Stanislav Hanzík

Stanislav Hanzík (born 24 July 1931 in Most) is a contemporary Czech sculptor. He is especially known for free sculptures, portraits, and realizations together with architects.

Stanislav Hanzík was born in Most - an industrial city in the northern Czech Republic (until 1993 Czechoslovakia). During the Nazi occupation (1938-1945) his family had to leave the Czech/German border region and moved closer to Prague, to Rakovnik. Here Stanislav entered the Gymnasium (equivalent to a high school) and created his first colored terracottas. He returned to Most in 1945 and made the acquaintance of his future wife Kveta (she died in 2012). After a year's study at the Padagogical Faculty of Charles University in Prague, under the tutelage of Czech sculptor Karel Lidický, he enrolled in studies at the Academy of Fine Art in Prague under the well-known Czech sculptor Jan Lauda. Hanzík graduated in 1956 and was given the opportunity for another year's honorary study at the same school. In 1957, he rented part of a house in Malá Strana, one of the historic districts of Prague, and established there his studio where he works to this day. At that time, Hanzík was working on sculptures which predestined the future orientation of his work, such as Simeon (Old Man and Child), the terra cotta sculpture Gorgona-Hiroshima, Welder, and Miner. He began presenting his work in 1959 at exhibitions held by the North Bohemian Branch of the Union of Fine Artists. In 1961, he was accepted as a postgraduate student at the Academy of Fine Arts in the studio of the sculptor Vincenc Makovský and his sculpture Welder was selected that year for the Czech exhibition at the "Biennale de la Jeunesse" in Paris. Hanzík was awardet, in direct international competition, the main sculpture prize. This achievement got him also a stipend which enabled him to study in France at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris where he took the opportunity and joined the highly regardet studios of Ossip Zadkine and Henri Georges Adam. In Hanzík's own studio in Paris, he began by now large series of dialogues and torsos. This first pieces were subsequently exposed during the artist's first solo exhibition in the "Maison de la Culture" in Le Havre in 1963.

After the return from France, in 1964, Hanzík continued his postgraduate studies and simultaneously taught modeling to students of architecture of the Academy of fine Arts. He held solo exhibitions in the Czech cities, such as Litoměřice, Ostrava, Hradec Králové, Jičín, and elsewhere. The great success had particularly his exhibition in Prague - at the "New Hall Gallery" in 1967. In this year, he accepted an offer from Karel Lidický to become his assistant at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1970, Hanzík was habilitated a privat docent. In 1991-1996 Hanzík taught at the University of Ostrava. From 1996 Hanzík devote his entiery time to his sculptor's work.

During his long artistic activities, Stanislav Hanzík organized dozens of exhibitions and created numerous important sculptures. These can be seen in places such as the romonesque chapel of St. Georg on the Czech Říp Mountain, in the Czech National Theater, in front of Carolinum - in the Old Town of Prague, on the Old Stairs of Prague Castle, etc. Significant is Hanzík's work for the Northern Bohemia.

Hanzík's sculptures decorate many interiors and public places of numbers of towns.

1960 Welder (The Czech National Gallery, Prague, Gallery Litoměřice), 1964 Motherhood (nursery school, Most, the Czech National Gallery in Prague, Gallery Litoměřice), 1968 Mother Karyatida (Monument for victims of Nazi concentration camp in Terezín), 1969 Impailed lion (crematorium Most – devastated by vandals in 1990, The Czech National Gallery Prague), Dialog of a Poet and a Girl (sculptural open-air museum in Arandjelovac, Serbia)

1970 My Country (Most – Atrium of the Czech bank), 1972 Josef Sudek - a bust (the Czech national Gallery in Prague, commemorative plaque in Prague), 1973 Chest Game (the Czech National Gallery in Prague), Lion's Fontain of Carolinum, 1974 Stanislav Neumann - the Czech actor (foyer of the Czech National Theatre, Prague), Corteous Dialog (the castle park in Litvínov), 1976 the Good Shepherd (the chaptel St. Georg, the national monument on the mountain Rip), 1978 The Czech Lion (City Hall Most)

1983 Josef Kemr - a Czeh actor (foyer of the Czech National Theatre in Prague), 1984 Rudolf Hrušínský - the Czech actor (foyer of the Czech National Theatre in Prague), 1987 Wrestling of a Lion with a Serpant (heraldig wall in the atrium of the Czech Parliament, Prague), 1988 Judgement of Paris (garden in the Troja Castle in Prague), The Pilgrim – Tribute to K. H. Mácha - the Czech romantic poet (Litoměřice)

1990 The Horse (Vrchlicky's park, wells in Teplice), 1999 commemorative plaque of A. Muchy -the Czech painter (Val-de-Grace, Paris)

2000 Crucifixtion (romanesque rotunda St. Georg, the mountain Rip), 2001 commemorative plaque of A. Muchy (New York), 2001 Metamorphosis (grave of the architect Kuca, the Czech National cemetery, Vyšehrad - Prague), 2002 Josef Bican - the Czech hockey pleyer (grave on the Czech national cemetery Vyšehrad - Prague), 2003 the Memorial stone of the district Usti nad Labem, etc.

Hanzík's sculptures have won numerous awards at home and abroad. Some of the prices are:

1952 1st prize of the Ministry of Culture and Education for the bust for the Czech architect J. Zitek's grave in Malenice, 1961 main prize for sculpture at the Bennale de la Jeunesse Paris for the sculpture Welder, 1962 award of achiement at the World Exhibition of Ceramics in Prague for the sculpture Gorgona-Hiroshima, 1966 1st common prize with arch. M. Marak for the "space of leisure time of youth, Liberec, 1976 1st prize for the Good Shepferd for the interior of romanesque rotunda St. Georg, the Czech pilgrim place the Mountain Rip, 1988 Merited Czech Artist, 1999 the proze of the Society of Portrait Sculptor London - Medal of Jean mason Davidson for the bust of the Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal, 2009 Medal for his contribution to the University of Ostrava.

Stanislav Hanzík gains prizes in thematic competitions associated with architect's implementation - e.g. 2003 the sculpture of the Czech national composer and song writer Karel Hasler at the Old Castle Steps,Corteous Dialog in the Ursula Gardens, The New Stage of the National Theatre, Prague, The Lion Fontain of Carolinum, Prague, etc.