Vaclav Vytlacil (1892-1984) was one of the important American modernist painters of the twentieth century, whose long career combined a sustained personal practice with an essential role in bringing Hans Hofmann to the United States. Born in New York City to Czechoslovakian immigrant parents who had settled in the New York area, Vytlacil showed early artistic promise and was enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago at the age of thirteen. He received a scholarship from the Art Students League in 1913 and returned to New York, where he studied under the American Impressionist painter John C. Johansen.

In 1916 Vytlacil accepted a teaching position at the Minneapolis School of Art. This post allowed him to travel and study abroad in Europe, and he became particularly absorbed in the art of Paul Cézanne. Vytlacil eventually settled in Munich and became a member of the Royal Academy of Art, where he formed close friendships with two American artists, Ernst Thurn and Worth Ryder. Vytlacil was introduced to the abstract painter Hans Hofmann through Thurn, and when Thurn decided to leave the Royal Academy to study with Hofmann, Vytlacil followed suit. He was profoundly affected by Hofmann's work and began to take a serious interest in creating pictures in the new modernist style Hofmann was developing. Vytlacil traveled with Hofmann as his teaching assistant and student from 1922 to 1926, a formative apprenticeship that shaped the rest of his artistic life.

In 1927 Vytlacil returned to the United States. He gave many lectures during this period and became a member of the Art Students League faculty. Completely charmed by the work of the Art Students League community, Vytlacil returned to Europe in order to persuade Hans Hofmann to come to the United States and join the school. His successful mission proved decisive for American art, bringing to the country the teacher who would shape a generation of American Abstract Expressionists.

After six years abroad, Vytlacil returned permanently to the United States. During the 1940s and 1950s his own paintings became increasingly non-representational and spontaneous, reflecting his continued engagement with modernist abstraction. He continued to work and to teach at the Art Students League until 1978, mentoring generations of American artists over more than half a century. Vytlacil died in Sparkhill, New Jersey in 1984.