Josef Hvozdenský

Life and work

He was born on 7 March 1932 in Hvozdná near Zlín. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague under Professors J. Želibský and K. Minář. From 1964 he concentrated mainly on the medal and relief, while also painting and making prints. He signed medals and small objects with a joined JH monogram followed by the last two digits of the year, and paintings usually with his full name. He died on 19 May 2009 in Prague and is buried in Hvozdná, where the Josef Hvozdenský Gallery bears his name. His work is surveyed in the monograph Josef Hvozdenský – Paintings, Prints, Medals.

Coins and medals

In the 1960s he became internationally known for his medals for the 700th anniversary of the birth of Dante Alighieri (1965); his triptych of one-sided medals Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso (1973) was also well received abroad. For the Museum of Czech Literature he made portrait medals of writers, among them Čapek, Hašek, Seifert and Vančura. He created a series of plaquettes illustrating Czech proverbs, the commemorative medal for the 20th anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising and the honorary medal of the Czech Academy of Sciences De scientia et humanitate optime meritis.

From the work in the AUREA range

The AUREA range includes six of his medals, mostly in patinated bronze: Fráňa Šrámek (1977, 30 mm), Vítězslav Nezval (1979, 60 mm), Jaroslav Seifert (1986, tombac, 60 mm), the medal for the 40th anniversary of the nationalisation of foreign trade (1988, 58 mm, cased), the medal of the Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases (1983, 60 mm) and the Zdeněk Nejedlý medal of the Union of Czechoslovak-Soviet Friendship (1962, 60 mm). The writers' portraits in this group belong to a field Hvozdenský pursued over many years.