Novák came from a Prague family stemming from a long artistic and literary tradition that strongly motivated him. His mother, Vlasta Meissnerová-Nováková, was a textile artist, while his father, Antonín Novák, J.D., worked as a film critic and editor-in-chief of the Film a doba [Film and the Era] magazine. He left Prague to study in Jablonec nad Nisou because he had a strong emotional attachment to the Jizera Mountains, where he had been visiting with his parents since childhood.
From 1957 to 1961, he attended the local Secondary Technical School, where he focused on metal engraving. He then decided to continue at the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague, in the Metal and Jewelry Studio, studying under the distinguished Czech sculptor, jeweler, and medal maker, Professor Jan Nušl, between 1961 and 1967.
After graduation, he began pursuing his authorial work in 1968. He returned to Jablonec, where in 1969, he bought a Baroque parsonage in the Rýnovice district. Over time, he renovated it and, in addition to his distinctively conceived family home, he established a studio and workshop there.
Later, he added a former mortuary to the rectory, which he converted into a spacious sculpture studio. It saw the origination of many monumental metal sculptures and large-dimensional mobiles since the late 1980s.
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