Marie Dočekalová

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Marie Dočekalová was born on 8 July 1950 in Loštice, Šumperk region. Her father was an academic painter and restorer František Sysel (1927-2013). Among other things, he became famous for restoring Titian’s painting Apollo and Marsyas from the collections of the Kroměříž Museum. From 1948 until November 1989, her father lived under constant surveillance by State Security Service because of his work for the Catholic Church and the opportunity to travel professionally to the West in the 1950s. Her mother worked as a clerk in the Prostějov office, and the family was religiously oriented with a critical attitude towards the communist regime, although both grandfathers were members of the Communist Party. From 1961 the family lived in Kroměříž, where Marie Dočekalová graduated from high school and lived through the atmosphere of the relaxation of the situation and the occupation by the Warsaw Pact troops in August 1968. In 1969 she entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. In 1975 she married and together with her husband and young son they worked on the restoration of the castle in Milotice near Kyjov. In 1981 they moved to Kroměříž, where Marie worked under the auspices of the Institute of Monument Conservation. At that time, she began to work with dissident Augustin Navrátil, for whom she transcribed open letters, calls for initiatives, petitions and information about Charter 77 and the VONS declaration for many years. She wanted to sign Charter 77 in the early 1980s and later, but Navrátil always persuaded her not to sign the document in order not to attract the attention of State Security. Indeed, the State Security left her alone throughout her cooperation with Navrátil. Marie Dočekalová finally signed Charter 77 in April 1989. She lived through the November events in Kroměříž, where the Civic Forum co-opted her to the local council, to the Department of Culture. After a few years she left this position and focused on art and restoration.