Theodor Pištěk (artist)

He inherited his family's artistic talent and love of automobiles: his great-grandfather František Ženíšek was a painter, and his grandfather Julius Ženíšek worked for the Wright Company and was the founder and owner of the Ford Motor Company´s branch in Austria-Hungary; in 1895 Julius Ženíšek became one of the first to own a racing car.

The actions of his business partner bankrupted the company, and the family was forced to sell František Ženíšek’s valuable collection of paintings.

Theodor Pištěk (born 25 October 1932 in Prague) is a Czech painter, costume designer, set designer and former racing driver.

His costume designs and film sets are internationally acclaimed.

He won an Oscar for his costumes for Amadeus, directed by Miloš Forman.

For Forman’s next film, Valmont, Pištěk won a César Award and was nominated for an Oscar.

After four years at a grammar school, Theodor Pištěk switched to the School of Applied Arts in Prague (1948–1952), where his fellow students included Aleš Veselý and Milan Ressel.

Pištěk learned to drive when he was just 16 years old, and at the age of 18, after passing his driving test, he joined the Automotoklub and started competing in car races.

In 1952 he was accepted by the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where he was studying under Vratislav Nechleba, a prominent portrait painter.

At the time of his studies, a number of respected pre-war artists and historians (Miloslav Holý, Vlastimil Rada, Vladimír Sychra, Otakar Španiel, Jan Lauda, Václav Vilém Štech) held professorships at the Academy, and among the students were Jan Koblasa, Karel Nepraš, Bedřich Dlouhý, František Mertl, Jiří Valenta, Milan Ressel, Hugo Demartini, Aleš Veselý and Jaroslav Vožniak.

His graduation painting, Boxer, earned him an extension to his studies in the form of an honours year in Antonín Pelc's studio.

A mastery of painting was important, but Pištěk and his fellow students and friends were more interested in modern art.

They countered the oppressiveness of communist rule with all manner of absurdist extracurricular activities.

In 1958 Theodor Pištěk married Věra Filipová, an assistant film director, with whom he had two sons (Jan, born 1961 and Martin, born 1967).

In the following year he designed costumes and sets for František Vláčil’s film The White Dove.

Pištěk’s first solo exhibition was in 1960 at the Film Club in Prague.

In the 1960s he was a racing driver, and he competed on circuits and in the European Cup (1967–1969).

In 1962 Pištěk and a group called The Šmidras founded an amateur ice hockey club called Palette of the Motherland, whose president he was in 1977–1979.

He had a studio in Břevnov in Prague, next door to Zbyněk Sekal’s studio, thanks to whom Pištěk met the art critic Jindřich Chalupecký and exhibited as a guest with the May 57 group in 1964–1968.

In 1964–1968 he was included in exhibitions by the Concretist Club.

In 1964 he acquired a new studio from Hugo Demartini in Vinohrady.

In 1967 he worked as a costume designer on František Vláčil’s films Markéta Lazarová and The Valley of the Bees, and was one of the artists who designed the Czechoslovak pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal.

The two artists remained close friends until Sekal emigration in 1968; Pištěk subsequently visited him in Vienna, where he met the sculptor Karl Prantl.

In 1972–1973 he was nominated for the Czechoslovak national circuit racing team.

Pištěk stopped racing in 1974, but he drew on his experience as a racing driver to co-write with Vláčil the screenplay for a film called Rally.

Since 1975 Pištěk has concentrated on painting.

He is usually considered a photorealist, but in the Eastern Bloc such paintings almost always had a clandestine symbolism that could be read between the lines.

In 1977 a cycle of paintings by Pištěk received a special mention from the jury at the International Festival of Painting in Cagnes-sur-Mer in France, together with a grant that allowed him to visit artists’ studios.

After his success in France several Czech galleries bought his paintings.

In the 1980s he worked as a costume designer for Miloš Forman, winning an Oscar for Amadeus (1984), for which he was also nominated for a British Academy Film Award.

In 1987 he exhibited artworks and costume designs at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle and the Lincoln Center in New York, as well as Indianapolis and Sydney in Australia.

Pištěk's exhibition in Seattle was curated by Meda Mládková and introduced by Zbigniew Brzezinski.

For his work on Forman's next film, Valmont (1989), he was nominated for the same two awards, and he won a César Award from the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma.

In the United States he accepted an invitation to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In 1990 Theodor Pištěk became the chairman of Václav Havel´s Prague Castle’s arts council and was commissioned to design new uniforms for the Prague Castle Guard.

He initiated the Jindřich Chalupecký Award for young artists, becoming one of its founders (alongside Václav Havel and Jiří Kolář).

In 1996 Pištěk had to vacate his studio, and he moved from Prague to Mukařov, where he had earlier designed and built a house.

In 2000 President Václav Havel awarded him a First Grade Medal of Merit, for his achievements in art.

In 2003 he received the Czech Lion Award for Unique Contribution to Czech Film, in 2013 he was awarded the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema, and in 2017 he received the Golden Slipper for Outstanding Contribution to Films for Children and Young People.

Theodor Pištěk is the son of two actors, Theodor Pištěk and Marie Ženíšková.