"Let me go back to the exhibition in Špálovka. It was the last in the series. Now, every evening, they began reporting who signed the 'Several Sentences' petition, or a petition calling for Havel's release. At the end of each broadcast, they read out loud the names of the signatories. Ninety percent of those people were displaying their works of art there. Once again, serious trouble. I received a phone call and they told me the exhibition had to be closed down. I told them I couldn't do that. They said I had to exclude the signatories. By the end, I managed somewhat. The regime was already half-rotten then."
"I was of course struck by the resurgence taking place in 1968. That President Novotný was sidetracked and that things really began to move. I attended all of the events taking place in Lucerna, at Výstaviště - meetings involving people such as Pavel Kohout and Josef Smrkovský. It was very visible and everyone stood behind it. The nation came together incredibly and the idea - today perhaps naive and laughable - of socialism with a human face, was truly popular. At that time, we purchased a TV and watched it all. The newspapers were interesting, it made sense to buy three different ones. This was all underway but my dad was still somewhat sceptical. I couldn't grasp why he wasn't enthusiastic and why he foresaw things taking a turn for the worse."
"Then Palach set himself on fire and that really impacted us students. We saw it as a legacy. We tried to bring up the requirements which he clearly articulated. I was even a member of a delegation to the ministrer of culture and education. He told us to stay cool, and that he would handle it and prevent any future victims. Then it was all put to sleep. Then came August 1969 and the state cracked down on everyone. People had to leave politics and I found myself all in the normalization era of which I have simple memories. I had studied art history and history at a university in Brno back then. At the beginning of the 1970 winter semester, they had us all assembled at the study department with our record books. They told us to turn to page 4 - it said philosophy - and instead write 'Lessons learned from the crisis'."
Jiří Tomáš Kotalík was born on 14 February 1951 in Prague. His mother Helena was a housewife, his father Jiří was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts and a director of the National Gallery. He was influenced by his father’s work and therefore decided to pursue the same career. He graduated from art history at universities in Brno and Prague. He then worked at the National Heritage Institute. Ever since 1984, he was assistant professor at the Academy of Fine Arts and later he was given a tenure there. Despite disagreeing with the regime and seeing how the 1970s era deformed peoples’ characters, he never spoke out against it publicly. He claims that he sought meaning of life in his work, family and friends. In 1988, he joined the Communsit Party. He had left it right after the November 1989 events. In the 1990s, he took part in the renewal of the Mánes Union of Fine Arts. Between 2002 and 2004, he was director of the National Heritage Institute. From 1997 till 2003 and from 2010 till 2014, he served as rector of the Academy of Fine Arts. He curated a number of fine arts exhibitions and was instrumental in the preservation and restoration of many historic monuments.
