Jiří Balcar

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Jiří Balcar (born August 26, 1929 in Kolín , † August 28, 1968 in Prague ) was a Czech graphic artist , painter , illustrator , typographer and cartoonist . He was known for designing movie posters and book covers.

Life

Jiří Balcar was born in the family of the doctor Emilian Balcar. He was one of two sons whose father had great demands on them, and the family situation was very tense. In 1945 his father died by suicide, which hit the young Balcar hard.

He studied at the University of Applied Arts , which was closed and Balcar had to move to František Muzika's studio . He finished his studies in 1953. Towards the end of his life he often traveled abroad, especially to the USA. He died in a car accident in Prague in 1968.

job

Balcar's artistic work began during high school when he was working with a dry needle technique. In the early 1950s, he began incorporating typography into his work, which would later become his trademark. The turning point in his work came after visiting foreign exhibitions, especially the 1958 World Exhibition in Brussels. Thanks to these exhibitions, he turned to European tendencies and became one of the pioneers of the new wave of Czech abstract painting in the late 1950s. At the beginning of the 1960s he created abstract paintings, graphics and drawings with typographic and handwritten characters as symbols of the unpredictability of everyday reality. The theme of a modern person participating in social life is interwoven with an essential part of his work. In the following years Balcar further reduced his work to monochrome, dark pictures with pasty colors. In his graphics he reflected the impulses of American Pop Art and the new European figurations.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

  • 1959: Jiri Balcar: paintings, drawings, graphics, exhibition hall ČFVU - Purkyně, Prague
  • 1970: “Jiří Balcar: Graphics”, Jacques Baruch Gallery, Chicago
  • 1973: "Jiří Balcar: Graphic Design", House of the Lords of Kunštát, Brno
  • 1975: “From the work of Jiří Balcar”, Malá galerie [Brno University of Veterinary and Pharmacy], Brno
  • 1979: “Jiří Balcar: Archives of an Artist”, Jacques Baruch Gallery, Chicago
  • 1987: “From the work of Jiří Balcar”, Kolín Regional Museum, Atrium Hall, Kolín
  • 2001: “Jiří Balcar: Graphics 1960–1965”, Gallery Ztichlá klika, Praha

Group exhibitions

  • 1958: 2nd exhibition of Máj 57, Danube Palace, Prague
  • 1988: “Twenty years of Czechoslovak art: 1968–1988. A Tribute to Jacques Baruch ”, Jacques Baruch Gallery, Chicago
  • 1988: " Bohemian Paradise Landscape in Art ", Hradec Králové Regional Gallery
  • 2008: “Insights into the collections of the North Bohemian Gallery of Fine Arts in Litomerice ”, The North Bohemian Gallery of Fine Arts in Litomerice, Litomerice
  • 2008: "Modern Art and Post-War Art," Contemporary Art, Photographs, 5th Floor Gallery, Prague City (Prague City District) Insights into the collections of the North Bohemian Gallery of Fine Arts in Litomerice, catalog text exhibition 2008
  • 2008: "Lettrism: Precursors and Successors", Gallery of Modern Art in WAC , Roudnice nad Labem

literature

  • Zdeněk Primus: Jiří Balcar. Movie posters of painting and collage . Kant, 2016.
  • Marie Judlová: Jiří Balcar. 1988.
  • May 2, 57 exhibition. Exhibition catalog. 1958.
  • Views in the collections of the North Bohemian Gallery of Fine Arts in Litoměřice. Text of the exhibition catalog. 2008.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Balcar Jiří (1929–1968). In: sophisticagallery.cz. Sophistica Gallery, accessed January 14, 2019 (Czech).
  2. ^ Jiří Balcar. In: artalk.cz. September 15, 2011, accessed January 14, 2019 (Czech, press release).
  3. ^ Jiří Balcar. In: artlist.cz. Artlist - databáze současného umění, accessed on January 14, 2019 (Czech).
  4. ↑ Group exhibition May 57, exhibition catalog 1958
personal data
SURNAME Balcar, Jiří
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech graphic artist, painter, illustrator, typographer and cartoonist
DATE OF BIRTH August 26, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Kolín
DATE OF DEATH August 28, 1968
Place of death Prague