Alena Kučerová
★ 1935 Prague
Spends her childhood with her parents in Prague and her grandparents in Lhota near Stará Boleslav.
1950-1954
Studies at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design on Křižovnická Street in the studio of prof. Rudolf Beneš, where she meets her classmates Čestmír Janošek, Jan Švankmajer, Theodor Pištěk, Karel Nepraš, Nada Plíšková, Jarmila Pešická.
1955
Admitted to the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague to the studio of Karel Svolinský. However, he refuses to accept for cadre reasons, so she transfers to the studio of Antonín Strnadel. Graduates from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in 1959. Studies with Eva Bednářová, Rudolf Němec, Zbyněk Kučera, Karel Laštovka, Marie Macháčová and Vladimír Kopecký, who studied under Kaplický. Kopecký introduces her to former Kaplický students Adriena Šimotová, Jiří John, František Burant and Jiří Mrázek. After graduation in the second half of the fifties she devotes herself to graphic design.
1960
On the recommendation of Šimotová, she becomes a member of the UB12 Group.
1961
Creates a series of black line drawings to accompany Christian Morgenstern’s poetry collection Gallows Songs. From her first expressively abstract compositions she moves to geometric abstraction.
1962
Marries Vladimír Kopecký.
1965
First solo exhibition in the Hall of People’s Democracy on Charles Square.
1967
Solo exhibition at Jaroslav Král Gallery in Brno. For the Czechoslovak Pavilion in Montreal she creates a four-meter high window – etched glass with abstract composition (the stained glass was purchased by the organizers and placed in the Canadian Conservatory). First prize at the international graphics competition Premio Biella.
1969
Honorable mention at the International Graphic Biennial in Ljubljana.
1970
Second prize at the International Graphic Biennial in Krakow.
With the advent of Normalization, the group UB 12 began to dissolve and was officially banned in 1970.
Based on biographical data of the members of UB12 up to 1970 in: SLAVICKÁ Milena. UB 12 - Studies, interviews, documents. Prague: Gallery in cooperation with Gema Art a o.s. OSVU, 2006, pp. 306-311
