Jan Kotik (artist)

January Kotík ( born January 4, 1916 in Turnov, † March 23, 2002 in Berlin) was a Czech painter, he also worked on collagen and various objects.

1934 Kotík, son of Czech painter Pravoslav Kotík came to Prague, where he studied from 1936 to 1941 at the Academy of Applied Arts. At the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937, he won a bronze medal. 1939 appeared a band with printed graphics, which dealt with the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Nazis, under the title The Testament of Burning Country. He was then 42 the founders of the avant-garde group

In the Stalinist- dominated postwar Kotík could not publish his works, and he turned to industrial design, glass art and bookbinding to. He also edited the magazine TVar opposition, in which he always understood his concept of art as a counterpart to socialist realism. At the World Exhibition Expo 58 in Brussels in 1958 he won a silver medal with a glass sculpture.

After staying a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service Kotík remained in Berlin in 1970, where he now lived. 1979 organized by the Neue Berliner Kunstverein an exhibition of his works in the Orangery of Charlottenburg Palace under the title January Kotik: Work (Work ) 1970-1979. Other solo exhibitions, among others at the State University of New York ( 1983), the Folkwang Museum, Essen ( 1986) and the Staatliche Kunsthalle Berlin ( 1992) held a memorial exhibition in 2002 at the National Gallery in Prague.

Since 1992 Kotík was a member of the Academy of Arts in Berlin. In 1997 he received the Fred Thieler Prize for painting. Kotík was married to the translator Kotíková Ruth, her son Petr Kotík is a composer and Martin Kotík is an architect. January Kotík died at the age of 86 years in Berlin.

Writings and catalogs (selection)

• Seeing and thinking. 11, Jan Kotik, " transfer" line - Object - color, 23 September 2000 to 21 January 2001 Berlin Academy of the Arts 2000 addition:. . Seeing and thinking 10-16: Video documentation of 23 artist talks of the exhibition series (1997 -2004 ). This number, 11 Jan Kotik. Academy of Arts, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-88331-090-5 (3 DVDs).
• Jirí Machalický (ed.): Jan Kotík: 1936-1996, kresby, koláze, grafické listy objekty, obrazy - drawings, collages, graphics, paintings, objects. Národní Galerie, Prague 1996, ISBN 80-7035114-4 ( exhibition catalog: Praha, Národní Galerie Grafická Sbírka August-September 1996, Brno, Dum Umění Mesta Brna January-March 1997).