Helga Hošková-Weissová

Academic artist Helga Hošková-Weissová, Dr.h.c., was born November 10, 1929 in Prague-Libeň in a Jewish assimilated family. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia, the family became victim to a number of persecutions by the Nazis, and in December 1941, they were transported to the Terezín ghetto. They spent nearly three years there, and during this time, Helga drew over a hundred of drawings depicting everyday life in Terezín. The picture-cycle, known as Draw What You See, is a precious work and a valuable historical testimony. At the beginning of October 1944, the Weiss family was transported to Auschwitz. While her father died in a gas chamber there, Helga and her mother were later selected to work in an aircraft factory in Freiberg, Germany. In April 1945, they set out on a death march to Mauthausen, where they were liberated on May 5. After the war, Helga simultaneously studied at a secondary graphic arts school and a grammar school. In 1950, she enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where she studied in the studio of professor Emil Filla. In 1965, she went on a study trip to Israel, which helped her to brighten her palette of colours as well as her outlook on life, and the resulting series of paintings, which she exhibited in spring 1968 in Prague under the title Pictures from Wandering Through the Holy Land, became a great success. This opened the door to the world of artists for her; however, shortly after, this door was slammed shut by the invasion of "brotherly armies" the following August. She stopped painting for several years and in the meantime taught at a school for amateur artists. She gradually returned to painting - as well as to the motifs of war, Holocaust, disaster, and catastrophe in general. In her art, she strives to pass the message to the young generation so that they may never commit what had befallen her. In 2009, she was awarded the 1st class State Medal for Merit in the field of culture, art and education, and the Josef Hlávka Medal.

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