Pravoslav Sovak

Pravoslav Sovák (2010)

Pravoslav Sovak (born August 30, 1926 as Pravoslav Sovák in Vysoké Mýto , Czechoslovakia ) is a visual artist and freelance graphic designer who lives and works in Switzerland today.

Live and act

After graduating from high school, Sovak attended a private art school and then studied at the University of Applied Arts in Prague . In 1947 he became an assistant at Palacky University in the Faculty of Art Education. In the 1950s he perfected his graphic techniques and focused on black and white etchings . His first successful exhibitions took place in Prague, Vienna and Klagenfurt.

In the 1960s, he turned to color, with Pravoslav Sovak painting and designing sets and costumes for Prague theaters and film studios. After the Prague Spring 1968 he left Czechoslovakia, moved to Switzerland and became a lecturer in Zurich. Lively exhibition activities followed in Western Europe and the USA. In 1975 he was called to Cologne as professor of free graphics at the University of Applied Sciences for Art and Design, which had emerged from the Cologne factory schools in 1971 . Sovak lectured at the University of Applied Sciences for Art and Design until the department for "Free Art" was closed (with the establishment of the Cologne Academy of Media Arts in 2001). In 1987 Sovak became a Swiss citizen. Students of the Sovak class were u. a. Jiří Georg Dokoupil , Erik Offermann and Volker Saul ,

Graphic 1959–1964

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  Street (1959), drypoint

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  Ironworks - Panorama (1959), drypoint

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  Hommage à Franz Kafka (1961), etching, drypoint, laquer, textile, paper

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  Mirror-portrait I (1964), combined technique

Graphic 1969–1985

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  Lightness (1969), color etching, aquatint, photogravure

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  Spring, cycle indirect messages (1970–1972), combined technique

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  Gallery (1977), combined technique

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  AG (1985), combined technique

80th - 90th years

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  Brâncuși II (1986–1991), combined technique

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  Legendary cliffs (1983–1985), combined technique

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  Big walls (1987-1991), combined technique

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  Desert walls - Purple (1981-1998), combined technique

Exhibitions (selection)

• 1970: Print Club , Philadelphia, New York and California
• 1971: Art and Politics , Kunsthalle Basel, art associations in Frankfurt and Karlsruhe
• 1972: Indirect Messages New York, - MOMA -
• 1974: Cologne Art Association retrospective
• 1975–85: Exhibitions in London, Paris, New York, Philadelphia.
• 2007: Leopold Hoesch Museum , Düren
• 2007: Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie , Regensburg
• 2007: State Russian Museum , St. Petersburg
• 2016: Kunsthaus Zug , Zug

literature

• Hans-Peter Riese (Ed.): Pravoslav Sovak. Wienand, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-87909-905-4 .
• Pravoslav Sovak, the unknown master , in: You : Die Zeitschrift der Kultur , No. 850, Du Kulturmedien, Zurich, October 2014, ISSN  0012-6837 , ISBN 978-3-905931-46-4 ( the whole issue online ).

Web links

• Pravoslav Sovak's website
• Susanne Friedli: Sovak, Pravoslav. In: Sikart (as of 2008)
• Literature by and about Pravoslav Sovak in the bibliographic database WorldCat
• Biography of Pravoslav Sovak in Du die Zeitschrift der Kultur, No. 850, Du Kulturmedien, Zurich, October 2014, ISSN  0012-6837 , ISBN 978-3-905931-46-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Biography of Pravoslav Sovak. Retrieved November 9, 2014 .