Jan Zach

Jan Zach (1914–1986) was born in Slaný, Czechoslovakia. As a teenager, he left for Prague, where he began painting theater posters and murals. In 1938, while he was decorating the Czech Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair, his home country was invaded by the Nazis. Zach decided not to return to Czechoslovakia, opting instead to move to Brazil. In Rio de Janeiro, he worked as a commercial artist. His paintings and drawings were exhibited at the National Museum of Fine Arts and the Institute of Brazilian Architects. In 1947, Jan married Judith Monk, a Canadian working for the United Nations. They moved to a rural part of Brazil, where Jan began sculpting. In 1951, they relocated to Victoria, BC, establishing a local art school. In 1958, Jan became head of the Sculpture Department at the University of Oregon, where he taught for more than 20 years.

Wherever he lived, Zach turned to his surroundings for inspiration. In Czechoslovakia, impressed by the work of sculptor Zdeněk Pešánek, he explored the intersection of art, technology, and civic space. In tropical Brazil, he experimented with plant forms and light and shadow effects. In Canada, Zack was inspired by the logs and rocks on the coast’s beaches. In an article he authored, available here under Additional Media, Jan describes how solid and hollow volumes of sculpture and the shadows and reflections caused by solar and artificial light were his chief concerns.

Zack employed a wide range of sculptural approaches including wood carving, laminated wood sculpture, casting, sheet metal construction, and kinetic work. Some of his most innovative work was engineered from sheets of stainless steel. His Can-Can (1968-1969), for example, was a fifty-foot-high motorized sculpture on display at Eugene’s Valley River Center until 1989.

Other installations that were displayed in Oregon include Three Rivers (1964) and Drapery of Memory (1975). Two sculptures – Prometheus (1958) and Lady (finished posthumously in 1996 by his former student Jerry Harpster) – are still on display on the University of Oregon campus, and can be found in the Gallery together with Drapery of Memory. Jan Zach’s work is held in public and private collections not only in Oregon but also in Brazil, Canada, and the Czech Republic.