Adriena Šimotová
★ 1926 Prague ✚2014 Prague
1941-1942
Studies at a private graphic school in Prague under prof. Jaroslav Šváb.
1942-1945
Studies at the State Graphic School in Prague under prof. Richard Lander and Zdeněk Balaš. Concurrently, Jiří Mrázek, Daisy Troníčková-Mrázková (for only a few months), Jiří Šindler, Vlastimil Berger, Dagmar Hejdová, Jiří Chadima study at this school.
1945-1950
Studies at the School of Applied Arts in Prague (since 1948 at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design) in the studio of prof. Josef Kaplický. Her classmates are Jiří Mrázek, Jiří John, Jiří Šindler. Jiří Mrázek introduced her to Václav Boštík.
1950
Admitted to the II. Regional Center of the Czechoslovak Union of Graphic Artists, where she meets Václav Bartovský and becomes close friends with Věra Janoušková and Vladimír Janoušek.
1953
Marriage to Jiří John. Thanks to Václav Boštík, Jiří John acquires a studio at Nad Královskou oborou 15, where Adriena Šimotová also works. Takes part in the first confrontation of the works of artists Václav Boštík, Jiří John, Stanislav Kolíbal, Vlasta Prachatická, Jiří Mrázek, Daisy Mrázková in the Boštík Studio. The exhibition becomes one of the impulses for the formation of the UB12 Group.
1957
Participates in the Exhibition of Five Artists in the Aleš Hall of Umělecká beseda in Prague.
1959
A trip to Paris with the Institute of Housing Culture. Creates pictures of lyrical abstraction.
1960
Birth of son Martin. Solo exhibition (with Věra Janoušková) in the Hall of People’s Democracy in Prague.
1965
Independent exhibition in the Gallery of the Czechoslovak Writer in Prague. From this collection is selected a number of monotypes and gouaches for the Biennial in Sao Paulo and the International Biennial of Youth in San Marino.
1967
Participates in the International Biennial of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana to which she regularly contributes until 1983. Creates paintings and drawings close to the style of new figuration.
1968
Independent exhibition in the Václav Špála Gallery. Trip to Paris with Jiří John to attend the exhibition of Josef Šíma at the Musée d’Art Moderne. Meets Josef Šíma.
1969
Trip with Jiří John to Paris, where she again meets with Šíma in his studio.
1970
Independent exhibition in the Václav Špála Gallery. Gold medal at the International Biennale of Graphics in Florence.
With the advent of Normalization, the group UB 12 began to dissolve and was officially banned in 1970.
Based on biographical data of the members of UB12 up to 1970 in: SLAVICKÁ Milena. UB 12 - Studies, interviews, documents. Prague: Gallery in cooperation with Gema Art a o.s. OSVU, 2006, pp. 306-311
