Jiří Hilmera Died (26.3.1925-27.4.2009)
Jiří Hilmera, art historian and leading Czech specialist on theatre architecture and the history of scenography, died on the 27th of April 2009 while still fully involved in his work. Hilmera also served as the head of the TACE expert team as of the year 2008 for whom his death will be a truly significant loss.
PhDr. Jiří Hilmera CSc. studied art history and theatre science at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University. He worked at the beginning of his career at the State Monument Care Institute (1947 – 1961) and additionally served as an editor for the magazine Zprávy památkové péče (News on Monument Care) (1953 – 1961). He co-operated, as of the year 1960, with the Scenography Laboratory (later the Scenography Institute) and as of the year 1961 began to work with the theatre department of the National Museum where he remained up until the year 1991. Over the years 1994 – 1999 he co-operated with the Institute of Art History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic where he worked, amongst other things, on the art history topography of Prague. He contributed as a curator to the preparation of a range of exhibitions, such as for example, curator of the architecture section in the year 1999 in the Czech National Exposition at the Prague Quadrennial ´99 or to the preparation of the section on Baroque theatre at the exhibition The Glory of Baroque Bohemia in the year 2001. Hilmera was the author of a number of books and a range of articles dealing with theatre architecture, the history of scenography and cultural history (for example, Pražská divadla (Prague Theatres), 1995; Česká divadelní architektura (Czech Theatre Architecture), 1999. He additionally contributed to the publications: Vlastislav Hofman, 2004; František Tröster: Básník světla a prostoru (František Tröster: Poet of Light and Space), 2007).
Jiří Hilmera contributed to the project Theatre Architecture in Central Europe (TACE) as both an expert and a member of the international team starting in the year 2008. He is the co-author of the concept for the prepared publication dedicated to Central European theatre architecture, as well as being the author of almost 40 entries (he completed 26) and special editor of several dozen further entries on Czech theatre architecture for the database being prepared. He also contributed to the content of the preparation of the exhibition on Central European architecture scheduled for the year 2010.
