Radomír Kolář (19 August 1924 – 5 October 1993) was a Czech

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...

, graphic artist and art teacher.

Life

He first began painting as a self-taught painter with the basics of drawing by Rudolf Puchold at high school in his hometown of

Rakovník Rakovník (, ) is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 16,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an urban monument zone. Administrative division Rakovník consists o ...

. He graduated in 1943, but due to the closure of the universities by the German occupiers, it was not possible to continue his studies, so he remained at home at the farm until the end of the war. After the war, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague until 1950, first with Vratislav Nechleba, and then with Miloslav Holý. He then remained at the academy until 1964, when he left for the Army Art Studio and became a representative of socialist realism in the fine arts. In 1978 he became a Merited Artist and in 1985 a

National Artist National Artist is an honorary title issued by some states as the highest recognition of artists for their significant contributions to the cultural heritage of the nation. An equivalent title, People's Artist, has been known in countries of the ...

. He returned to the academy as professor from 1985 until 1989. He died after a long illness in Prague in 1993.

Work

He devoted himself to painting, drawing, graphics and illustration, and designed postage stamps. Since he grew up in a farm, the subject of his work was mostly animals, especially horses. He also found inspiration in the everyday life of people, in Czech nature and in the national past (especially in the history of the

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 ...

and the liberation). He admired sports and racing,

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

, footballers and skiers. However, the depiction of animals remained his domain. He was the author of monumental realizations with

tapestry Tapestry is a form of Textile arts, textile art which was traditionally Weaving, woven by hand on a loom. Normally it is used to create images rather than patterns. Tapestry is relatively fragile, and difficult to make, so most historical piece ...

and

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

s, best known of which are his tapestry for the Federal Assembly building (1978), the mosaic for the National Monument at Vítkov in Prague (1960), the Hussites mosaic in the vestibule of the metro station Karlovo náměstí (1983) and several other mosaics in the Prague 10 district (1979–1980).
File:RadomirKolar zoo.jpg, Mosaic Zoo in Prague File:RadomirKolar circus.jpg, Mosaic Cirkus in Prague File:RadomirKolar horses.jpg, Mosaic "Den a noc" in Prague (1987) File:RadomirKolar PohadkyASlunicko.jpg, Mosaic from the Czech artist Radomir Kolar called Pohádky a Sluníčko File:Mosaic by Radomír Kolář - Vývoj techniky a Kompas.jpg, Mosaic by Radomír Kolář - Vývoj techniky a Kompas He worked as well on illustrations of books and school textbooks, for example books of

Jan Neruda Jan Nepomuk Neruda (Czech: �jan ˈnɛpomuk ˈnɛruda 10 July 1834 – 22 August 1891) was a Czech journalist, writer, poet and art critic; one of the most prominent representatives of Czech Realism and a member of the " May School". Early li ...

Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (; ), was a Russian and Soviet writer and proponent of socialism. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Before his success as an aut ...

and Petr Jilemnický and of the newspaper Mladá Fronta. He is the author of several issues of stamps: for the XXIII Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1984, for the World Cup in Italy in 1990 ''Italia 90'', for the

1994 Winter Olympics The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, were an international winter multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Hav ...

, and for the re-opening of the

Prague Zoo Prague Zoological Garden (Czech: ''Zoologická zahrada hl. m. Prahy'') is a zoo in Prague, Czech Republic. It was opened in 1931 with the goal to "advance the study of zoology, protect wildlife, and educate the public" in the district of Troja (Pra ...

. His work is characterized by an expressive realism and the monumental thematic paintings (The cycles of May Day, Horse Racing, Paths of Memories) emphasize a solid composition and expressive monochrome colour. The Horácká Gallery in

Nové Město na Moravě Nové Město na Moravě (; ) is a town in Žďár nad Sázavou District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 9,800 inhabitants. It is known as a winter sports resort. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protecte ...

has one of his paintings in its collections, entitled ''Don Quixote''.

Production

* 1960 – ''Hussite mosaic'' in the National Monument in Vítkov * 1966 – ''Cycle of the 67 Partisans'' * 1969 – ''Cycle of paintings Horse Races'' * 1970 – ''Cycle of paintings Workers' Movement'' * 1964, 1968, 1972 – ''Triptico Sokolovo'',

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, Ukraine * 1970 – ''Cossack cavalry attack'' * 1972 –

for the Federal Assembly building * 1974 – won a competition proposal for the realization of a monumental painting for the polyclinic in Most

Awards

* 1966 award of the Minister of National Defense of Czechoslovakia * 1975 medal for the 30th anniversary of liberation of Czechoslovakia

Recognitions

* 1977 – Klement Gottwald State Prize * 1978 – Merited artist * 1983 – Klement Gottwald State Prize * 1985 – National ArtistOverview of visual artists: holders of the honorary title of national and deserving artist, orders, state decorations and awards. Prague: Dílo, 1988, p. 15.

References

External links

Radomír Kolář's paintings

Radomír Kolář in Abart

List of exhibitions

In Catalogues
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kolar, Radomir 1924 births People from Rakovník Academy of Fine Arts in Prague alumni Socialist realist artists Merited Artists of Czechoslovakia 1993 deaths Czech illustrators 20th-century Czech painters Czech male painters 20th-century Czech male artists