NEWS: 10 02 2023

Four days ago, the creative career of the extraordinary visual artist Květa Pacovská (1928-2023), whom the general public associates mainly with her work as an illustrator, came full circle. For all of her illustrations, which are now highly sought after by collectors, let us mention her timeless illustrations of Carl Sandburgs book Tales from the Potato Rows, published in 1972. In addition to this, Květa Pacovská was also equally inventive in her painting, sculpture and free graphic work, the results of which, however, have only begun to be properly appreciated in the Czech environment in the last decade. In contrast, her unconventional work has been widely appreciated abroad since the 1990s. In 1992-1994 Květa Pacovská was a visiting professor at the University of the Arts in Berlin and in 1998 at Kingston University in the UK. In 1999 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Design at Kingston University in the UK. From 1995-1997 she carried out a garden project at the Chihiro Art Museum Azumino in Japan, where her work as an illustrator is highly regarded. 

Květa Pacovská is also appreciated as a creator of experimental books for children and adults, which have been published with great success in more than twenty countries. One of her most valuable and technologically demanding books is the book Scarp, which is represented in Czech institutions only in the collection of the Olomouc Museum of Art. This extraordinary book, which can be succinctly described as a unique spatial continuum, was published in 1997 by the Prague publishing house Aulos in only ten copies. With the exception of a few private collectors, only foreign institutions own this remarkable book. In addition to Scarpa, which is part of the “golden fund” of the authors books sub-collection, Květa Pacovská is represented in the museums collection by three unique authors books and 7 graphic sheets from the 1960s-1980s.

Ladislav Daněk
curator of the MUO collection of paintings