Jan Mladovský

* 1946

  • "Another thing I remember is that I was at a school in the countryside near Špičák in Šumava. And there I was questioned by the director of the nature school. He was a Russian who spoke Czech with a Russian accent. I don't know how he found me among the pupils. Of course, he knew from the cadre report that my father had been arrested and that I was a 'class unreliable person', a class enemy. He interrogated me in a very friendly way. He used to invite me to the principal's office where he had a samovar. He would always make tea from the samovar. It was supposed to be drunk the Russian way over a sugar cube. He always offered me that, and then he asked me around and around what my parents were doing at home. Of course, I knew it was dangerous, so I said, 'I don't know anything,' and he wouldn't let on. I was there with him about three or four times."

  • "My father was reading the newspaper, Rudé právo, and my mother was getting upset and saying, 'Zdeněk, please, what are you reading?' And he was saying, 'Well, wait, wait, I'm reading between the lines here.' I guess he had certain ideas that he had to inform about what was going on and so on. I remember actually thinking that you could read between the lines. So then I was studying the newspaper too and seeing what you could read between the lines."

  • "He was first charged, of course, then arrested. After he was arrested, my mother tried to protect me somehow, telling me that my father was on a part-time job. But then, of course, when the trial was going on, there was no covering it up. I knew he was in prison. He spent most of his time in Pankrác. We used to visit him. Visits were allowed there. I remember it was a long table. The jailbirds were sitting on one side and there was a guard at the head of the table and they let the relatives in. They sat across from their prisoners. Now it depended on what the guard was like. If he was watching intently to see what was going on, or if he turned significantly, which meant he was a benevolent man, and various packages and all sorts of things began to be passed under the table. It always mattered."

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    Praha, 17.08.2022

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    duration: 02:16:45
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Being creative makes one happy

Jan Mladovský, 1974
Jan Mladovský, 1974
photo: archive of a witness

Jan Mladovský was born on 30 September 1946 in Prague as Jan Mladějovský. He later changed his name abroad for linguistic reasons to make it easier for foreigners to pronounce and remember. Jan’s father Zdeněk Mladějovský ran the family company Emanuel Barth, which manufactured equipment for the food industry. The company was located in Vysočany, Prague. The Mladějovský family lived an active social life and maintained close contacts with many artists. The events of February 1948 had a major impact on the life of the whole family. The company was nationalised and in the early 1950s the father was arrested. He was subsequently sentenced to three years’ imprisonment in a mock trial. He returned from prison in poor health and the hardships he endured caused his early death. In 1962 Jan began his studies at the Secondary Vocational School of Art in Prague (today’s Václav Hollar Art School). After graduation, he continued his studies at the Academy of Arts and Crafts in Prague (VŠUP), in the graphic design studio under Professor Antonín Strnadel. At university he met and became close to his classmate Anna Fodorova, daughter of the writer and journalist Lenka Reinerová. In the summer of 1968, he was staying with Anna in Great Britain, where the news of the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the five Warsaw Pact countries reached them. After much deliberation, they decided to stay abroad and later legalised their stay. He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London and at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan. He spent several years in residencies in Italy and Germany. He has had numerous solo exhibitions in leading museums and galleries abroad and in the Czech Republic, and has published a book and scholarly texts. In addition to creating, exhibiting and writing, he also works as a curator. His work has been the subject of numerous texts and articles in professional and public media. He has taught at several European universities. He has organised the international programme of the European Academies of Fine Arts. He has a daughter Philippa from his marriage to Anna Fodor. He lives in London and regularly visits the Czech Republic.