Michal Vitanovský (born 3 May 1946) is Czech medal artist and sculptor. He is the author of expert articles and books on medal art, numismatics, heraldry and history of decorative stove tiles.
Life Vitanovský was born on 3 May 1946 in Klatovy. He comes from a family of a soldier in the Czechoslovak Army. His father was resistance fighter during World War II and a high school teacher, later an army officer who was forced into early retirement at the start of normalization. Michal lived with his family successively in Mikulov, Brno, Prague, Trenčín, and finally in Prague. In his youth, he read the works of Gustav Meyrink, Lautréamont, and Jarry; during his teenage years, he discovered rock and roll and the Beatles. When he initially failed the entrance exams for art school, he completed the optional ninth grade and attended art courses at the People's School for a year.Juliana Boublíková-Jahnová, 2006, unpaginated
From 1961 to 1965, he attended the Secondary School of Fine Arts in Prague. A profound influence on him had his art teacher Professor Viktorin, who required students to tackle a new subject each week.Michal Vitanovský, návštěva v ateliéru / visit in studio, V.I.P. Gallery, 2009 After graduating, he studied from 1965 to 1971 at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague in the studio of Jan Kavan, majoring in applied sculpture.Petr Pavliňák (ed.), SČSVU, 2009, p. 42 During his studies, he took evening courses in figure drawing and visited exhibitions of leading artists of the Czech modernist movement of the 1960s. He also had the opportunity to get acquainted with the works of European sculptors Lipchitz, Moore, Calder, Arp, and Picasso. In 1974, he participated in the exhibition "The Contemporary Bohemian Medal" in Prague, and a year later, in the FIDEM international exhibition in Kraków.Juliana Boublíková-Jahnová: Michal Vitanovský, A Retrospect, The Medal 35, 1999, pp. 79–86 In 1976, together with other Czech artists (Demartini, Nešleha, Hendrych, Kolíbal, Dlouhý, Karel, Roubíček, and others), he participated in a major commission by the Art Center for the Marble Palace of the Pahlavi dynasty in Tehran.
Since the 1980s, he regularly attended medal-making symposia in Nyíregyháza, Kremnica, and Uherské Hradiště. There, he gained experience with lost-wax casting, a technique in which each work is created as a unique original piece (Loneliness, Studio, 1984). In 1986, his sculpture Icarus was installed at the Faculty of Education in Ústí nad Labem, and in 1988, the Monument to the Peasant revolt of 1775 in Bohemia was installed at Konopiště Castle. Through this work, Vitanovský aligns himself with the Baroque tradition, yet it is a modern work sculpted in sandstone. Toward the end of the years of normalization, sculpting also served as a form of spiritual catharsis for him and a reaction to the regime's efforts of brainwashing (Metamorphosis, 1987).
After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, opportunities opened up for the free creation of works on previously forbidden themes. Commissions began pouring in from cities, churches, government institutions, foundations, and even some cultured private individuals, and it suddenly became possible to mint and issue the works in larger series. Some commissions in the 1990s were entirely unique. Vitanovský won the competition for the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1991) and for the Czech Republic's highest state honor, the Order of the White Lion (1994).Hrůzová N, 2011, unpaginatedJuliana Boublíková-Jahnová: Michal Vitanovský, in: Anděla Horová (ed.), NEČVU, 2006, p. 826
Since 1984, he has been publishing expert articles focusing on medal art, coins, medieval tiles, and heraldry. In 1989, he was a member of the action committee of the Civic Forum at Mánes. Since 1990, he has been a member of the Association of Medal Artists (elected chairman at the founding meeting in 1990), and since 1992, a member of the Umělecká beseda (chairman of the fine arts department in 1993). In the 1990s, he contributed to the magazine The Medal published in London, edited the Information Bulletin of the Medal Artists' Association, and contributed to the Umělecká beseda bulletin Život (Life) (2004–2007). He was a member of the informal association ‘'Lipany’' (1991–1992). Together with Milada Othová and Jiří Vlach, they form the art group Trojkolka (The tricycle).AbART: Trojkolka The group organizes regular meetings and art symposia.Michal Vitanovský, Zpráva o III. symposiu Trojkolky / The report on the 3rd symposium of Trojkolka (21.--26.7.2011), Slovácko 53, 2011, pp. 371–372,
Vitanovský lives and works in Prague and in Pyšely. He is one of the leading Czech medal artists.Procházka V.: Michal Vitanovský - fenomén českého současného medailérství / The Phenomenon of Contemporary Czech Medal Art, Numismatické listy 51, 1996, pp. 154–162 To mark his 60th birthday, two retrospective exhibitions of his sculptures and medals were held in 2006 at the Senate of the Czech Republic and at Strahov Monastery.Jana Hásková, Dvě výstavy / Two exhibitions of Michala Vitanovského, Numismatické listy 3, 2006, pp. 138-139 Abroad, he has been represented at exhibitions organized by FIDEM ("Fédération internationale de la médaille d'art") since 1975 (Lisbon, Florence, Stockholm, Colorado Springs, Helsinki, London, Budapest, The Hague, etc.)
In the 1970s, he married Eliška Zázvůrková (born 1955), a dancer at the National Theatre, with whom he has a daughter, Barbora (born 1977). The couple divorced and Eliška Vitanovská moved to United States. He met his second wife, Naděžda, at a medal-making symposium in Kremnica in 1985.
Awards received 1995 Medaille d'argent de L'Ordine pro merito melitensi. Order of Merit of Malta - Sovereign Order of the Knights of Malta 2000 "Jiří of Poděbrady Medal." Jiří of Poděbrady Foundation for European Cooperation 2006 The "Tomáš J. Baťa Award" for Distinguished Service, Rotary International 2015 Officier de Merité, Officers' Cross of Merit. Military and Hospitaller Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem 2016 "The Josef Hlávka Medal." The Josef, Marie, and Zdeňka Hlávka Foundation 2023 Crux ex Merito (The Cross of Merit of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem), Order of the Holy Sepulchre
Work Vitanovský is an example of educated, creative individual with a broad knowledge of art spanning from the Middle Ages to the present day. His intellectual focus leads him toward an expressive sculptural style. Throughout his body of work, there is a clear balance between an intimately lyrical element and elements that are both dramatic and rational.Helena Štroblová, Tomáš Hladík, 1986 His original work is often non-figurative and draws on other 20th-century art movements. He is an artist who has had a profound influence on the development of Czech medal art since the late 1970s and early 1980s.
He considers himself primarily a sculptor, but he is best known for his extensive body of work as a medalist, which consists mainly of portraits. While still a student in 1968, he cast his first medal featuring a portrait of Albert Einstein and designed a medal of T. G. Masaryk, which was minted in 1968. In the late 1960s, he participated in competitions for commemorative coins (Jan Evangelista Purkyně, 1969), but with a few exceptions from the 1970s (Jesenský, Smetana, S. K. Neumann), he only began designing coins after the fall of communism in the 1990s. His sculptural work is highly expressive (Pieta—Study for a Monument to the Peasant Rebels, 1978).Němečková V, 1983, unpaginated
At the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague he experimented with all kinds of sculptural materials, from wood, metals, ceramics, and stone to plastics. It was during this period that he created his small bronze sculptures, which, with their monumental forms, resemble studies for larger works. Toward the end of his studies and shortly after graduation, he focused on white-glazed ceramics, highlighting the details of his modeling with blue glaze.Prokop J, 1973 He created a series of sculptures inspired by the female figure, along with numerous variations on "Idols," rendered in the style of synthetic cubism (Motherhood, 1973). His work shows the influence of many modern sculptors. Vitanovský's creative vision experiments with traditional forms and draws inspiration from the Middle Ages within the Renaissance concept of the medal.
The end of his college studies coincided with the onset of normalization, which was also reflected in his thesis project—he channeled all his feelings about the stifling atmosphere of that era into the sculpture Prometheus. The ancient hero Prometheus became a symbol of an individual's bold defiance against the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, just as the act of Jan Palach did. Other sculptures from that period, even in their titles, clearly reflect the oppression of the times (The Imprisoned Bird).
After graduating from art academy, Vitanovský devoted himself primarily to creating medals and sculptures as a freelance artist. Like most artists affected by the occupation in August 1968 and the subsequent normalization, he turned to neutral themes (in his case, figures from ancient Czech history), which were tolerated by the regime. He conveyed his experiences from reading Czech and European poets and writers into a series of unconventional and distinctive medals titled Poets and Writers. He also dedicated series of medals to issues raised by the rapid development of civilization (with the ironic title In Praise of Civilization) and the associated destructive impact of humans on nature or the threat of war. Cast medals and plaques were not subject to such strict scrutiny by communist censors and offered the possibility of greater artistic freedom as well as the opportunity to exhibit abroad. This was not the case, however, for minted medals, where oversight of content did not end until the fall of the communist regime in 1989. Consequently, minted medals did not become a significant part of Vitanovský's body of work until after 1990.
In addition to medals commemorating specific events in his personal life (Wedding, 1975; Birth of a Daughter, 1977; Barborka, 1979), he also created works marking significant anniversaries (Lidice, 1971–1972; Year of Czech Music, 1974, National Theatre, 1981–1982). The Lidice medal approaches the theme in a completely new and original way — the surface, with the "shadows" of figures suggested, is perforated by three bullet holes, from which cracks radiate outward. Vitanovský typically creates works in separate thematic cycles. His very first series of seven medals from 1975 commemorates the Prague Uprising of May 1945 in an unconventional way. In the 1970s, he created a series of medals and plaques with environmental themes, which became a symbolic expression of his dissent against the political situation in occupied Czechoslovakia (Without Water, There Is No Life, 1976; Bird in Oil, 1980). At the same time, he began a series of portrait medals of figures he personally admired (Vančura, Debureau, 1976, Brothers Čapek, 1977, etc.). In the 1970s, he began creating the series Murdered Poets, which bears witness to his personal commitment to the world of literature and serves as a warning to future generations.Prokop J, 1977 For the Marble Palace in Tehran, he created ten bronze reliefs depicting administrative reforms in government ministries.