Tomáš Hřivnáč - Biography
Tomáš Hřivnáč, born in Prague, Czechoslovakia November 1, 1959 moved shortly after his birth to Říčany, a small town of 10,000 residents approximately 20 km to the south where he still lives with his family.
Mr. Hřivnáč, Sr., an interior designer/architect in one of Prague's Design Institutes during Tomáš early years, currently has his own company. Mrs. Hřivnáč worked for many years as a nurse in Říčany's main hospital. Presently, she assists a primary care physician in town.
In 1983, Tomáš married Hana Hřivnáčová. Their daughter Petra was born a year later, and son, Jan, four years following. Petra, teaches, and works as a ceramic artist; Jan, still in high school, studies computer technology.
Tomáš’ artistic talents were recognized early on by his teachers when in elementary school. This observation and subsequent encouragement to pursue and develop this natural ability would eventually have him follow in his father’s footsteps by studying at the Arts College in Prague under professor /architect K. Stransky.
After Tomáš was graduated from College, he began working in the Design Institute for Urban Development of Prague (Projektovy Ustav Vystavby Hlavniho Mesta Prahy), with the famous architect K. Koutsky. However, early in this employ Tomáš had to fulfill his mandatory two-year military service; thus, working in his chosen field was stopped until he re-joined the team two years later, where for the following ten he lived a stereotypical life in the gray Socialist society.
The pursuit of his art education manifest itself in his taking many drawing courses; while at home he created, as he said: “just for the drawer." Occasionally he would participate in private (unofficial) events/exhibits. Tomáš uses the word "unofficial," because at that time in Czechoslovakia only those artists, who had a certificate from the state, which confirmed that they, indeed, were artists, could exhibit his/ her work. The title “Artist” was often received as a political reward for government support.
In spite of these complications, Tomáš’ first prints were created in 1985. He was fascinated, and admits to still being so enamored by the reality that he can print a line which was just scratched [engraved] into a flat surface of metal and have it evoke an emotion both in him as well as his audience. This is Dry Point Technique. When he “draws,” he notes with curiosity, that he is actually “disturbing" the smooth surface of a metallic plate with a case-hardened, steelinstrument. Further, when he wants to print the image, he puts ink into the engraved lines, and then removes it from any smooth surfaces. Next, he runs the plate and paper through the printing press where the thin film of ink on the sides of the engraved lines transfers, under pressure, to the moist paper. Dry Point technique, called “Dry” because no acid is used in the process.
Another technique that he likes is called Mezzotint. This process is more demanding with regard to the preparation of the metal plate than Dry Point before the actual image can be realized. Thus, using a special wheel instrument, he creates a surface, which will produce a silkscreen-like pattern on the printed paper. The wheel, when rolled over the metal surface pushes in that portion it strikes [rolls over] leaving an infinite number of tiny “rods” [pixels] protruding from the plate. The image is produced by removing part, or all of these pixels: i.e. He smoothes out those surfaces on which he wants to have light-colored or no transfer of ink. Like Dry Point, it is a “negative,” mirror image drawing. The final print resembles a black and white grainy photograph.
In the end of the 1980’s, political changes occurred in Eastern Europe. There was Gorbachev in the Soviet Union, and Walesa and his Solidarity movement in Poland; the falling of the barbed-wire fence on the border between Hungary and Austria; the escape of Eastern Germans to West Germany; and the falling of Caucescu's dictatorship in Romania. These events precipitated changes in socialist Czechoslovakia.
As an artist and an individual, Tomáš still could not do much artistically at that time, but he did find a group of artists who were loosely connected to the State Union of Czech and Slovak Artists. They could, at least legally, exhibit their work in non-gallery spaces. At that time only the state-owned chain of art stores, Dilo, existed, and artists could sell their works there only after they were approved by a special commission, which had to decide whether or not their work was "real" art, and more fundamentally, if they were in fact, Artists. This commission also assigned specific values to all art-works that were sold in those stores. Through his architectural activities, Tomáš had an opportunity to go through those approval procedures several times, and was able to sell some of his paintings in one of these chain art stores. He had changed jobs only half a year before the Velvet Revolution of November 17, 1989, and for a year, he worked as a night guard/watchman. This was a voluntary change on his part, and Tomáš knew exactly what to expect. The main reason was that, with his new job, he had more free time at home for his artwork and family. In addition, on his new job he could even work on some small format pieces, read books, or study foreign languages. His financial situation was improving at that time, since the Communist Government preferred blue-collar workers to so-called "working intelligentsia." In his case it meant that, as an "Assisting Worker," which was his job category at the guard post, his salary was 1/3 greater than it was when he was working as an "Independent Designer."
Soon after the Velvet Revolution private galleries opened in Prague, and other Czechoslovakian cities, and anyone could offer his / her art for sale. Then, it was up to the gallery owner, not the state to decide, whether she/he would accept. That was when Tomáš began to be fully engaged in art, which soon became his profession: more, he feels, was his calling. In addition to Dry Point to include Mezzotint engravings he also does oil paintings, acrylic and has been successful with ceramics.
Tomáš, a very prolific artist with catalogued images numbering around 500, is well known and collected throughout Europe, in South America and Japan. Justin Robert Galleries, feels privileged to have the largest collection of his work in the world, and to be the sole distributor in America, Japan and Russia.