Blabolilová Marie

Marie Blabolilová (*1948) is a prominent Czech printmaker, painter, and restorer. After graduating from the Václav Hollar School of Fine Arts in Prague, she enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts, where she devoted herself to painting. However, she also focused on printmaking, a medium in which she soon found her own distinctive voice. Ultimately, however, she returned to the medium of painting. Her style, particularly in her later years, is characterized by abstract and color-intensive compositions. As in her graphic work, the human figure is absent here. At the same time, Blabolilová uses diverse and atypical painting substrates, such as linoleum or hardboard. In addition to painting techniques, she likes to experiment with collage and hatching in her paintings.

Her style was also strongly influenced by the onset of normalization, which she experienced during her student years. Blabolilová drew inspiration for her material experiments precisely from the typical furnishings of Czechoslovak households in the pre-revolutionary period. The colors and patterns of old linoleum flooring, which she initially traced and incorporated as part of the background in many paintings, became the foundation and starting point for her new compositions beginning in the mid-1980s. 

Blabolilová’s works often reflect existential themes and, through symbols and abstract forms, express deeper emotional and philosophical ideas. She has received several awards for her work, which is considered a significant contribution to contemporary Czech art.