Jan Sekal

Jan Sekal was born on the 11th of February 1948 in Prague. His parents were a costume designer Ludmila Purkyňová and a sculptor Zbyněk Sekal. Parents - both convinced communists - got divorced after some time and the witness lived alternately in different parts of Czechoslovakia. He passed his Secondary-school leaving exam at grammar school in Ostrava, he studied French Literature and Art History at university in Bordeaux between 1968 and 1969, he returned to Czechoslovakia in 1969 and started to study French and Philosophy at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University. He left university and worked as a blue-collar worker and he simultaneously created his own art. He studied as an extramural student at Secondary Vocational Art School in Prague in the 1970s. He was in touch with dissidents and helped them with their activities which made him an object of interest of State Security that repeatedly interrogated him and forced him to cooperate. He left for France in 1983 and has lived there ever since. He made his living in different ways, he even worked as a blue-collar worker. He worked as a graphic artist for French edition of Lettre Internationale between 1984 and 1993. He worked in the French National Library from 1998 till his retirement; first he did auxiliary works and later he led guided tours of exhibitions that were held there. He gradually found his way towards Jewish religion and he has been visiting Israel regularly since the 1980s. He exhibits occasionally, his art work was published among others in Revolver Revue magazine.