Jiří Sozanský (born 27 June 1946) is a Czech sculptor, painter and graphic artist. He came from a poor background and worked in blue-collar jobs before being accepted as an exceptional talent to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. He took manual jobs also as a student and graduate to keep his personal and creative freedom. He is an amateur boxer, founder of the Boxart group.
His life was brutally affected by the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia and he was deeply touched by the sacrifice of Jan Palach. Sozanský was active organizer of various unofficial meetings and artistic activities at the Terezín Memorial or Old Most, demolished for coal mining, throughout the normalization until the fall of the communist regime. Then in the communist prison in Valdice and communist concentration camps at uranium mines in the Příbram District, or in besieged Sarajevo. In his work he consistently commemorates political prisoners and victims of the communist regime (Milada Horáková, Jan Zahradníček, Ivan Martin Jirous, Václav Havel, and others) and refers to literature sources, such as Samuel Beckett's Stories and Texts for Nothing, Orwell's novel 1984, and Václav Havel, Primo Levi's and Rudolf Höss's writings. He is a recipient of the award Knight of Czech Culture,České noviny: Jiří Sozanský is the Knight of Czech Culture the certificate Participant of the Resistance and Opposition to Communism and was awarded For his extraordinary contribution to the reflection of modern history by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes.USTR Awards for Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights He is the author of the triptych Jan Palach - Ascension at Karolinum and Memorial to the Victims of the August 1968 Invasion and the Victims of the 1969 Protests for Wenceslas Square.
Life Jiří Sozanský was born on 27 June 1946 in Prague.Jiří Sozanský, in. 772 He was born to parents who met on the barricades during the Prague Uprising and married soon after. He never knew his biological father Ivan Sozansky, who came from Subcarpatian Ukraine.Sozansky J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, pp. 162–163 Ivan Sozansky was arrested in 1948 while trying to cross the state border, but managed to escape from prison. It has not been possible to trace whether he was forcibly deported to the Soviet Union after the war.Ivan Dolejšek, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, p. 368 In 1952 a court declared Ivan Sozanský missing.Sozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, pp. 13, 53
Jiří grew up with his mother in very poor circumstances and learned early in his childhood that he had to fend for himself. His mother was a trained hairdresser and, thanks to her occupation, had a wealth of social contacts. Later she remarried and moved with Jiří to Pec pod Sněžkou for a time to meet a new partner.Sozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, p. 36 She separated from her partner when Jiří was 10 years old.Sozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, s. 16 At that time, he spent weekends and part of his holidays with his grandmother Veronika and aunt Milena, where he met a year older Josef Kapín, later boxing champion,Rudolf Šindelář, The great TALENT of Czech boxing OLYMPIONIC Josef Kapín has died, Šíp, 24.8.2014 with whom he met again as an adult during boxing training. Aunt Milena worked as a curator at the National Gallery, where Jiří sometimes came to see her with his mother and learned about Czech Baroque art.Sozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, p. 18 Around the age of 13, his mother arranged a visit of the sculptor Jan Kodet, who first bought his drawing and encouraged him to become an artist.
After graduating from primary school, he trained as a mason in the company Pozemní stavby (Ground Construction) in 1960–1963. Active sportsmen worked as teachers at the school and under the influence of Václav Pšenička Jiří Sozanský started to train weightlifting at the age of 15.Sozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, p. 28 The librarian of Pozemní stavby introduced Sozanský to the music theorist Jaromír Paclt,Jaromír Paclt, Czech Music Dictionary of Persons and Institutions who lent him books by French existentialists and publications on modern world art. Thanks to Paclt, he also met Zbyněk Sekal.Sozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, pp. 64–67 Artist of the enterprise Zdeněk Fultner founded an art club for him, provided him with painting materials and supported him in his preparation for studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague.Sozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, pp. 166–167 After graduating from the apprenticeship, he passed the entrance exams for evening studies at the Václav Hollar School of Graphic Arts, but was dissatisfied with the low standard of the local teachers and left the school.Sozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, p. 125
Since 1963 he worked as a bricklayer, scaffolder, later as a diggerSozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, p. 30 and after undergoing rheumatic fever and long-term rehabilitation as a stoker. From 1965 he was employed by the Geological survey as a driver's mate and for another year as a stagehand at Vinohrady Theatre. In the mid-1960s, he visited the Bohdan Kopecký exhibition and his expressive records of the devastated landscape of the Most regionSozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, p. 161 influenced Sozanský so much that he later created some of his major works there.
At that time, he attended drawing courses at Municipal House with the painter František Nedvěd and then with the graphic artist Miloš Čech at the National House in Vinohrady and prepared for the Academy exams. There he was admitted at the third attempt in 1967 as an exceptional talentRadan Wagner, interview with Jiří Sozanský, 1 August 2015 and was excused from secondary education.Sozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, p. 22, 31, 32, 88 In 1967–1973, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in the studio of prof. František Jiroudek, in the studio of drawing led by Jiří John and the studio of graphic arts, headed by prof. Ladislav Čepelák. It was here that he met Zuzana Nováčková, who helped him print graphic sheets after graduation. During his studies, he chose the Most region and Steel factory in Kladno, where he worked on temporary jobs in 1968–1971, for his plein air drawings.Sozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, pp. 94–95, 212 In the studio of František Jiroudek at the same time studied Petr Pavlík, Petr Kouba and Marie Blabolilová and two years older Miroslav Koval. Jiří Sozanský's closest friends during his studies were Antonín Kroča, Jiří Novák and the sculptor Lubomír Janečka.
As for his entire generation, the Soviet occupation in August 1968 and then the sacrifice of Jan Palach became a lifelong trauma for Jiří Sozanský.Jiří Sozanský: 1969 - The Year of the Break, 2015 He repeatedly reflects both events in his work, which focuses on extreme situations.Jiří Sozanský: Sixty-ninth - the last things of man, ČRo Vltava, 2009Sozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, p. 231 In 2024, he created the monumental Memorial to the Victims of the August 1968 Invasion and the Victims of the 1969 Protests. The memorial is provisionally located in the neighbourhood of the Museum Kampa and is destined for final installation near the National Museum in Prague.Memorial to the Victims of August 1968 and 1969, Czech TV, 21.8.2024 The early 1970s for him were marked by scepticism as to whether art still had any meaning in the new reality of an occupied country. Sozansky rejected passivity and decided to search for the causes of evil. While still a student, he made a trip to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, then to Theresienstadt Ghetto, and in 1978 he went to Auschwitz with Ivan Bukovský. In Terezín, where he commuted regularly in the second half of the 1970s, studying archives with prisoners' testimonies helped him to find an important theme and overcome a creative crisis.
In 1971, while studying, he married his first wife, Jaroslava, with whom he has a son, Jiří.Sozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, p. 25 The marriage gradually broke down under the pressure of external circumstances of the normalisation period, problems with obtaining an apartment and existential worries, and ended in divorce in 1985.Sozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, pp. 25, 33 In 1988 Jiří Sozanský married the psychologist Olga Pajerová.
In 1970 Sozanský was introduced to Olbram Zoubek by his former shift foreman from the heating plant Ladislav Junek, who was a plasterer by profession.Jan Palach 50. The story of the victim who changed our history. Special programme Vltava in sound, Czech radio Vltava 2019 He got his first small studio in 1972 and at the same time had the opportunity to work on his sculptures in the studio of Olbram Zoubek. Ladislav Junek helped him with the moulding at first and Olbram Zoubek allowed him to cast some of the sculptures in a mixture of lead and tin.Sozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, pp. 35, 62 Sozanský finished studies at the Academy with honours in 1973, defending his diploma thesis on the subject of human suffering, where, in addition to paintings and drawings, he also presented his sculptural works.Sozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, pp. 114–117 After graduating from the Academy, Sozanský continued to work in manual professions in order to maintain his personal independence and not be restricted in his own work.Sozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, p. 172 He did not become a member of any organization and did not apply for scholarships awarded by the Official Union of Czechoslovak Visual Artists.Sozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, p. 223 Olbram Zoubek also supported him financially at that time and to repay the debt, Sozanský went to Litomyšl in 1974–1976 to work with a group of artists who restored the castle sgraffito.Sozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, pp. 168–169 In the mid-1970s he suffered a serious illness, experienced a deep creative and existential crisis and was looking for a new subject for his work.Sozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, p. 291
In 1973, he visited the Terezín Memorial for the first time and then, from 1977, went there to study the archives. Later he created sculptures and installations directly for the environment of the Small Fortress. Since the 1970s, he was in contact with Ota Kraus, who wrote hundreds of articles and several books about Nazism and the Holocaust. Sozanský attempted to depict this topic artistically only after the death of Ota Kraus at the beginning of the new millennium, under the influence of Primo Levi's texts and the writings of Rudolf Höss.
In the 1970s he met František Ronovský, Josef Jíra and Otakar Slavík. When Slavík signed Charter 77 and was about to lose his studio, Sozanský made a fictitious exchange with him for his rented warehouse in Libeň, allowing Slavík to use the studio until he emigrated to Vienna.Sozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, pp. 175–176 Sozanský was also in contact with Vladimír Janoušek and Adriena Šimotová, and was familiar with the work of Alina Szapocznikow and Erzsébet Schaár, whose existential works are close to his nature.Sozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, pp. 268–269 In 1976 he took part in a collective exhibition of young artists, which ended in a confrontation with a member of the normalized official Union of Czechoslovak Visual Artists Vladimir Šolta. In 1978, Petr Pavlík together with Jiří Sozanský and curator Marcela Pánková organized a generational exhibition Confrontation at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Krč.Sozanský J, in. 279, 289–290 The exhibition was a direct reaction to the impotent work of young authors who met the criteria of the selection committee of the normalized official Union of Czechoslovak Visual Artists.Marcel Fišer, Diploma Theses at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (1969–1989), GVU in Cheb, 2018, , unpaginated and was prematurely terminated at the intervention of the Communist party authorities.