Ota Janeček

An important 20th Century Czech painter, printer, ceramicist, sculptor, book illustrator and designer. He first came to notice with drawings and paintings influenced by Modigliani, and later made numerous paintings and prints inspired by natural forms. His work had a Cubist edge during the 1950s, before he turned to themes derived from the inner structure of matter in the 1960s. He had a deep artistic understanding of the human form, and developed an individual style based on the portrayal of the female nude, and other elements, within a modern framework. He was the youngest of the group of artists loosely referred to as the 'Generation of the Second World War' who witnessed the horrors of the War, the resistance, and the liberation of Czechoslovakia in 1945.