Dydek and Kolář, a friendship
My father and Jiří Kolář* saw each other with a certain regularity, especially, of course, during my parents’ travels through Europe to meet friends and organize exhibitions, when they would have the opportunity to stop in Paris for a few days. Their friendship, “strengthened” by their respective wives Běla and Jarmila (my mother), lasted for years, also through the exchange of letters, photographs, etc.
One of the peculiarities of some of these “mailings” or gifts, strictly linked to the “reuse” of images, a skill both were masters of through their skillful use of collage techniques, were the “little pictures” created by Kolář using, in this specific case, the cutouts from photographs of my father’s works.
Often very amusing were the comments K. would leave on the back of them, humorously highlighting the lightness of the creation. (DD)
* Jiří Kolář (Protivín, 1914 – Prague, 2002)
If you or Jarmilka don’t fully like a particular one, throw it away and replace it with something else of your choice…
J.K. (1988)“
J.K. (1988)“
regards to Jarmilka
Your J.K.“
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San Felice del Benaco collection
From the 1980s onwards, a friendship has been a defining feature of both Ladislav Dydek’s private life and his artistic career: his friendship with Father Angelo Coan, a Carmelite friar, and above all an art lover and musician. This lifelong friendship has left its mark on the ‘Al Carmine’ holiday home at the monastery of the same name in San Felice del Benaco on Garda Lake. Father Angelo collected some of Dydek’s works, first in Florence, where he had moved as parish priest, and then upon his return to San Felice. The number of paintings, drawings and collages gradually grew, adorning the walls of the public areas of the “house”, from the shared auditorium and classrooms to the corridors on the various floors of the building. Today, this collection includes around a hundred works, which can be viewed on request. (DD)
https://www.carminesulgarda.it/
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Pottery
The Skalicky–Dydek family owned the “Keramika Kravsko” pottery factory, located in the town of the same name in Moravia, not far from the Austrian border, after it was returned to its rightful owners in the early 1990s. The 1948 nationalisation by the communist regime brought to an end the factory’s historic production, which had already been problematic during the Second World War due to the fact that it was not of “pure Aryan blood”.
In the 1990s, Ladislav Dydek and his wife Jarmila Skalicka often stayed in Kravsko, and Dydek was able to experiment with his own decorative art, creating a number of unique pieces that bear witness to his interest in the transformation of materials. (DD)
