Zdeněk Sýkora (February 3, 1920 – July 12, 2011) was a

Czechoslovakian Czechoslovakia ( ; 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 became part of Nazi ...

modern Modern may refer to: History *Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Philosophy ...

abstract painter and sculptor, and a pioneer of using computers in art.

Early life

Sýkora was born and died in

Louny Louny (; ) is a town in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 18,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Ohře River. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Republic)#Monument ...

, Czechoslovakia. His style and medium changed from landscape paintings in the late 1940s to

geometrical Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...

abstract

structures A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...

in the 50s. Influenced by

cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture. Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...

and

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 ...

in the 1960s, he became one of the first artists to use computers in creating geometric abstract paintings. During the

Soviet occupations During World War II, the Soviet Union occupied and annexed several countries effectively handed over by Nazi Germany in the secret Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939. These included the eastern regions of Poland (incorporated into three differe ...

of many countries after

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 ...

, including Czechoslovakia, Sýkora was unable to hold many exhibitions, and some of the only pieces that can be seen from the late 1960s are government building projects. During this period, the artist spent a great deal of time working 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 ...

Later career

Sýkora's style eventually turned to a less strict system of line paintings with lines of color moving across large canvasses in random directions. Also in the 1960s, Sýkora was member of the art group Crossroad ( Skupina Křižovatka). While in this group, he created his first structures and realizations for architecture in the Prague neighborhood of

Letná Letná is a hill overlooking Prague historic centre and Vltava River just besides Prague Castle. It neighbours Stromovka, the largest park in Prague. The hill belongs to Holešovice and Bubeneč quarters of Prague 7. The main part of Letn� ...

on Jindřišská Street). In 1985, he began collaborating on paintings with his wife, Lenka Sýkora. Their most recent realization for architecture can be found in the building of flight operation in Jeneč near Prague. Sýkora had his second retrospective exhibition in 1995, 25 years after his first one, which had been held in Špála Gallery in 1970, and was not authorized by the occupying Russians. In 1995, it was the Prague City Gallery that held the exhibition in the Municipal Library and was a cross-section of his work. Sykora remained mostly active up until his death at age 91.

Legacy

Sýkora's paintings are owned by galleries around the globe, including the

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

and the

MUMOK Mumok (from the full name ; "Museum of modern art, Ludwig Foundation, Vienna") is a museum in the Museumsquartier in Vienna, Austria. The museum has a collection of 10,000 modern and contemporary art works, including major works from Andy Warh ...

in Vienna.

Awards

*Vladimír Boudnik Award – 2008 – Czech Republic *

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The Order of Arts and Letters () is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is the recognition of significant ...

– France *Herbert-Boeckl-Preis – Austria

Exhibitions

Sýkora had hundreds of exhibitions internationally over his lifetime. A partial list is found o
Prague Art & Design.

Associated Czech artists

References

*Prague Art Catalogue

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20110929162910/http://www.fcca.cz/shared/events/orbisfictus/ofzdeneksykora4.html
Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sykora, Zdenek 1920 births 2011 deaths 20th-century Czech painters 20th-century Czech painters 21st-century Czech sculptors 21st-century Czech sculptors Czech male painters Czech modern painters Czechoslovak artists 20th-century Czech male artists Czech abstract sculptors Czech abstract painters Czech landscape painters