Lot 178

Vavro Oravec (1915 - 2007) FRANZ KAFKA

Vavro Oravec is one of the artists with a very interesting past. He was a dentist and a self-taught painter. At first he worked in a hospital, but after the ban on medical activity (due to his Jewish origin) he also trained in ceramics. In 1944 he was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, then to Gross Rosen and Blechhammer. After the war, he learned to draw under Jan Bauch and became friends with members of the Máj 57 group. He painted the portrait of Franz Kafka several times and each time he approached it very emotionally with hints of abstracting the visual reality. He also dealt with themes from life during the war.