Josef Lehoucka (1923 - 1999)

Josef Lehoucka

Josef Lehoucka is a Czech surrealist and abstractionist painter.

A close connection between realism and fantasy is a characteristic feature of Josef Lehoucka's paintings. In his youth he was a factory worker, a crane operator, which was reflected in his visual art. Lehoucka often painted fantastically realistic paintings, which he complemented with industrial motifs. His past experiences are recalled in replicas of machines, tongs, and cylinders, geometrized and incorporated into abstract compositions. Against this mechanized reality, however, the Surrealist tradition is strong, bringing elements of chance and the unexpectedness of dreamlike objects and landscapes into the paintings.

Josef Lehoucka's works are represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Prague, the Central Czech Gallery of Prague and others.