František Svátek

Czech academic sculptor, restorer and university teacher. In 1963 he graduated from the Technical School of Nuclear Engineering in Prague (design of nuclear facilities) and joined the Research Institute of Power Equipment in Brno, then worked at ČKD. He went on to study at the Secondary School of Applied Arts for Sculpture and Stonemasonry in Hořice (finishing in 1968) and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (1968–1973, sculpture and restoration, under Professor Bradáček). After his studies he emigrated together with his lifelong partner, the sculptor Barbora Blahutová: in 1974 they left for Rome and were granted exile in Germany in January 1975 (he received citizenship eight years later). From 1976 to 1978 he returned to Rome as a fellow of the Istituto Centrale del Restauro and worked on the restoration of ancient frescoes and mosaics.

After returning to Germany (1978) he devoted himself to stone restoration, becoming an internationally sought-after restorer working in Italy, Germany and Switzerland (among other things the altar for Einsiedeln Abbey consecrated by Pope John Paul II). In 1981–1982 he taught sculptural techniques at the University of Kassel; in 1984 he moved to Italy, where he set up his own studio, and in 1985–1986 he taught at the Centro Europeo per la Conservazione del Patrimonio Architettonico in Venice. Since 1999 he has lived permanently in the Czech Republic, in the village of Vlastiboř near Soběslav. Ever since his studies at the Academy (1972) he has been thinking through the possibilities of mobile objects using the meditative symbiosis of stone and water. Hydrokinetic sculptures and kinetic fountains became the central subject of his work: he uses the movement of jetting water to set in motion interlinked sculptural objects stylised into simple geometric or organic forms that rock, tip or turn (for instance

Boulder 1981, Albero 1984, Rombo 1985, Quadrifoglio 1987, Dialogue 1989, Gravezza 1992, Barca II 1994). In parallel he makes constructively conceived “wind objects”. Kinetic fountains have been realised in Prague, Třebíč, Jindřichův Hradec and at the Hussite Museum in Tábor; there is an installation at Kunstfeld Hetzmannsdorf (Austria). The exhibition “František Svátek — Kinetic Sculptures” was held at the North Bohemian Gallery of Fine Arts in Litoměřice (2020).