Zemřel přední český historik umění Jiří Šetlík The prominent Czech art historian Jiří Šetlík has passed away.

Prague – Art historian Jiří Šetlík passed away at the age of 93 on Saturday. His daughter Michaela Beňová Šetlíková informed ČTK. Šetlík was one of the leading figures of the Czech visual arts scene in the 1960s. He published in several art periodicals, led the Collection of Modern Art of the National Gallery, served as the director of the Museum of Decorative Arts, and worked as an educator. His career was interrupted by normalization, during which he was banned from professional activities and was not even allowed to teach. It was only after 1989 that he could return to his profession. He also worked for three years at the Czechoslovak embassy in the USA and continued his teaching work.

Jiří Šetlík was born on April 2, 1929, in Prague. He studied art history and aesthetics at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, where his professors included Antonín Matějček and Josef Mukařovský. In the 1950s and 1960s, he led the Collection of Modern Art at the National Gallery in Prague, served as editor-in-chief of the magazine Výtvarná práce, lectured at the Academy of Fine Arts (AVU), and was the director of the Museum of Decorative Arts in the late 1960s. During that time, he also pursued postgraduate studies in the USA, but he completed his associate professor degree in Prague on Otto Gutfreund only in 1994.

During the normalization period, Šetlík was among those who had professional activities banned. He was expelled from the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and from 1971 to 1989, he earned a living as a technical worker in the reconstruction of heritage buildings at the Museum of Decorative Arts. His essays on Czech visual artists who created despite the official culture were published in samizdat from 1985 to 1987. These essays circulated in typewritten copies among all who were interested in Czech visual art. The portraits of Adriena Šimotová, Magdalena Jetelová, Vladimír Janoušek, Čestmír Kafka, and other artists are now considered essential literature on Czech art of the 1970s and 1980s.

After 1989, he worked for three years at the Czechoslovak embassy in the USA as a ministerial counselor for culture and health. Upon returning, he taught at the School of Applied Arts in Prague and from 1996 to 2001 led the Department of Art History and Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture of the Technical University in Liberec. In 2014, he was awarded the Artis Bohemiae Amicis medal by the Ministry of Culture for his lifelong work in the field of visual arts. He was also one of the founders of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award, which is designated for Czech artists under the age of 35.

The life story of Jiří Šetlík is also highlighted by the project Memory of the Nation, which captures the memories of witnesses of the 20th century.