Dagmar Havlíčková (*1961) graduated from the Secondary Professional School of Applied Art in Brno, where she met Dalibor and Ivan Chatrný, who introduced her to conceptual art. After graduation, she started working as a graphic designer in the promotion department of the Regional Museum in Olomouc. At the beginning of her solo art career, she was overshadowed by the work of her husband, painter Jiří Alois Havlíček. Thanks to him, she also became more immersed in the Christian faith, which was significantly reflected in her work.
In the 1980s, a distinctive phenomenon of “Olomouc drawing” was shaping up on the local underground art scene. It was characterized by an existential expression with obvious spiritual features, and Havlíčková naturally became part of this movement. However, the social and family situation did not give her much space for independent work – she therefore devoted herself to decorative painting on silk. In her rare drawings, she reflected on her religious experience and her motherhood. Figurative motifs eventually gave way to abstract compositions reminiscent of natural structures or distinctive “mental landscapes”.
After her husband’s death, which affected her deeply, she withdrew from artistic life and stayed in a psychiatric hospital for some time. Later studies at The Sts Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Theology of Palacký University in Olomouc (2000) and the Faculty of Orthodox Theology at the University of Prešov in Slovakia (2007), anchored her in Orthodoxy and she converted in 2023. During her studies, she began to create an endless cycle of drawings called The Jesus Prayer. The main and practically only component of the drawings was written words of the prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner, repeated countless times. Havlíčková was writing in Latin and Cyrillic in several languages, with different coloured inks or pens on long rolls of paper, but also on smaller formats taped together in monumental dimensions. The strips of paper with text led in different directions, overlapping and layering each other into ornamental networks, sometimes resembling densely woven fabrics, sometimes the gentle ripples of the water, or the passing of clouds.
The repetitive character of the written prayers organically connected with the drawing has a calming, self-therapeutic effect on the author herself. Drawing is a calming meditation for her. So is the creation of crocheted rugs, curtains, bedspreads, pillows, blankets, and tablecloths, with which she has covered literally every corner of her flat in the housing estate in Olomouc.
