Doc. Petr Pavlík

“In autumn I somehow said to myself I could fly over to London to think over if, in fact, I should stay abroad or not. There I found out what I had known before anyway, but needed to be sure about - that I am practically unable to be transplanted. Firstly, I was already in the first year of my studies at the Academy and then I realized that I was such a Prague and Central Europe patriot that I would die abroad. Simply that I wouldn´t manage without Vinohrady, my part of Prague. Also among others. So, I came back and naturally took part in different activities in which we tried to oppose in some way the existing situation here.“

(Míša Čaňková: It was autumn of 1968 when you came back.) “Yes, I came back and, so to say, plunged into painting. Finally in 1973 I finished my studies - and that was another thing: in those days The Union of Czechoslovak Artists governed over everything here and I and my friends and colleagues were not accepted as members. We could only be registered, meaning that as artists we had to show some income. And because at that time I actually had no income, I didn´t earn anything, to be honest I was supported by my parents, then I had to pay a made up tax on the made up profit. Otherwise I´d be a sponger, a parasite, in short it´d be a punishable act. However, then I started teaching art courses at different schools and also sold a thing or two.“