Eva and Bohumír Krystyn: From the Life of Youngsters

Name: From the Life of Youngsters

Author: Eva and Bohumír Krystyn

Dating: 1979–1980

Location: originally in the bar in the student halls of residence in Ostrava-Poruba, today in the VŠB-TUO cafeteria

Execution: five circular reliefs made of glazed ceramics, each 60 cm in diameter

YOUTH LEISURE TIME IN THE UNIVERSITY CAFETERIA LOUNGE

Eva and Bohumír Krystyn decorated, using their own authentic artistic approach full of colours and naive style, several buildings designed for VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava. Although their works of art were most popular in kindergartens and primary schools, they found their place anywhere where recreation took precedence over work and serious themes – in the so-called Vítkovice Ironworks villa, the ROH (the national trade union centre in former Czechoslovakia) recreation centre, restaurants and sweet shops. The ceramic mosaic We Learn from Nature (now at the Faculty of Safety Engineering in Ostrava-Výškovice) was originally created for a primary school but became part of the university collection after the adaptation of the building for the University faculty. And the Krystyns’ works found their use in facilities with a similar purpose also directly on the VŠB-TUO campus.

First of all, the ceramic reliefs From the Life of Youngsters were created for the bar within the complex of the student halls of residence in Ostrava-Poruba between 1979–1980, although they were not installed until 1982 because the building had not been finished. Originally, five circular reliefs were hanging next to each other on the wall behind the bar counter, where the university students came to relax in their leisure time. Therefore, the simple puppet-like figurines reflect the leisure activities of youngsters – hiking trips in the countryside, cycling trips, literary encounters, discos, as well as dating and hanging out in a park. When the reliefs (probably already at the end of the 1980s) were moved for unknown reasons to a small lounge in the cafeteria building, where the youngsters can rarely see them, they lost their original connection to the student environment.

Bohumír Krystyn

(1919–2010)

Work: We Learn from Nature
From the Life of Youngsters
Youth, Life, and Nature

Krystyn’s studies at the School of Arts and Crafts in Brno were interrupted in 1944 by deployment to a Prague factory. In 1945, Krystyn enrolled in the University of Applied Arts in Prague, where he graduated in the studio of the monumental painting under Emil Filla in 1950. In the 1950’s he painted the construction of the ironworks Klement Gottwald Nová Huť and portrayed its first employees. He gradually stripped his purely realistic painting style of details and gave it a significant impression. His landscapes and bouquets of flowers engage our attention by its multi-coloured, almost exaggerated colouring. Besides painting, he also devoted himself to ceramics. In addition to a number of works together with his wife Eva, he also cooperated with ceramist Lubor Těhník (a mosaic Family for the Cultural Centre of the company Pozemní stavby in Moravian Ostrava; a dividing wall for the Nová Huť in Ostrava-Zábřeh, 1965). Together with glassmaker Benjamin Hejlk, they designed decorative glass walls for the headquarters of the Ostrava-Karviná Mines (1965). Krystyn himself is the author of decorative grids in the apartment hotel owned by Vítkovice Ironworks in Ostrava-Zábřeh (1970 and 1971) or stained glass for the Spa House Petr Bezruč in Jeseník (Spa). He was a member of the Ostrava and Prague branches of the Union of Czechoslovak Fine Artists. He has participated in a number of foreign study internships.

Eva Krystynová, born Zvědělíková

(1922–1987)

Work: We Learn from Nature
From the Life of Youngsters
Youth, Life, and Nature

Eva Krystynová was born in Skalica, Slovakia. From 1942 to 1948, she studied at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague under Karel Svolinský. From 1950, she worked as an art designer for the Children’s House in Prague. She moved to Ostrava with her husband in 1960 and until 1968 she worked as an art designer in the community centre in Ostrava-Poruba. Later, she became a freelance artist. Her work was inspired by the folk traditions of the Moravian-Slovak borderland and the children’s art. In cooperation with her husband Bohumír she also created a number of works for architecture. Their unmistakeable ceramic (sometimes in relief) mosaics have been used to decorate the building interiors of kindergartens (e.g. Ostrava-Zábřeh, Ostrava-Lhotka, Havířov, Frýdek-Místek), primary schools (Ostrava-Výškovice, Fulnek Special School), secondary schools (Secondary School of Chemistry in Ostrava-Zábřeh, restaurants (Ostrava – Mariánské Hory, Opava), shopping centres (Klimkovice), the Hrabyně rehabilitation centre, and others.