Otakar Hůrka (Koloděje 1889 - Kostomlaty 1966), a graduate of The Prague Academy of the Arts, specialized in landscape painting. He studied at the atelier of Prof Alois Kalvoda, concentrating on Czech landscape, which he continued painting throughout his life. He was awarded a scholarship by President T.G.Masaryk, which he used for his 1920-3 study tour of France. In 1921 he exhibited his Czech landscape paintings at the Spring Salon, which received favourable criticism in such journals as Echo de Paris, Petit Parisien and Journal. The art magazines Les Tablettes and La Revue Moderne published reproductions of his works. At the Autumn Salon in the same year, Hůrka further exhibited two large canvases from a battlefield of the First World war near the French town of Terron where the Czech Legion excelled in 1918. He participated in the Autumn Salon with five other prominent Czech artists: Kotěra, Kupka, Stretti, Zamponi and Šimon. After his return home, he concentrated on landscape paintings of the Sazava River area and the area around the Elbe. In 1948, following the Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia, he was expelled from the Czech Artists Union, which made it unable for him to exhibit and display his works in public till the end of his life.
Ref: Biographical information furnished by Otakar Hurka Jr. (son of the artist)
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