KAREL VYSUŠIL

Karel Vysušil (*1926 - 2014) was born in Trmice. He was a Czech painter and graphic artist, studying at the School of Decorative Arts and subsequently at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague under the guidance of professors Otakar Nejedlý and Karel Minář. From 1952, he was a member of the Hollar Association of Czech Graphic Artists and the Association of Free Graphic Artists. In the 1960s, he co-founded the art groups G7 (John, Šimotová, Balcar, Karásek, Hadlač, Sovák, Vysušil), LG 5 (Týfa, Králík, J. Novák, Sklenář, Vysušil) and Máj.

His most favourite graphic techniques are drypoint, etching, and coloured lithography. Furthermore, oil painting and, last but not least, collage. He was one of the first authors of Czech post-war graphic art to work with coloured lithography as a transposition of free painting. In the 1970s, he enriched his creative artistic processes with the technique of "autocollage," i.e., using his own graphic works to create collages. He held more than 60 solo exhibitions and participated in more than 250 collective exhibitions in Austria, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Italy, Poland, the USA and the Czech Republic. He received a number of Czech and international awards – e.g. a silver plaque in Tokyo in 1969.