Alois Sopr

Life and work

He was born in Manětín in 1913; the Czech Wikipedia gives 18 March, the abART database and the Plzeň city encyclopedia 18 February. He trained as a brass worker, chaser and metal engraver. He learned to model and cast plaster in the 1920s from Otakar Walter, who led him to study sculpture; from 1933 to 1935 he studied at the School of Applied Arts and from 1935 to 1939 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. From 1946 to 1949 he was assistant to Professor Otakar Španiel at the Academy, and in 1949 he briefly taught at the school of applied arts in Gottwaldov. He was a member of the Jednota umělců výtvarných, the Mánes Union, Skupina 58 and the groups Index and Medaile 66. In 1976 he moved to the Plzeň region. He was named Meritorious Artist (1963) and National Artist (1983) and received the Antonín Zápotocký Prize (1985 according to Wikipedia, 1986 according to the Plzeň encyclopedia). He died on 25 July 1993 in Plzeň.

Coins and medals

He created numerous official monuments and works for public spaces; some, such as the statue of Jan Roháč of Dubá in Prague and Workers' Reflection in Klatovy, provoked such reactions that they were moved even before 1989. He won many awards in competitions for public works, coins and medals and took part in some 122 exhibitions.

From the work in the AUREA range

The AUREA range includes his undated bronze medal Mánes Union – In Memory of 5 May 1945, 55 mm. The medal links Sopr's membership of Mánes with the commemoration of the Prague Uprising.