Czechoslovakian 1914-1985

Still Life 1955
Oil on canvas
97 x 162
Gift of JoAnne Di Castri

Jan Zach was one of the few professional modern artists working in Victoria during the 1950s. He came to North America to supervise the installation of his country’s pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, but when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia he went to Brazil where he met his future wife Judith Monk. They lived there for the next decade where Zach was a well-established artist receiving many commissions.

In 1951 they moved to Victoria where there was a comparative lack of public interest in abstract art.  This led Zach to found an art school where his students included Elza Mayhew, Robert De Castro, and Jack Wilkinson. He left to teach sculpture at the University of Oregon in 1958 but was remembered as a pioneering figure of what became the local modern art scene in Victoria.