Jaromír Zemina
★ 1930 Přední Ždírnice (Trutnov district)
Spends his childhood and adolescence primarily in Znojmo and Brno, where his father Otakar Zemina works as an academic painter and teaches at secondary schools. Returns to his home village repeatedly throughout his life.
1942-1949
Studies at the classical gymnasium in Brno, with a one-year break at the end of the war, when he was forced to attend a Real Gymnasium in Jičín and Nová Paka.
1949-1953
Studies art history and classical archeology at the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University in Brno.
1953-1954
Works as an assistant in the Department of Art History in Brno. After six months he is removed from his position for ideological reasons.
1954-1956
Undergoes basic military service in several places in Bohemia and Slovakia, finally as a topographer.
1957
Is a founding member of the creative group Brno 57.
1958-1959
Unable to get a permanent job in Brno. Works in the Regional Museum of National History in Tišnov.
1959-1961
Employed as a specialist at the Institute of Art Theory and History of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Prague.
1961-1968
Admitted to the National Gallery in Prague, the collection of modern art, which he directs until 1965. In 1963 he prepares a comprehensive exhibition of Jan Zrzavý and the book The World of Jan Zrzavý. In 1966 he is curator of the exhibition of Czech cubism and the collection of Vincenc Kramář at the Musée national d’Art Moderne in Paris, in 1968 in Great Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands.
1964
Joins the UB12 Group.
1967
In cooperation with Stanislav Kolíbal prepares an exhibition of contemporary Czech and Slovak art for the Societá Promotrice di Belle Arti in Turin.
1970
For ideological reasons he resigns as the head of the modern art collection of the National Gallery and is transferred to Zbraslav, where he supervises the depository. Besides working in the National Gallery, he also prepares exhibitions of unofficial Czech and Slovak art.
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
