Jan Krejčí 3, 1990 (detail)

During his lifetime Oldřich Kulhánek produced many hundreds of etchings, using a variety of techniques including hard and soft ground etching, engraving, drypoint, mezzotint and aquatint. He was constantly experimenting and improving his skills, and by the 1970s was producing some of the best work in eastern Europe. His skill was well-matched by his breadth of imagination and depth of political awareness, so he was able to produce almost any style of image from an intimate study of a single human torso to an elaborate composition to illustrate a theme such as his 1970 Sade-inspired Juliette ou les pospérités du vice, or his 1973 Adam and Eve.

He was very aware of Czech history and culture, so included here is a series of colour etchings in homage to the nineteenth-century Czech educator, geologist, journalist and politician Jan Krejčí, and his 1990s series The Lovers and Ecce Homo.