Stanislav Diviš

* 1953

  • “I cannot say that we organized the events thinking that the regime was weakening. Not at all. We just had the experience that the Secret police never intervened after any of our events, so we didn't worry. We didn't want to be afraid of something that might never come. The establishment of the art group and the following events were not related to the fact that we thought it was possible. We just did it, but it wasn't at all with the knowledge that we could do it at that time. After all, that always showed up later on. We didn't think of a weakened regime at all.”

  • “I don't remember what I told them, because these are situations where you are stressed and you know that a good cop and a bad cop take turns and they keep asking you stupid questions. I mostly answered nonsense. There was no point of telling them anything. I know the file exists, and Pepa Nos said he laughed when he was reading it. I didn't even go to Pardubice to look into the file, because I was afraid to find out that maybe some close friends of mine were telling on me. I live my life with purpose, I don't need revenge, nor do I need to live in anger at someone who did such things. I try to do the things I want, I've never told on anyone.”

  • “In Kutná Hora, before I enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts, my life resembled an American movie. I kept changing jobs at the time. I went to Germany to unload grain, I picked strawberries, I also worked on archaeological excavations, then in a brewery, in picture framing and finally I ended up as an artist in the district cultural centre. At that time, I organized events in the local club, such as poetry sessions, artwork and jazz music. It went well and people attended regularly. I also invited singers to the club, such as Vladimír Merta or Josef Nos. Fortunately, we recorded all the concerts in the archive. However, one peer reported to the Secret police (StB) that we were insulting the president. At that time, children's things were rising in price, and Josef Nos sang something about buying children's shoes. Such a banality. But it set off the Secret police investigation. Someone with a higher batch was transferred from Prague to a small town as punishment for causing some problems, and he wanted to get back to Prague. He took the concert as an exemplary example. They were watching me from that moment. A guy with a bicycle stood in front of our house all day, and when the postman arrived, he checked my mail and then continued watching me. To be honest, I was pretty nervous about it at the beginning. I had small children then. I was worried that they would send in a social worker. I felt really bad for two or three days. But then I looked out the window and I thought to myself, 'they can kiss my ass.' ”

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    Praha , 06.11.2020

    (audio)
    duration: 01:56:20
    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th Century TV
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We wanted to go a different way

Stanislav Diviš, 2020
Stanislav Diviš, 2020
photo: Post Bellum

Stanislav Diviš was born on 20 November 1953 in Kutná Hora. His mother was an accountant and his father worked as an electrician in surface mines in Chvaletice. They lived in Telčice, which became famous for its cultural house in late 1950s. During the fading golden era of Czechoslovak big beat, bands such as Blue Effect, Flamengo or Synkopy 61 performed there. This inspired Stanislav to open a boys’ club in an empty laundry room downstairs. Before devoting himself fully to the visual arts, he trained as an electrician and then moved to Kutná Hora to study technical college. At that time, his interest in art started to deepen, also thanks to a biographical book of František Kupka. He tried to get to art schools in Prague (Academy of Fine Arts, Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design) seven times. During that time, he went through various professions - from operating a truck for collecting faeces through picture framing to picking strawberries to the position of artist of the district cultural centre. Among other things, he organized concerts of singers such as Vladimír Merta or Pepa Nos. This caught the attention of the Secret police (StB), who kept a file of his activities with the code name Artist. On the seventh attempt, he succeeded to get to the Academy of Fine Arts (AVU). But he was later expelled from the academy, allegedly because of his eccentric performance with the band Krásné nové stroje. Together with a classmate from the Academy of Fine Arts Jiří David, they organized ‘Confrontations’ in the 1980s, followed by the creation of an important art group Tvrdohlaví in 1987. During the Velvet Revolution he helped with activities around the Mánes Gallery. After 1989, Stanislav Diviš became an established painter of Czech postmodernism. In 1996 he worked for a year as a teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts (AVU) and in 2003–2010 he worked as the head of the painting studio at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. To this day, he is the frontman of the band Krásné nové stroje.