Zdeněk Sýkora

Czech painter, university professor

* 3 February 1920 in Louny

† 12 July 2011 in Louny

His work ranks him among the leading European artists of the latter half of the 20th century and is featured in many major museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in Vienna and Centre Pompidou in Paris. In the mid-1960s he pioneered the use of computers in preparing works of art. He called his works from this period “Structures”. In the early 1970s he concentrated on the application of randomness in art and eventually developed an original system that formed the basis for his “Lines” paintings and prints.

Besides this main line of work, Zdeněk Sýkora also focused on landscapes, especially in the practical painting courses he led for art education students and members of the Louny painting club over the course of several decades. The Ohře (Eger) River in Počedělice was one of his favourite and most frequently depicted motifs.