Jakub Obrovský

Obrovský Jakub ( born December 24, 1882 in Brno, † 31 March 1949 in Prague ) was a Czechoslovak painter, sculptor, graphic artist and writer.

Life

Obrovský was born as the youngest of three sons of a farmer and was already in his childhood talent. In particular, encouraged by his mother, he joined the School of Applied Arts in Prague at the age of 15 years. From 1901 to 1905 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, among others Celda Klouček, E. K. Liska and M. Pirner. After several months of study in Italy, he owed a Hlávka scholarship, he took in Prague since 1908 mainly decoration orders. So he designed the mosaic in the dining room of the Municipal House, a ceiling of the castle in Liben, frescoes for the Law Faculty in Prague and the Church in Bohnice.

In the years 1911 to 1913 he turned to oil painting, and especially female figures from the Gypsy milieu. The most famous work from this period is probably the " Gypsy Madonna ". With the wide acceptance of his complete works of social advancement was associated with membership on important committees. In 1911 he became a member of Hagenbund 1912 in the Czech section of the Trustees of the Gallery of Modern Art, 1913 of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts, and in 1919 the Société Nationale des Beaux- Arts ( SNBA ) in Paris. In 1919 he became professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and 1935-1937 rector.

Already during his studies, Obrovský had been interested in sculpture, but he only started in 1923 - under the influence of Antoine Bourdelle - to systematically deal with the plastic. His main motifs were athletes. Figures of antiquity and female nudes, which he created mainly in marble and bronze. In the graphical creation Obrovskýs the first editions of Czechoslovak stamps are delivered with Legionnaires' motives. Also some short stories, in which he draws on memories of his idealized childhood, have been preserved.

Honors and Awards

• For his sculpture " Odysseus " Obrovský 1932 received in the art competitions of the Tenth Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in the field " sculpture in the round " the bronze medal
• For the monumental bronze sculpture " The murderous Odysseus " ( 1934-35 ), he received the Katz Prize from the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts.
• In Bystrc in Brno, a street was named after him and is at its end in a park a monument to him by Miloš Axman.