Graphic artist Kulhánek dies

Prague, Jan 28 (CTK) - Well-known Czech graphic artist Oldrich Kulhanek, winner of domestic and foreign awards, who also designed the present Czech banknotes, died suddenly this morning at the age of 72, his family told CTK.

Born in Prague in 1940, Kulhanek is known for masterpieces with figural motifs focusing on faces and hands in various situations.

Under the communist regime he was persecuted over his graphic works allegedly defaming communist countries' leaders.

In the 1970s he was banned and could neither take part in exhibitions nor publish his works or cooperate with publishers. In spite of this, he succeeded in using illegal ways to smuggle his works behind the Iron Curtain. In 1971, for example, he displayed his work Homage a Albrecht Duerer at an exhibition in Nuremberg under the fake name Ulrich Boehm.

Kulhanek is known for his graphic cycles Faces and Hands, by works inspired by George Orwell's books and by stylised portraits of historical figures.

In the 1990s and the 2000s, his further figural cycles were Ecce Homo, Erotic Games, Job, Parabola, Fall and Special Dialogue.

Apart from the banknotes he designed in the early 1990s, he also designed a number of Czech post stamps.