Ludmila Seefried-Matějková

Her father, František Matějka, owned a sawmill, and her mother, Ludmila, looked after the family, household and garden.

Matějková studied sculpture at Arts Grammar School in Prague with Prof. M. Uchytilová-Kucová (1953–1956) and made several attempts to enter university.

In 1964 she submitted an application for membership in the Czech Artists Association (CSVU) and during the Prague Spring she grabbed the opportunity to study abroad.

She takes her subjects from life around her, the city with its variety of human characters and their fates, the social differences to the fringes of society.

A series of heads/busts of different characters, mainly in terracotta, were the Turkish Woman 1983, Homeless 1990, Cunning Stockbroker and Girl at the Exhibition 1996 and others.

Struck by her childhood and early youth experiences, she often depicts pain, violence and aggression as important themes in her work.

Drawings were always an important part of Ludmila Seefried-Matejkova's works – from sketches in pubs, underground trains or on the beach to portraits and studies of people, mainly in pencil, charcoal, pastel or pen-and-ink.

As a representative of realism, which has quite a tradition in Germany, Ludmila Seefried-Matejkova was successful in several Kunst am Bau competitions Justice 1984, Double-Admiral 1985, The Dance on the Volcano 1988 and several other sculptural objects in the cityscape of Berlin.