JAROSLAV HAVELKA

"Untitled: Study of Buildings", signed lower left, mixed media including watercolour on paper, sight 64.1 x 45.7cm (25 1/4 x 18in); Jaroslav Havelka, Canadian/Czechoslovakian, 1922-1997; as war approached, universities were closed and Havelka was sent to Austria to work in the war factories; he returned to Czechoslovakia in 1944 to join the resistance movement, narrowly escaping death at the hands of the Gestapo; with war over, he completed a degree at Masaryk University in 1946 and when Czechoslovakia was taken over by the communists, he escaped to Italy where he completed a Ph.D. at the University of Milan; in 1951 he immigrated to Canada, learned English, and in 1954 completed a M.Sc. degree at McGill University, before coming to The University of Western Ontario in 1956 as a professor of psychology; in 1969, Dr. Havelka moved to King’s College to chair its fledgling Department of Psychology; he was a much-loved teacher and at times there was standing room only in his classes; he retired in 1987 but continued to teach as Professor Emeritus