg, ''Self-Portrait by the Window II'', 1981 File:09. Theodor Pištěk, Český horizont, 1979.jpg, ''Czech Horizon'', 1979 File:Theodor Pištěk, instalace NG Praha (3), 2012.jpg, ''Farewell to Youth'', 1981, installation,

National Gallery in 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 ...

Pištěk applied his mastery of

trompe-l'œil ; ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional surface. , which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into perceiving p ...

to a series of paintings of gleaming automobile and motorcycle parts (''Angelus'', 1978; ''Gold Fever'', 1978) or the impersonal objects that surround us (''Tonca Still Life'', 1981; ''Homage to Papin'', 1981). Photography provided inspiration. This faithful hyperrealist depicting of the surface of things was not just an aesthetic phenomenon, but also a way for Pištěk to measure himself against other painters. Ultimately he came to resist his categorisation as a

photorealist Photorealism is a genre of art that encompasses painting, drawing and other graphic media, in which an artist studies a photograph and then attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another Medium (arts), medium. Although ...

painter, instead describing his program as “Neo-Romanticism”. He did not want viewers to see only verism, illusion and perfection in his work, but to offset the modern cult of ugliness and hopelessness with a “new professionalism” that sought through flawless painting to evoke an atmosphere or recall a moment or story from the past that we had begun to doubt ever really happened. File:Theodor Pištěk, Angelus (1978).jpg, ''Angelus'', 1978 File:Theodor Pištěk, Vášeň 2 (1978).jpg, ''Passion 2'', 1978 File:Theodor Pištěk, Zátiší Tonca (1981) GMU Hradec Králové.jpg, ''Tonca Still Life'', 1981, GMA Hradec Králové File:Theodor Pištěk, Pocta Papinovi (1981), GU Karlovy Vary.jpg, ''Homage to Papin'', 1981, GA Karlovy Vary File:Theodor Pištěk, Zátiší s lampami (1987).jpg, ''Still Life with Lamps'', 1987 Pištěk's paintings from this period guide the viewer from sensory enchantment to seeking the mystery behind a painting. They were influenced by the film world in which he operated, and like film backdrops they created fictitious settings and brought new impulses into Czech modern art. Various disconnected narratives intersect (''The Price of Elegance'', 1973–1974; ''Landscape with a Honda'', 1977), and the illusion of reality is constantly undermined by the painter's interventions. The minutely detailed and technically flawless illusionistic painting served to deceive the viewer's senses. A seemingly torn canvas is in fact intact (''Ecce Homo'', 1983); a collage with photographs glued on and scraps of paper held by drawing pins is only a fiction in a painting (''Portrait of a Friend'', 1976; ''Midget'', 1977; ''D Day, H Hour'', 1980). Paintings include references to other artists ( Dalí in ''Self-Portrait'';

Millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most millets belong to the tribe Paniceae. Millets are important crops in the Semi-arid climate, ...

in ''Angelus'') and entirely personal messages such as digital numerals showing Pištěk's date of birth in an apparently torn canvas he created for his fiftieth birthday (''From My Life'', 1982). File:Theodor Pištěk, Velká krajina (1976), AJG Hluboká.jpg, ''Big Landscape'', 1976, AJG Hluboká File:Theodor Pištěk, Portrét přítele (1976), AJG Hluboká.jpg, ''Portrait of a Friend'', 1976, AJG Hluboká File:Theodor Pištěk, Krajina s Hondou (1977), AJG Hluboká.jpg, ''Landscape with a Honda'', 1977, AJG Hluboká File:Theodor Pištěk, Ze života (1977).jpg, ''From Life'', 1977 File:07. Theodor Pištěk, Midget, 1977.jpg, ''Midget'', 1977 Pištěk has repeatedly returned to Biblical themes. His Joseph wears overalls and is depicted sitting on a wooden plank as he rolls a cigarette. This scene of Joseph in his carpentry workshop is rendered as a torn poster that seems to have been tacked to a second picture plane showing a sports car; several nails have fallen out of the poster. The corner of the picture of the car has also been ripped off to reveal the background: a blue sky with a little cloud (''Joseph N'', 1978). ''Ecce Homo'' (1983) shows a racing driver in a balaclava as a modern paraphrasing of the

Man of Sorrows Man of Sorrows, a biblical term, is paramount among the prefigurations of the Messiah identified by the Bible in the passages of Isaiah 53 ('' Servant songs'') in the Hebrew Bible. It is also an iconic devotional image that shows Christ, usual ...

. The cross has been replaced with an exploded view of an engine in the background, Christ's wounds are symbolised by illusionistic cuts painted over the driver's hands, and the canvas looks as if it has been slashed in reference to the scourging of Christ. ''The Last Supper'' (1983) cycle of paintings, a number of variations on a vacant table in front of a window with a view of an empty landscape, presents another of Pištěk's themes: a dead, empty space devoid of people, which creates tension by referring to a familiar narrative to which nothing more can be added. File:Theodor Pištěk, Josef N., (1978).jpg, ''Josef N.'', 1978 File:Theodor Pištěk, Ecce Homo, 1983.jpg, ''Ecce Homo'', 1983 File:Theodor Pištěk, instalace NG Praha (10), 2012.jpg, ''The Last Supper'', installation at the

, 2012 File:Theodor Pištěk, Tichá krajina (1984), Národní galerie v Praze.jpg, ''Silent Landscape'', 1984,

File:Theodor Pištěk, Adieu, Guy Moll (1992-2017).jpg, ''Adieu, Guy Moll'' (1992-2017) Since the turn of the 1980s and 90s Pištěk's paintings have included architecture that recalls film sets (''Variations on a Given Theme 1–3'', 1989). In the mid-90s Theodor Pištěk returned to geometrical abstraction in his paintings of empty and stylised architecture, where he worked with various kinds of false perspectives and lighting (''Variations 1–6'', 1995–1996; ''Building 1–2'', 1995; ''Down 1–2'', 1996; ''Column'', 1997). The illusion produced in two dimensions is both magnified and contradicted by the impression of a tangible mass emerging from the picture plane and simultaneously guided along lines into the depth of the painting, where it surprisingly loses its shadow and the concrete becomes abstract. “My work moves in spirals, always beginning with the details and gradually freeing itself from them. The image becomes empty and is simplified to the minimum.” File:Theodor Pištěk, Večírek u Plečnika (1992-1993).jpg, ''Party with Plečnik'', 1992-1993 File:Theodor Pištěk, Variace č. 1 (1995).jpg, ''Variation No. 1'', 1995 File:Theodor Pištěk, Stavba č. 1 (1995).jpg, ''Construction No. 1'', 1995 File:Theodor Pištěk, Pro Karolinku (1997-2019).jpg, ''For Little Caroline'', 1997-2019 Pištěk's contemplative ''Conversations with Hawking'' (2005–2019) are fragile geometrical constructions that delineate areas of black space interwoven with spot heights and marks indicating the motion of heavenly bodies. File:Theodor Pištěk, Rozmluva s Hawkingem 1b (2005-2006).jpg, ''Conversations with Hawking 1b'', 2005-2006 File:Theodor Pištěk, Rozmluva s Hawkingem (2012).jpg, ''Conversations with Hawking'', 2012 File:Theodor Pištěk, Rozmluva s Hawkingem (2017) II.jpg, ''Conversations with Hawking II'', 2017 File:Theodor Pištěk, Rozmluva s Hawkingem (2018).jpg, ''Conversations with Hawking'', 2018 File:Theodor Pištěk, Rozmluva s Hawkingem (2019) III.jpg, ''Conversations with Hawking III'', 2019 Besides his film work, for which Theodor Pištěk has received the highest honours, his painting is also highly valued. In 2013 his painting ''A Visit to the Harrachs'' (1979) was auctioned for CZK 3,240,000, while in 2016 ''Seagull Flying into a Dream'' (1984) was auctioned for CZK 2,900,000. His painting ''Adieu, Guy Moll'' (1992-2017) became the most expensive artwork by a living Czech artist ever sold at auction (CZK 21,200,000).

Objects

File:14. Theodor Pištěk, Bart Simpson, 2003.jpg, ''Bart Simpson'', 2003 File:Theodor Pištěk, Červená hlava (2019).jpg, ''Red Head'', 2019 File:Theodor Pištěk, Mínotaurus (2019).jpg, ''Mínotaurus'', 2019

Conceptual installations

Pištěk's conceptual installation of sacred objects in the former riding school in Hluboká nad Vltavou had a dramatic gradation and scope, and within the context of postmodern scepticism it offered an updating of the psychological values of collectively valid myths. On an altar in the foreground, which he titled ''Homage to Böcklin's “Centaur Watching Fish”'', he placed the scoop of an excavator arching over a fish in a glass sphere. At the head of the riding school he installed an altar painting with an illusionistic landscape in the Baroque style, to which he added brightly coloured geometrical forms that quoted the American postmodernist

Frank Stella Frank Philip Stella (May 12, 1936 – May 4, 2024) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. He lived and worked in New York City for much of his career befor ...

. In front of this painting was a pyramid with a pile of refuse that was titled ''Reliquary''. The side altars, hidden in a labyrinth, depicted the

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Ancient Carthag ...

as the hanging chassis of a racing car and the Visitation made of an old petrol pump, with car doors as the angel's wings. According to Jiří Šetlík, Pištěk's subjective interpretation of our sick world unmasks our faith in consumerist idols. Pištěk's three-dimensional objects for his exhibition at the Prague City Gallery (1999) worked with the contrast between image and sound. ''Garden'' was a pavilion made of massive children's building blocks surrounded by a forest of hanging poles protecting the pavilion's privacy, with a soundtrack of whispered conversations too quiet to be heard. Next to ''Garden'' was ''Forest'', a glass pyramid filled with fragments of wood and rubbish from fly tipping, together with romantic forest still lifes and a soundtrack of chainsaws and falling trees. Other objects relate to Pištěk's film work and his racing career. At the entrance to his retrospective exhibition at the

he installed his labyrinthine ''City'' and behind it a large glass box with a pile of film costumes, while in the middle of the exhibition space was a racing car. His conceptual diorama ''The End of the Forest'' was an artificial forest made of suspended poles through which visitors could look at a painted landscape covering the entire wall (Trade Fair Palace,

, 2012). This stepping out of the picture plane into the third dimension is an agenda that Pištěk had earlier described in the introduction to a catalogue as “Neo-Romanticism”.''I love space – the endless sky, the soothing clouds and the horizon, inviting us to go beyond. This is why I am no longer satisfied with illusion and have stepped out from the picture plane.'' Theodor Pištěk (1984), in: Jiří Šetlík, Jana Brabcová (eds.), 2007, p. 7 File:11. Theodor Pištěk, Kentaur pozorující rybku, instalace AJG Hluboká, 1993.jpg, ''

Centaurus Centaurus () is a bright constellation in the southern sky. One of the 88 modern constellations by area, largest constellations, Centaurus was included among the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one ...

Watching the Fish'', AJG Hluboká, 1993 File:12. Theodor Pištěk, Schránka na ostatky, instalace AJG Hluboká, 1993.jpg, ''Reliquary'', AJG Hluboká, 1993 File:13. Theodor Pištěk, Zahrada, instalace MK Praha, 1999.jpg, ''Garden'', Prague City Gallery, 1999 File:Theodor Pištěk, instalace NG Praha (1), 2012.jpg,

, 2012 File:16. Theodor Pištěk, Konec lesa, 2012.jpg, ''The End of Forest'',

2012 File:15a. Theodor Pištěk, labyrint Město, instalace NG Praha, 2012.jpg, ''City Labyrinth'',

, 2012 File:17. Theodor Pištěk, filmové kostýmy, 2013.jpg, ''Film costumes'',

, 2012

Costumes and set design

Uniforms

* 1990 uniforms, banners and insignia for the

Film

Pištěk has worked on 111 films with many Czech and Slovak directors, including

Oldřich Lipský Oldřich Lipský (4 July 1924 – 19 October 1986) was a Czech film director and screenwriter. He focused exclusively on filming comedies and his work includes more than twenty films. Among his films with international success are '' Lemonade Joe' ...

Jiří Menzel Jiří Menzel () (23 February 1938 – 5 September 2020) was a Czech film director, theatre director, actor, and screenwriter. His films often combine a humanistic view of the world with sarcasm and provocative cinematography. Some of these films ...

Jiří Krejčík Jiří Krejčík (; 26 June 1918 – 8 August 2013) was a Czech film director, screenwriter and actor. Born in 1918 in Prague, he began his film career as an extra for Barrandov Studios, during World War II. He then began creating short films an ...

Juraj Herz Juraj Herz (4 September 1934 – 8 April 2018) was a Slovak film director, actor, and scene designer, associated with the Czechoslovak New Wave movement of the 1960s. He is best known for his 1969 horror/black comedy '' The Cremator'', often ci ...

; as well as with many others, including Janusz Majewski,

Bob Hoskins Robert William Hoskins (26 October 1942 – 29 April 2014) was an English actor and film director. Known for his intense but sensitive portrayals of "tough guy" characters, he began his career on stage before making his screen breakthrough pl ...

and

Jerzy Skolimowski Jerzy Skolimowski (; born 5 May 1938) is a Polish film director, screenwriter, dramatist, actor and painter. Beginning as a screenwriter for Andrzej Wajda's ''Innocent Sorcerers'' (1960), Skolimowski has made more than twenty films since his dire ...

. Some of his works: * The White Dove (1959), directed by

(costumes and set design) *

(1967 ), directed by

(costumes) *

(1967), directed by

(costumes) *

(1984), directed by

* Valmont (1989), directed by

* The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), directed by

Television

* Arabela (1979) * Mr Tau (1980) * The Visitors (1982) * Dune (1998) * Children of Dune (2000)

Theater

* Miss Julie (1972), Divadlo na Zábradlí, directed by

* The Queen of Spades (1972), Smetanovo divadlo *

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; full title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legen ...

(2006), National Theatre in Prague

Musical theater

* Dracula (1994), directed by Jozef Bednárik * Rusalka (1998), directed by Jozef Bednárik * The Count of Monte Christo (1999), directed by Jozef Bednárik

Collections

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 ...

* Regional galleries in the Czech Republic * Galleria Arturo Schwarz, Milano * Galerie Schüppenhauer, Cologne * Galerie Volkmann, Münster * Private collections home and abroad

Important exhibitions

* 2012/2013 ''Theodor Pištěk: Ecce Homo'',

File:Theodor Pištěk, instalace NG Praha (4), 2012.jpg File:Theodor Pištěk, instalace NG Praha (8), 2012.jpg File:Theodor Pištěk, instalace NG Praha (7), 2012.jpg File:Theodor Pištěk, instalace NG Praha (2), 2012.jpg File:Theodor Pištěk, instalace NG Praha (9), 2012.jpg File:Theodor Pištěk, instalace NG Praha (6), 2012.jpg File:Theodor Pištěk, instalace NG Praha (5), 2012.jpg File:Theodor Pištěk, instalace NG Praha (3), 2012.jpg File:Theodor Pištěk, instalace NG Praha (13), 2012.jpg File:Theodor Pištěk, instalace NG Praha (11), 2012.jpg File:Theodor Pištěk, instalace NG Praha (14), 2012.jpg * 2019/2020 Theodor Pištěk: Angelus, House of Arts in Brno File:Theodor Pištěk, expozice v Domě umění města Brna, 2019 (1).jpg File:Theodor Pištěk, expozice v Domě umění města Brna, 2019 (2).jpg File:Theodor Pištěk, expozice v Domě umění města Brna, 2019 (3).jpg File:Theodor Pištěk, expozice v Domě umění města Brna, 2019 (4).jpg File:Theodor Pištěk, expozice v Domě umění města Brna, 2019 (5).jpg File:Theodor Pištěk, expozice v Domě umění města Brna, 2019 (6).jpg File:Theodor Pištěk, expozice v Domě umění města Brna, 2019 (8).jpg File:Theodor Pištěk, Angelus (2019).jpg, ''White 2'' File:Theodor Pištěk, Labyrint, expozice v Domě umění města Brna, 2019 (10).jpg, ''Labyrinth'' File:Theodor Pištěk, Pyramida, expozice v Domě umění města Brna, 2019 (9).jpg, ''Pyramid''

References

Sources

Monographs

* Helena Musilová (ed.), Theodor Pištěk: Ecce homo, 168 s., Národní galerie v Praze 2012, * Jiří Šetlík, Jana Brabcová (ed.), Theodor Pištěk, 388 s., Galerie Pecka Praha 2007, * Jiří Šetlík, Theodor Pištěk, 24 s., Galerie hlavního města Prahy 1999, * Jindřich Chalupecký a kol., Theodor Pištěk, 140 s., Alšova jihočeská galerie v Hluboké nad Vltavou, Galerie hlavního města Prahy 1993 * Martin Dostál (ed.), Theodor Pištěk - Angelus, 168 s., Dům umění města Brna, KANT 2019,

Bachelor's thesis

* Pavlína Doubravová, Hyperrealistické tendence v tvorbě Theodora Pištěka, bakalářská práce, FF a UDU JČU v Českých Budějovicích, 201
On line

Catalogues

* ''Theodor Pištěk'', 1978, Macourek Miloš, kat. 12 s., SČVU Praha * ''Theodor Pištěk: Obrazy, kresby, film'', 1982, Kotalík Jiří Tomáš, kat. 20 s., SČVU Praha * ''Theodor Pištěk'', 1984, Neumann Ivan, kat. 32 s., Galerie umění Karlovy Vary * ''Theodor Pištěk: Obrazy'', 1988, Janoušek Ivo, kat. 16 s., Ústřední kulturní dům železničářů, Praha * ''Theodor Pištěk: Hluboká 93 - 94'', 1995, Šetlík Jiří, kat. 48 s., AJG Hluboká nad Vltavou * ''Theodor Pištěk'', 2006, Machalický Jiří, kat. 10 s., Galerie Montanelli Praha * ''3x Theodor Pištěk'', 2007, Machalický Jiří, Mládková Meda, kat. 20 s., Museum Kampa – Nadace Jana a Medy Mládkových, Praha * ''Šedesátá'', ed. Magdalena Juříková, Galerie Zlatá husa, Praha 2004, , s. 308-313

Other (selection)

* Fascinace skutečností - hyperrealismus v české malbě / Fascination with reality - Hyperrealism in Czech painting, Muzeum umění Olomouc 2017, * Příliš mnoho zubů / Too Many Teeth, Musilová Helena (ed.), kat. 147 s., Retro Gallery Praha, Praha 2017, * Postava k otvírání / The figure examined, Nováčková Zuzana, Štefančíková Alica, Svoboda Petr, kat. 132 s., Galerie Benedikta Rejta, Louny, Galerie výtvarného umění v Mostě, 2016 * Před obrazem, Dospěl Milan a kol., kat. 158 s., Galerie Kodl, Praha 2015, * Stavy mysli: Za obrazem / States of Mind: Beyond the Soubor: Stálá expozice GASK, David Bartoň a kol., kat. 208 s., Galerie Středočeského kraje (GASK), Kutná Hora 2014, * České moderní a současné umění 1890 – 2010: 2. díl, Dolanská Karolína a kol., kat. 189 s., Národní galerie v Praze 2010, * Šedesátá / The sixties ze sbírky Galerie Zlatá husa, Juříková Magdalena, Železný Vladimír, kat. 414 s., Galerie Zlatá husa, Praha 2004, * Hyperrealismus, Beran Zdeněk, Vítková Martina, kat. 31 s., Západočeská galerie v Plzni 2002, * Současná minulost: Česká postmoderní moderna 1960–2000, Tetiva Vlastimil, kat. 176 s., Alšova jihočeská galerie v Hluboké nad Vltavou 2000, * Umění zrychleného času: Česká výtvarná scéna 1958–1968, Alena Potůčková (ed.), kat. 147 s., České muzeum výtvarných umění, Praha 1999 * Umění zastaveného času / Art when time stood still: Česká výtvarná scéna 1969–1985, Alena Potůčková (ed.), kat. 268 s., České muzeum výtvarných umění, Praha 1996 * Skutečnost an iluze: Tendence českého radikálního realismu, Tetiva Vlastimil, 169 s., Alšova jihočeská galerie v Hluboké nad Vltavou 1993 * Forum '88, Hlaváček Josef, Kříž Jan, Nešlehová Mahulena, Petrová Eva, Šetlík Jiří, Wittlich Petr, kat. 96 s., neoficiální výstava v Pražské tržnici 1988 * Netvořice ´81, Hlaváček Josef, Kříž Jan, Šetlík Jiří, katalog neoficiální výstavní akce u Bedřich Dlouhého v Netvořicích 1981 * Czech stage costumes / Le costume tchèque de théâtre, Marešová Šimáčková Sylva, Bubeník Květoslav, Vejražka Vítězslav, Divadelní ústav, Praha 1972

External links

World Base of Hyperrealism

Information system abART: Theodor Pištěk

Internet Movie Database: Theodor Pištěk

National Theatre Prague: Theodor Pištěk

Czech-Slovac Film Database: Theodor Pištěk

Theodor Pistek's interviews for Czech Radio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pištěk, Theodor Czech painters Czech contemporary artists Czech male painters 20th-century male artists 21st-century male artists 1932 births Living people Artists from Prague Czech costume designers Czech collage artists Academy of Fine Arts in Prague alumni Best Costume Design Academy Award winners