The Academy of Fine Arts is and wants to be an elite school

PRAGUE - The combination of traditional artistic techniques, quality craftsmanship, and the latest artistic means of expression has characterized the Prague Academy of Fine Arts for over 200 years. The position of its graduates on the Czech art scene is no longer as privileged as in the past, as competition has emerged in the last 15 years. However, the school still prides itself on nurturing talent and remains an elite institution.
Many former AVU students are now mainstays of Czech art and have achieved success abroad. Jiří Kotalík, the head of the Department of Theory and History of Art at the AVU, who served as rector of the school from 1997 to 2003, told ČTK. Jiří Sopko is the current rector.
The Academy will celebrate the 210th anniversary of the founding of the Private Society of Patriotic Friends of Art on February 5. At its initiative, an art school was established in 1800. By decree on September 22, 1896, the academy was nationalized and in 1919 came under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education and National Enlightenment as a higher education institution.
Although there is continuity at the school, according to Kotalík, there has been a significant shift in its form. "It is a shift from the original vocational school, which taught mainly craftsmanship, and also from the period before 1989. Although it then attempted a more comprehensive approach, everything was closely linked to ideological matters; the academy produced artists with a stamp. Those who did not have the academy had no chance of succeeding in the art scene," Kotalík recalled.
Today, anyone can create and sell art regardless of whether they have studied or not. "This has also changed the role of the academy, which tries to create conditions and give a chance to the most talented among the talented," he said. The AVU still maintains a studio-based method of study that allows for an individual approach.
According to him, the academy wants to continue to uphold the style of a selective school - in contrast to many Western art schools that accept more students, albeit less talented ones. "In Belgium, comparable to us, there were up to 15 art schools, but then they had a number of graduates who found it very difficult to find employment," Kotalík mentioned.
Whether students today appreciate the privilege of studying at an elite school is difficult to say according to Kotalík. The most recent laureate of the Chalupecký Award, Kateřina Šedá, who also graduated from AVU, does not hide the fact that she hardly attended school. "Today it is not necessary for everyone to spend the whole day on ladders painting. Some run around and take pictures during classes, others work differently; what matters is to see in their results whether it made sense that they did not spend much time in school," Kotalík notes.
Šedá, alongside AVU graduate Ondřej Brod, was awarded the international Essel Prize for students of art schools for the first time last year. Among the younger generation of artists, two graduates from the Rafani group, Marek Meduna and Luděk Rathouský, were among the finalists for the Chalupecký Award the year before last; last year, finalists included Josef Bolf, Jan Šerých, and Jakub Hošek.
The same award was previously received by Tomáš Vaněk, with other well-known names in the contemporary art scene including former students of the school Milan Cais, Filip Kudrnáč, Martin Kuriš, Veronika Drahotová, Krištof Kintera,
and older laureates of the Chalupecký Award Michal Gabriel and Petr Nikl, Otto Placht, Petr Sís, Boris Jirků, or from the oldest generation Aleš Veselý, the late Karel Nepraš, Adolf Born, or Jiří Šalamoun.