International
Symposium
of Ceramics
Bechyně
International Symposium of Ceramics in Bechyně
The wave of interest after the holding of the first sculpture symposium, organized
by Karl Prantl in 1959 in St. Margarethen, Austria, led to symposiums being held for
other sculpting materials. It was just a question of when and where the first
ceramics symposium would take place. Thanks to the sculptor/cer
amics artist Kurt
Ohnsorg, it was held in 1963 in Gmunden, Austria, a traditional center for ceramics. The following year, Karel Nepraš, Zdeněk Sekal, and Lubor Těhník participated
there, and Václav Šerák also attended in 1965 at Těhník’s suggestion. There he got
to know the rising generation of sculptors and ceramics artists who contributed
actively to the establishing of free sculpture in ceramics as an independent
sculpting material. Under the influence of the symposium in Gmunden, in 1966
Václav Šerák and Lubor Těhník together with Pravoslav Rada and Bohumil Dobiáš,
Jr., founded the International Symposium of Ceramics in Bechyně (until 2000 also
called the Intersymposium). The symposium in Bechyně is the longest continually
existing symposium on the European continent. The 25 annual symposiums have attracted Europe’s top
sculptors and ceramics artists, many of whom have been members of the
prestigious Académie Internationale de la Céramique, and among the important
participants have been artists and teachers from overseas. Soon after Bechyně,
Peteris Martinsons contributed towards starting a symposium in Riga, Latvia,
and thanks to the activity of Janos Probstner, symposia were established in the
Hungarian cities Siklós and Kecskemét. Steve Mattison supported the development
of the symposium in Kecskemét with the help of his contacts abroad. Other similar
symposiums have come and gone in Europe and elsewhere. Another long-standing
event in the Czech Republic is the International Mug Symposium presented by the
company Český porcelán in Dubí.
