Designer and ceramicist Václav Šerák has passed away

Prague – Designer and sculptor Václav Šerák has passed away at the age of 89. He was the author of numerous ceramic sculptures and a designer for several ceramic factories. His monumental and expressive style was also applied in architecture and in the creation of sculptures made of ice and snow. The curator Dita Hálová informed today about the artist's death on Saturday, who organized a retrospective exhibition of his work at the Museum of Applied Arts in Prague in 2014.

Šerák's work was characterized by the blending of themes from sculpture into design. "His works were characterized by dynamic shapes, generous proportions, measured detail, and expressive shape and color interpretations of the sculptures,” Hálová stated. According to her, Šerák's works are represented in most European and overseas collections specializing in sculpture and free ceramic sculpture.

Since the early 1960s, Šerák collaborated with industry, including the Karlovy Vary porcelain factory. "Throughout his life, he was interested in the technical aspects of the creation of silicate materials, and thanks to his excellent knowledge and inclination for material and shape experiments, he came up with numerous bold innovations in both authorial and mass design," Hálová said. She added that the Duchcov porcelain manufactory Royal Dux continues to produce Šerák's designs to this day.

Václav Šerák was born in October 1931 in Čakovice. He graduated from the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague in the ceramics and porcelain studio under Professor Otta Eckert.

In 1960, Šerák won an award for the porcelain collection Milena at the Triennale in Milan and for designs of figurative porcelain for the Karlovy Vary porcelain company. Two years later, he participated as an artist and organizer in the International Ceramics Exhibition in Prague. "This grandly conceived showcase promoted the newly forming field - free ceramic sculpture - as an autonomous part of modern European sculpture,” explained Hálová. In 1966, Šerák, along with Lubor Těhník, Pravoslav Rada, and Bohumil Dobiáš Jr., was involved in the founding of the International Ceramic Symposium in Bechyně, the longest continually held symposium on the European continent.

From 1972 to 1990, Šerák worked as an independent development worker at the Institute of Housing and Clothing Culture in Prague (ÚBOK). In the early 1990s, he began leading the ceramics and porcelain studio at the Prague Academy of Art, Architecture and Design, where he was appointed professor in 1992. He also founded and then led the Studio of Ceramic and Porcelain Design at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen.