He lived in Prague and Milan, and was married to Italian writer Serena Vitale [it].

[1] Novak was from a generation of artists who began studying at art schools in the liberal atmosphere of the end of the 1960s, but which fully emerged on the art scene in about the mid-1970s, during the Normalization period, during which Czech artists were prevented from making contact with the foreign art world.

[citation needed] In about the mid 1980s, Novák's paintings became more radical, moving from tranquil and reflective works to aggressive, colourful expressions of concentrated emotion, coinciding with the emergence of a new wave in the Czech art.

[citation needed] Novák took part in many solo and group exhibitions.

The most famous were the exhibitions "Man in the Wind" at the Ball-Game Hall in the Royal Gardens of Prague Castle in 1999 and "Quasiretro" at the Manes Art Gallery in Prague in 2005.