Ladislav Hodný
——Czech Artist——

Ladislav Hodny was born on February 14th, 1943 in Týn nad Vltavou (Czech Republic). In the years 1958 – 1961 he graduated from Vocational School of Bookbinding in Nový Jičín and in the years 1961 – 1965 from Secondary School of Arts and Crafts in Brno. Artist bega his career in the studio of his father Ladislav Hodný Sr. and he continues in this family tradition.

Between 1994 and 1999 he led a Bookbinding workshop at the graphics department at a private Master School of Art Design in Prague and for some time he also worked as a guest university teacher of bookbinding in the USA. Currently he is dedicated to painting, bookbinding, drawing, book illustration and free graphics. He belongs to the creators of Czech national values, as evidenced by the large number of exhibitions in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, but also abroad. He works are situated in many public and private collections. Ladislav Hodný got a number of recognition and appreciation for his work. He is a member of the art, but also the bookbinding societies in our country, in England and in the USA as well. Book as a painting, painting as a book“.

Ladislav Hodný transfers motifs and techniques from book covers onto large surfaces and it is surprising how skilfuly he finds harmonious balance even in the paintings. He himself has said: „I just love to paint the large surface because in books I have had only the A4 or A3 sizes. It is a wonderful change.“ And he is absolutely free and self confident in reaching new aims, his inner world is full of new possibilities of knowledge, he absorbs various stimuli and at the same time he keeps his own manifestation and style, following the ideas of lyrical abstraction in his peculiar approach he captures symbolic and mystic motifs in an indefinite space – time of his own world.

It is also possible to say that the central theme is a sign, the idea which controls the whole space here. Even though he has been interested in the possibilities of folding, plastic coverage in the form of almost dripping, scratching, craquelure, inserting other media and their treatment into a whole, often combined with gold foil, what is typical of him is the expressive colouring which reflects Hodný‘s personal views and feelings.