Born 1907, Berlin; died 1988, Kadaň, Czechoslovakia.
Born into a family of artists, Karel Havlíček studied law and became a lawyer - a career he did not like. He spent most of his life in Kadan, in northwestern Bohemia. He married and had three children. Havlíček worked for the Czechoslovakian government during World War II. The situation became emotionally and morally impossible for him, so he resigned, a political decision that marked him the rest of his life. He began drawing at this time as a way of exorcising his emotional and spiritual conflicts. Working only at night, he followed a ritual reminiscent of automatic practices. His drew without premeditation, spontaneously, as if overtaken by spiritualist production. After 1948, he was forced to leave his job in a ceramics factory where he painted dishes, and he became a laborer. In 1948, the Czech art critic Karel Teige, a major figure in the Czechoslovak avant-garde, became interested in him and planned to organize an exhibition of his drawings, a project crushed by the political authorities. This was a profound disappointment to Havlíček. He died before knowing the freedom that came about with the Velvet Revolution in 1989.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2012
Outsider Art / Gigantomachy, Outsider Art: Collection of Pavel Konecy, Karel Havlicek, Museum Montanelli, Prague, CR
1998
Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum – Duisburg, Germany
1991
Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum – Duisburg, Germany
1985
Museum Ludwig – Cologne, Germany
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
Escaping Reality: Art Brut from Czechia, The Czech Center, New York, NY
We Are Birds, Outsider Art Fair, New York, NY
2017
Graphite Vision, Schick Art Gallery, Saratoga Springs, NY
Immortal Menagerie, Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York, NY
2016
Maverick, Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York, NY
Outsider Art Fair, NY represented by Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York
2015
dRAW, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago, IL
Outsider Art Fair Paris, represented by Cavin-Morris Gallery, Paris, France
Rhizome: New Growth at Cavin-Morris Gallery, Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities: 30 Years at Cavin-Morris, Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York
Outsider Art Fair, NY represented by Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York
2002
L’Art Brut Tchèque, Halle Saint Pierre – Paris, France
L’art Brut in the Czech Lands – Exhibition of Marginal Authors, Stone Bell House – Prague, Czech Republic
Czech Surrealism 1929-1953, National Gallery – Prague, Czech Republic
PUBLICATIONS
2014
art brut collection abcd, Flammarion, Paris, 2014. Catalog published at the occasion of the exhibition Art Brut, collection abcd/Bruno Decharme, at La Maison Rouge, Paris
2006
art brut collection abcd, 2006, Les Editions, ed. Barbara Safarova and Terezie Temankova
2002
L’art brut tchèque, Publisher: Halle Saint Pierre – 2 rue Ronsard – Paris, France, Author: Lusardy Martine – Paris, France