Bohumil Samuel Kečíř
Bohumil Samuel Kečíř (* 1904 ; † 1987 in a mental institution ) was a Czech painter whose existence is unclear.
Numerous paintings by him are known. In the years 2001 to 2006 alone, around 90 works were auctioned. The prices were between 3,000 and 4,500 euros.
On April 20, 2007, the Czech media reported that the previously known biographical information was fictitious. Their research did not yield any unequivocal evidence of Kečíř's existence. Journalists now refer to Kečíř as the Jára da Cimrman of Czech painting. Only the existence of the pictures is indubitable.
According to his biographical information, he was born in Holouci , Holuci or Holice . The first two places mentioned do not seem to exist and in the latter there is no birth certificate in his name. The other documents pertaining to his person are equally dubious: an alleged child's photo, a photo of a memorial plaque and a photocopy of his party . After the persecution by the National Socialists because of his Jewish mother and the subsequent silence of his art by the Communists , he is said to have spent the last decades of his life because of depression in a (no longer existing) psychiatric clinic in Brno , where most of his work was also created.
All of this leads to the question of who actually painted these pictures in the case of Kečíř's nonexistence. There is only speculation about this.
A biography has existed since 2005, but the author, the Austrian art dealer and art expert Erich Tromayer , states that he never met Kečíř personally. Since around this time there has been a report from the Austrian Federal Monuments Office that at least one of the pictures must have been 20-30 years old at that time, as it shows an aging process that cannot be imitated. Only the age of the picture has been expressly determined, not its assignment to a specific artist.
In an interview with Profil (No. 31/2007), Tromayer denied the plausibility of a forgery of so many works for a (especially in the early 1990s) relatively low yield. In 1991, when the first Kečíř pictures appeared on the market, one could have been bought for the equivalent of perhaps 100 schillings (approx. € 7). Tromayer considers the evidence of Kečíř's non-existence to be an intrigue of Czech art dealers who “slept through” the deal and now feel that they have been cheated - the transport of the pictures outside the country (e.g. to Austria, where a significant part of Kečíř's work is now located) it was illegal under the law at the time. The Czechs said this work "simply got lost."
literature
- Michel Friedrich Becker (ed.): Bohumil Samuel Kecir. The mysterious painter , Gera 2007. ISBN 978-3-9810812-7-5
- Erich Tromayer: Bohumil Samuel Kecir , Vienna 2005.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kečíř, Bohumil Samuel |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Czech painter, whose existence is unclear |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1904 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1987 |