Stanislav Podhrázský

Stanislav Podhrázský became known in the history of Czech art as a painter, drawer, sculptor and restorer whose work emanates from Surrealism and new Figurative art and was inspired by old, predominantly Renaissance and Mannerist, art. His link to Litomyšl is through his restoration work on Litomyšl Chateau.

He was apprenticed in Jindřichův Hradec as a painter and decorator and, in 1936, moved to Prague where he worked in the trade. He also studied for three years (1942 to 1945) at the State School of Housing Industry in Žižkov, Prague. In 1945, he enrolled at the studio of František Tichý at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. Tichý's students were subjected to a strict drill and were expected to master the art of drawing flawlessly; something that played a significant role throughout Podhrázský's work. From 1957 to 1964, he was a member of the Máj 57 group.

During his studies he was a member of the youngest generation of representatives of Czech Surrealism on whose roots Podhrázský's work, influenced by Magic Realism and New Figurative art, was based on. Throughout his whole working life, he remained true to the human figure, above all figures of girls, women, and couples in love. His work is distinctive in his unique approach to colour – e.g. he applied colours in several layers and subsequently scratched them off, thus achieving a new random picture texture. This, together with the colour palette used, which was often composed of the shades of one colour, enabled him to capture figures in an imaginary, dream-like, but also disturbing environment.

Stanislav Podhrázský was among those artists who disagreed with the official Communist Part political line and, in order to survive financially, turned to restoration work. He worked in Litomyšl from 1973 when, together with Zdeněk Palcr, he restored the main Chateau portal and the Riding School portal (under the formal leadership of Olbram Zoubek, the only one authorized to carry out independent restoration work). A year later, Zoubek acquired a contract to restore the Renaissance facade of the chateau. Alongside the fore-mentioned artists, Zoubek took on the painter Václav Boštík and, for short periods, other artists to help with the work. Podhrázský worked in Litomyšl until 1987 and, as a Figurative painter, was the main creative artist of the team, creating 95 percent of the modern motifs for the sections with engraved writing (only about 40 percent of the original engraved writing had been preserved). He also concentrated on salvaging the figural mythological scenes, and the reconstruction of the lunette cornices of the west and south facades was a unique task in itself. For these cornices, Podhrázský created a range of compositionally complex, narrative scenes, according to the principles of Renaissance art, enriched with motifs from his own work. The style in which Podhrázský created the scenes on the lunette cornices features extremely fine and dense hatching, and drawing carried out in one uninterrupted line, thus accentuating the curved body shapes

In the 1980s and 1990s, he created several architectural designs which were however, never carried out. Furthermore, he cooperated with the architects Aleš Burian, Petr Hrůša, Petr Pelčák and Zdenka Vydrová on a project for modifications to the prison Le Murate in Florence.

1949
Imagination of Fear
Aleš South Bohemian Gallery in Hluboká nad Vltavou

1956
Girl at Table
Aleš South Bohemian Gallery in Hluboká nad Vltavou

1964
Reclining Nude
National Gallery in Prague

1968
Lovers
Gallery of Modern Art in Hradec Králové

1960–1968
Reclining
Town Gallery Litomyšl