Zdeněk Antonín Macků
Zdeněk Antonín Macků (born January 3, 1943 in Prague , † December 24, 2006 in Brloh ) was a Czech painter . Macků's total oeuvre comprises around 400 works, technically mostly works made of oil on canvas.
Life
Macků was born in January 1943 in Prague, in what was then the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . His mother came from Sušice in the Bohemian Forest, the father from Kostelní Vydří in Moravia. His father was a sign painter and varnisher and had a small business in Prague's old town. The atmosphere of the workshop and the large letters on the signs remained decisive impressions of his childhood. In 1948 a dictatorship began in Czechoslovakia . The communist government revoked his father's business license. As a member of the bourgeois class , he now had to become a tunnel worker. In the same year Macků went to a Catholic elementary school. But after just a few months, the nuns were removed and the school closed. A new start followed with new children in a state school. Macků became a member of the Young Pioneers and had to learn Russian. He stayed in this all-day school and daycare center until he was 14 . As a bourgeois child he had to live with the working class and learned the trade of locksmith at the vocational school boarding school in Turnov .
In 1958 his mother died and he came back to his father in Prague. Macků attended dance school , enjoyed listening to the music broadcasts on Radio Luxemburg and Radio Munich AF and showed great interest in art. In 1960 he completed his apprenticeship and was a trained locksmith and specialist in elevators. He wanted to continue his education and was interested in film art, television and theater. Most of all he wanted to be a cameraman or work in the theater. But his father had other ideas and in 1961 sent him back to Turnov, to the local art school . At the age of 18 he was a student of copper engraving , steel engraving and engraving . Together with other artists he founded the group "Brontosaurus" and later the group "Hrot". The first art exhibitions in Turnov, Semily and Hořice as well as literary events followed . During the school holidays he worked on various film productions in Prague. Macků successfully graduated in 1965.
In 1965 he passed an entrance examination at Charles University in Prague for the field of art education and pedagogy . Macků drew low-paid caricatures for newspapers.
In December 1965 he officially went on a bus trip to Yugoslavia with two friends from Prague . He took the opportunity to stay in the west and did not return to his tour group. During a two-month stay in the Traiskirchen camp , he was subjected to numerous interrogations and was finally given political asylum , an identity card and a passport.
In spring 1966 he found a job in Vienna through a newspaper advertisement. Friends talked him into going to America . In the exuberance of his feelings, he left Vienna. In the summer he flew to New York . He couldn't speak English properly and was penniless. He didn't know anyone. However, people from the AFCR, the American Fund for Czechoslovak Refugees in New York City , helped. A Czech friend recommended him to an advertising agency. In this agency he became a freelancer. The advertising agency was located near the Radio Free Europe studios . Macků applied there as a speaker and copywriter for the Czechoslovak editorial team and received the position. He saved money, bought paint, canvas and an easel, and painted at home. In 1967 he visited the world exhibition in Montreal , took his first car trip through the USA from east to west together with the Czech musicians Jiří Šlitr and Karel Mareš . He met Salvador Dalí , discovered the Dadaists and visited art museums. Macků studied and painted especially the African American cultural scene.
In 1968 he again crossed America with two friends in a car. In Los Angeles he showed an exhibition and sold for the first time. After his return to New York, he was transferred to Radio Free Europe as editor in Munich , where he stayed until 1969. He started painting again and met his father in Vienna. He returned to the USA by ship via Venice . On board he got to know interesting personalities: Oreste Dequel and John Kearny, sculptors from Rome and Chicago , and even the future German Chancellor Willy Brandt . In New York he moved back into his Manhattan apartment and worked as an assistant to a set designer and also for the fashion designer Peter Max , who designed almost all everyday objects. In Los Angeles he met the almost 90-year-old operetta and musical composer Rudolf Friml , who was then composing for Hollywood film companies .
In 1972/73 he showed an exhibition in Irschenhausen near Lake Starnberg , painted in Tyrol in winter and in spring toured Yugoslavia, Bulgaria , Romania and Hungary by bike . Back in New York, he worked in an advertising studio on illustrations for children's books for the Holt und Reinhardt publishing house . He made another trip to South America . The study of Indian and African culture greatly influenced his further work. In 1976 his father died in Prague. Macků wanted to travel to his funeral but was not given an entry visa , but flew from Montreal to Prague anyway . Several interviews were carried out by the Czechoslovak State Security Service at Prague Airport. He registered his temporary stay in Czechoslovakia with the US embassy and was happy to be back in Prague and began painting again. Macků was employed in the advertising department of a trading company and designed shop window decorations, posters and logos. Action art and happenings began to be created in the Prague scene . He met Ilse Romana Geruska from Linz .
In 1977 they moved to Linz together. He passed the entrance exam as a regular student at the Linz University for Artistic and Industrial Design . There he studied painting and graphics with Peter Kubovsky and Erich van Ess . In 1979 and 1982 his two daughters were born. In 1984 he graduated with a diploma and sold many of his tempera paintings. He increasingly sketched in black and white.
In 1985 he showed another exhibition in Linz and moved into a new studio . He painted larger formats, figurative, not abstract, children's portraits and book illustrations. Macků took part in the symposium in Rauris and sold his pictures in Linz and Vienna. Further exhibitions in Linz and New York follow. He became a member of the SVU (Association of Czechoslovak Artists and Scientists Abroad). In 1988 exhibitions followed in Wörgl and Berndorf . Gorbachev's perestroika allowed trips to Prague again. Macků moved into a studio in the old town. He worked intensively on his black and white compositions and met the writer Bohumil Hrabal .
In 1989 Macků showed several exhibitions in different cities in Austria . He visited the Open House of Culture at Dametzstrasse 30 in Linz, where he proposed an exhibition of well-known Upper Austrian artists in Prague.
In 1990 Macků showed exhibitions in Linz, Kufstein , Budweis , Trebon and in Freistadt together with Ernst Hager. In October / November the Open House of Culture accepted the proposal for a joint exhibition. In cooperation with the Austrian Embassy, the exhibition was shown as the second in the series Grenzgänger, in Prague's Blue Pavilion gallery.
Macků moved to Prague again and moved into another studio in addition to a studio in the Niederwaldkirchen in Mühlviertel . His children stayed in Linz.
In 1992 his Austrian diploma was nostrified by the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. He got an assistant position at the Faculty of Architecture , where he taught visual communication, drawing and typography .
Macků founds an artist group called “Torzo”. He shows other exhibitions in Vienna, Lenora and Pilsen . In addition, he takes on a teaching position at the Austrian grammar school in Prague-Smichov for art education , aesthetics and art history .
In 1999 Macků took part in the Retrovie-Avanguardia cross-border commuter project in Malo. Because of his work Italia, which was created there, he was invited by the Open House of Culture to design a large European picture cycle with the member states of the European Union . Macků had previously experimented with geographic maps as subjects for pictures. In that year he was also awarded the culture medal of the province of Upper Austria.
In mid-February 2000 he finished his teaching activities in Prague and moved to a new refuge in Brloh in the Bohemian Forest. This was followed by exhibitions in March in Malo and in summer together with the group “Torzo” in Washington, DC Back in Brloh, he began work on the Europa Nova cycle of images - the new image of Europe. Afterwards he showed exhibitions in Budweis , Znaim , Hohenfurt and Opava as part of the Retrovie Avanguardia .
In 2004 the Europa Nova series was exhibited on Lake Garda in the Museo Casabianca in Malo .
Until 2006 Macků showed the exhibition Europa Nova in Brussels , Vodnan and in the regional museum in Krumau.
December 2006 Macků died unexpectedly in his house in Brloh.
Macků's daughters continue the exhibitions after his death. From 2007 to 2008 his daughters presented the Europa Nova exhibition in Slovakia , Poland and Linz. Further exhibitions followed in Vienna, Leonding , Olomouc and St. Martin im Mühlkreis .
Works
Macků composes his own poetic-narrative painting style from numerous, individual compartments, colorful diagrams. He combines the primarily figurative, objective individual details, here an animal head, there a human figure, a face or a landscape or architectural detail to create mystically-symbolically charged, sometimes fairytale-like structures. Stylistically, the works are characterized by the distinctive contouring of the individual elements with mostly black outlines, which creates a deliberately flat, almost relief-like image effect in the overall impression. The intense color underlines this effect. Especially important is Macků's picture cycle Europa Nova - the new image of Europe, which, based on an intensive artistic examination of geographic maps, depicts the member states of the European Union. The cycle, comprising a total of 28 large-format pictures, was exhibited in numerous museums and cultural institutions in Europe.
Overview of exhibitions
1963-1985
- 1963 Turnov, CSSR
- 1964 Semily, Museum delnickeho hnuti, CSSR
- 1965 Horice v Podkrkonosi, Museum, CSSR
- 1968 Los Angeles, Studio City, Blind Fondation, California, USA
- 1970 Herbert Benevy Gallery, New York City, USA
- 1971 Empire Savings Bank, New York City, USA
- 1972 International House, New York City, USA
- 1973 Island Airlines
- 1974 Irschenhausen-Starnbergsee near Munich, FRG
- 1979 City workshop in Linz
- 1984 University of Artistic Design in Linz, Linzer Luft
- 1985 Turkey in my mind, group exhibition, Ankara, Turkey
1986
- Cafe Gallery, Old World, Linz Austria
- Painter Symposium in Rauris, Tirol, Austria
1987
- LIVA Gallery, Bruckner House Linz, Austria
- A Danube Waltz, New York City, USA
- Saturdays Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
1988
- Gallery Perlinger, Wörgl, Tyrol
- VKB Bank, Linz
- Oberbank, Linz
1989
- Golden Rooster, Berndorf. Magic of Fantasy, Pottenstein (Austria)
- Jägermayerhof, Linz
- Further exhibitions in Wels and Amstetten
1990
- Exhibitions in Linz, Budweis, Trebon and Freistadt (together with Ernst Hager)
- Gallery U Slunce, České Budějovice (Czech Republic)
- Stop Gallery, Plzeň (Czech Republic)
- Hofkabinett Linz
- Inn Gallery, Kufstein
- Important exhibition from the series "Grenzgänger", Blue Pavilion in Prague
- Gallery in the Haspelhaus, Hall in Tirol
- Artist group Torzo, Tábor (Czech Republic)
- Galerie Drouot, Paris, Toulouse (France)
- Artist group Torzo, Poděbrady (Czech Republic)
- Gallery 22, Vienna
- Universitní Gallery Plzeň
- Artist group Torzo, Týn nad Vltavou (Czech Republic)
- Malířský plenér Báňská Štiavnica (Slovakia)
- Symposium Tescani, Bacau (Romania)
- Apendix, Divadlo V Pasáži, Praha. Restaurace Mánes, Praha
- Štúdio S, Bratislava (Slovakia). X-Center, Plzeň
- Intersalon, České Budějovice.
1999
- Participation in the “Grenzgänger” project “Retrovie-Avanguardia” in Malo (near Vicenza) / Italy
2001-2003
- Intersalon, České Budějovice
- Gallery Vivo, Znojmo
- Retrovie e Avanguardia, Dům umění, Opava
- Café Alpská růže, Vyšší Brod
- HVB Bank, České Budějovice
- Vodnany Museum and Gallery, Vodan
- Intersalon České Budějovice
- Krumlov Regional Museum
- Symposium Prachatice
- Plener Loket
- Radio České Budějovice
- Washington (with the artist group "Torzo")
Since 2004
- 2004 Important exhibition "Europa Nova" in Cecina / Italy and Museo Casabianca in Malo / Italy
- 2005 Great exhibition "Europa Nova" in the European Parliament in Brussels
- 2006–2013 continuation of the exhibitions by his two daughters
- 2007 “Europa Nova”, cultural center in Bardejov / Slovakia
- 2007 “Europa Nova”, Małopolska Galeria Sztuki “Dwór Karwacjanów” (Gorlice / Poland)
- 2008 “Europa Nova” and selected pictures, Ursulinenhof Linz
- 2008 Christmas exhibition Antikhaus Freller, Linz
- 2009 Selected pictures in gallery / studio Jan, Spittelberg Vienna
- 2010 "Europa Nova", Leonding City Museum, Tower 9
- 2011 two participation in Vienna private auctions at Bank Austria Kunstforum
- 2013 Galerie zet, Velka Bystrice / Olmütz, Poltrona Frau flagship store / Vienna 1st district
- 2015 Galerie 3KW St. Martin im Mühlkreis, Ringstrasse Galleries Vienna Kitchen Studio Warendorf (Grandhotel) - Kitchen stories
Further information
Awards
- 1999 Culture Medal of the Province of Upper Austria
Web links
- Artist homepage
- Antikhaus Linz , accessed on March 14, 2015
- Exhibition at 3KW , accessed on March 14, 2015
- Event 3KW , accessed on March 14, 2015
- Austrian Gymnasium Prague , accessed on March 14, 2015
- Exhibition Ursulinenhof , accessed on March 14, 2015
- Antikhaus Linz exhibition , accessed on March 14, 2015
- Traveling exhibition Artists for Peace
- Catalog Zdeněk Macků . Linz ( pdf [accessed on March 17, 2015]).
Individual evidence
- Artnet campaign results , accessed on March 14, 2015
- “Border commuter” Zdeněk Macků died , accessed on March 14, 2015
- Galeriezet Europa Nova , accessed March 14, 2015
- Galeriezet online gallery , accessed March 14, 2015
- Artfacts.net , accessed March 14, 2015
- Stenzel: Europa Nova - The new image of Europe
- Profile of Zdeněk Macků , accessed on March 14, 2015
- Museum Nordico Collection , accessed on March 14, 2015
- Artfinding , accessed March 14, 2015
- Art forum , accessed on March 14, 2015
- Serious ease - OÖ Nachrichten , accessed on March 14, 2015
- Profile of Zdeněk Macků , accessed on March 14, 2015
- Artmarket information artprice , accessed March 14, 2015
- Report Marek Blog , accessed on March 14, 2015
- Arcadija auction results , accessed March 14, 2015
- Journey through Russia , accessed March 14, 2015
- Mutualart auction results , accessed on March 14, 2015
- Artpark Calendar 2010 , accessed March 14, 2015
- Artvalue auction results , accessed on March 14, 2015
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Macků, Zdeněk Antonín |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Macku, Zdenek |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Czech painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 3, 1943 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Prague |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 24, 2006 |
| Place of death | Brloh |