Pop-ups, Illustrated Books,and Graphic Designs of

Czech Artist and Paper Engineer,Vojtech Kubata (-)

by James A. Findlay and Ellen G.K. Rubin

BIENES CENTER FOR THE LITERARY ARTSThe Dianne and Michael Bienes Special Collections and Rare Book Library

Broward County Libraries DivisionFort Lauderdale, Florida

This catalog accompanies an exhibition held at the Bienes Center for the Literary Arts, January -April ,

Copyright by Broward County Libraries DivisionBienes Center for the Literary Arts

(A service of the Broward County Board of County Commissioners)ISBN: ---

BIENES CENTER FOR THE LITERARY ARTSBroward County Main Library, th Floor S. Andrews Ave. Fort Lauderdale, Florida

www.broward.org/library/bienes/bienes.htm

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Essays

Kubata in ContextPrague: History and Art in Vojtech Kubatas Golden City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

by Belena Chapp

The Life and Art of Vojtech Kubata (-) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . by Ellen G.K. Rubin

The Fairy Tale Movable Books of Vojtech Kubata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . by Gerry Bohning

My Father, My Best FriendReminiscences of Vojtech Kubata: A Daughters Perspective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

by Dagmar Kubatov Vrkljan

Exhibition Checklist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Selected Bibliography/Webliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Checklist Indexes

Index of Authors, Artists, and Corporate Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Index of Titles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Index of Publishers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Index of Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Index of Formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Appendix:

Opus VK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. Photo by M. Sebebek

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Very special thanks are extended to Ellen G.K. Rubin for the extraordinary energy andenthusiasm she brought to the year-long task of helping to organize the exhibition andthe preparation of the accompanying printed catalog. She graciously welcomed theBienes Centers staff into her home where several days were spent examining her comprehensiveKubata collection of pop-up and illustrated books, art, and artifacts. In addition to generouslyloaning seventy-five Kubata books and art works that are the very core of the exhibition, she alsoauthored for the printed catalog an insightful and ground-breaking essay on Kubata.

To expand the scope of the exhibition, Ms. Rubin visited and interviewed Dagmar Kubatov Vrkljan (Vojtech Kubatas daughter) in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, and selected items from the familyscollection. She found and met with Jan Hird Porkony, a s Prague college classmate of Kubataand now Professor Emeritus of Architecture at Columbia University, who graciously loaned to theexhibit some of his personal Kubata memorabilia.

Ellen G.K. Rubin is known throughout the world as The Popuplady and the designation is well earned and deserved. She has amassed what may be one of the worlds largest and most comprehensive private collections of pop-up books and related materials. She tirelessly promotesthe world of movable books on her website (www.popuplady.com) and on national TV, was a contributor to both Brooklyn Pops Up!, an important exhibition held at the Brooklyn Public Libraryin , and to the pop-up book that accompanied the exhibition, is an avid supporter of theMovable Book Society and its publication, Movable Stationery, and has authored her own noveltybook entitled, The Hanukkah Puzzle Book.

Dagmar Kubatov Vrkljan also deserves special acknowledgement and thanks. She kindly hostedEllen G.K. Rubin at her home in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, where she has lived since .During Rubins visit, she spent hours discussing the life of her father and describing the numerousvery personal and often one-of-a-kind art works by him that adorn the walls. Approximately halfof the items in the exhibit were loaned from her personal collection and most have never beforebeen seen by the general public. She also authored for the printed catalog a loving, moving, and intimate reminiscence of her father and devoted countless hours to helping edit the checklistentries and other essays. Her ability as a native speaker of Czech proved to be of inestimable valuein the preparation of the exhibit and printed catalog.

Thanks also to former Director of Museums at the University of Delaware, Belena S. Chapp, acurator, educator, and development specialist in the humanities and the visual arts, for authoringthe general essay on the history, art, and culture of Czechoslovakia; and to Gerry Bohning, aretired Barry University childrens literature professor and a Kubata collector, for her essay onKubatas depiction of the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen.TheBienes Center would also like to acknowledge the enormous time and effort she has contributed tothe on-going conservation and restoration work of its own collection of Kubata pop-up booksand other art works.

The Bienes Center would also like to thank the following staff of Broward Public LibrariesDivision for their assistance: Lillian Perricone, the Bienes Centers rare book cataloger, for her keeneye and unswerving attention to detail and for helping with all aspects of the exhibition from theorganization, identification, and description of the checklist items to editing the essays and aidingwith the actual installation and display of the objects; Barbara Murphy, of the MarketingDepartment, for her editorial expertise; and the following individuals for helping with foreign language translations: Arabic by Sadiq Alkoriji of the Southwest Regional Library; French byBenedicte Rosse of Administrative Services; and also to Robert J. Petrick, of the AmericanCzechoslovak Group of Broward, for the Czech translations.

And very special thanks to Mary Ann Stavros-Lanning, a graduate in graphic arts from the RhodeIsland School of Design, for the layout and design of this publication. Six of her Bienes Centerdesigned exhibition catalogs have won ARLIS/NA (Art Libraries Society of North America chapter)awards (two national and four chapter prizes) for excellence in art research and/or publishing. Herdesigns are always creative, unusual, and delightfully innovative.

James A. FindlayBienes Center Librarian

INTRODU CTION

The Bienes Centers pop-up book exhibition series continues with the presentation of:Pop-ups, Illustrated Books, and Graphic Designs of Czech Artist and Paper Engineer, Vojtech Kubata(-); the third in as many years that celebrates the art and science of paper engineering.

Vojtech Kubata lived and worked in Prague, Czechoslovakia, during the height of the Cold Waryet remained politically neutral throughout his career. Although artistic and intellectual freedomswere rigorously controlled and restricted, he flourished within the limits set by the Communistgovernment and succeeded in becoming one of the twentieth centurys most gifted and prolificartists. In addition to numerous commercial designs, it is estimated that he was responsible forcreating over three-hundred books and that millions of copies in numerous languages were published and distributed throughout the world.

The Bienes Centers exhibition features items by Kubata selected from private and public collections. The intent of the exhibit is to provide the viewer and reader an overview of his lifeand art and is not a catalogue raisonn (i.e., a scholarly and accurate listing of his entire artistic oeuvre).

The earliest item in the exhibit, a sketchbook, was created in when Kubata was only sevenyears old. There are also works from his university days in the s when he experimented withvarious art media and many illustrated flat books (as opposed to pop-up books) and advertisementsthat he designed in the -s. The heart of the exhibition features the pop-up and movablebooks from the s to the s that were to become his hallmark. Formats included in theexhibit are as diverse as: pop-up books, flat books, advertisements, ceramics, correspondence,drawings, greeting cards, magazines, packaging, postcards, posters, prints, puzzles, sketchbooks,table displays, and watercolors. Languages represented include: Arabic, Czech, Danish, English,French, German, Japanese, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, and Turkish.

It is hoped that the Bienes Centers exhibition and accompanying publication will prompt muchneeded further research and scholarship into the life and art of great Czech illustrator and paperengineer, Vojtech Kubata.

James A. FindlayBienes Center Librarian

. Vodnany Exhibit

KUBATA IN CONTEXTPrague: History and Art in

Vojtech Kubatas Golden CityBy Belena Chapp

I dwelt in a city enchanted.And lonely indeed was my lot;. . .Though the latitudes rather uncertain.And the longitude also is vague,The persons I pity who know not the CityThe beautiful City of Prague.

William Jefferey Prowse

Prague never lets you go . . . this dear little mother has sharp claws.

Franz Kafka

Vojtech Kubata was born in Vienna but spent his formative years and built a lengthycareer as an artist and designer under Pragues magical influences. Located at the cross-roads of Europe, Prague (#, ) is often called the Golden City of One HundredSpires. It is a designation that pays homage to the Gothic architecture that defines its skyline a soaring profile of monuments to fallen heroes, castles (#, ) that have weathered centuries ofunrest and intrigue, and mosaic encrusted cathedrals that hold the tombs of Bohemian kings.Prague is also known for its robust Baroque structures, with sun-drenched limestone and brightlypainted surfaces, rising above the banks of the Vltava River (#). It is a captivating and romanticcity, welcoming, but seemingly full of secrets. Cobblestone streets meander over footbridges andlead up hidden staircases and down darkened alleys, where todays travelers follow in the ghostlytracks of past lives. It is a town where history is built on legend, and truth is shrouded in mysticismand fantasy a town worthy of the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm.

Indeed, the very naming of Prague (in Czech, Praha) is itself a well-known fairy tale. According toancient lore, Libuse, Queen of the th century Przemyslid Dynasty, had a vision that a great citywhose glory will touch the stars would rise upon a hill, at exactly the place where a carpenterhappened to be constructing a prh, or threshold. It was Libuses prophecy that this city, Prague,would become a thriving center of Bohemian commerce and culture.

During the Middle Ages, foreign armies frequently traveled the East-West trade routes through Praguepursuing riches and land. As the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, the city saw a simultaneous invasion of artisans, skilled laborers, and the learned who later, under Charles IV, founded the firstuniversity in central Europe in .

By the late Renaissance the city was a well-established cosmopolitan magnet, drawing not only the academic elite but also scandalous characters like John Dee, the noted British mathematician,

alchemist and astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I,and his rogue partner Edward Kelley. Dee andKelley came to Prague in to consult withthe eccentric Habsburg monarch Rudolf II,and conjure angels for His Majesty in thereflections of crystal globes. Rudolf II hadascended to power after his father MaximilianII and had moved his court to Prague fromVienna. He was well known for his free associ-ation with progressive scientists such as JohannesKepler, and his unstinting patronage of art,antiquities, oddities, and the occult. His supportmade Prague a Mecca for creative spirits as wellas the crafty. But even Rudolf s liberality hadlimits. Exposed as frauds, the Englishmen hurriedly left town one year later, momentsfrom being deported.

Pragues location as a gateway connectingWestern Europe to the Byzantine East no doubtmade it a witness to its share of strife and religious turmoil. With a population reflectingcommingled indigenous groups (Moravian,Bohemian and Slovakian), countless outside

influences (from Roman soldiers to the conquering Austrian empire with its strong Germanicthrust), and conflicting spiritual beliefs (Catholic (#), Protestant and Jewish (#), the cityhas been in the course of history overrun and overwhelmed. Like the entire Czech nation,this state of siege imbued in Prague a culture with both high levels of tolerance, adaptability and creative ingenuity, while underneath the surface there rumbled a fierce longing for freedom andindependence.

Rising Czech nationalism and a Protestant revolt turned the tide against the Catholic Habsburgsin , sparking the Thirty Years War. The conflict started in Prague and left much of Europe inruins. The Bohemian rebels were crushed in the Battle of the White Mountain in - and by the war on the continent was over. After a brief period under the Swedish flag, Prague andthe Czech lands were soon back firmly under the Habsburgs control, where they would remainuntil well into the nineteenth century.

But revolution of all types was in the air in the rest of the world and eventually this energy wouldhave an impact in Prague and the Czech nation. During the eighteenth century, the ideal of rationalman setting his own destiny ushered in the Age of Enlightenment and the beginning of the end ofabsolute monarchy. Scientific and technological advances made in agriculture, transportation, andmanufacturing were the hallmarks of the burgeoning industrial era. By the late s the movementaway from imperial control festered and then exploded with wars of independence in America andFrance. Government by the people for the people meant dramatic shifts worldwide toward democraticsocial and cultural values.

A movement toward creating a Czech national state seized on the momentum of nineteenth centuryfin de sicle political transformation to increase pressure on the Habsburg regime. By the late sthe Habsburg seat of power, by then returned to Vienna, saw its determined efforts to marginalizethe Czech majority in favor of the German minority increasingly rebuffed. A mounting sense ofpatriotic pride was developing among the Czechs and expressing itself outwardly, albeit more safely, inthe creative and literary arts. Prague re-established itself as the locus of this politicized artistic

#

activity. The construction of the National Theater (-), with its cornerstones hewn fromthe mountains of Moravia and Bohemia, was an important event in securing the citys reputationas a symbol for Czech identity and unification.

Josef Mnes (-), who illustrated a new edition of the Old Czech Manuscripts, a medieval lyricaltouchstone and despite the fact he spoke German more fluently than Czech was influential inthe groundswell of revived interest in traditional costumes, folk art, folk tales, and puppet theater.

In Prague a new national painting style looked to historical music, literature and legends for inspiration and content. Mnes, an artists group dedicated to the ideals espoused by its namesake, wasfounded in . Despite its initial commitment to uphold traditions, the group began increasingly tolook beyond national borders and many of its members traveled abroad, especially to Paris. By astrong desire to create work based on more universal themes and to identify with international arttrends, eventually leading to a full embrace of Expressionism, motivated the Mnes group to issueinvitations to exhibit in Prague to August Rodin and Edvard Munch. The works of these two pioneering artists would prove to have a significant impact on the development of a new Czechmodernism.

Perhaps the most renowned Czech artist of all time is Alphonse (Alfons) Mucha (-). Hisstylized and exotic depictions of female models with flowing hair and robes, and his signaturedecorative typefaces framing the compositions, became synonymous with Art Nouveau. Muchawas born in the rural town of Ivancice and his earliest and most profound influences were the tra-ditional art forms of his Moravian ancestors. At the age of ten he was sent to live in the city ofBrno. His early art training occurred during his adolescence there, when he produced set designsfor a local theater troupe.

While in his twenties Mucha moved to Prague in an attempt to study at the Academy of FineArts, where he was denied entry. Shunned by the artistic elite of the Academy, he found work in a Viennese theater as a scene painter, and then went on to Paris where he gained acclaim for thetheatrical posters he designed for the legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt. Mucha traveled extensively,even living in the United States for a while, where he helped found the American Slav Society. Hecontinued with his work in theatrical set design and his illustrations graced the covers of menus,fans, currency, and postage stamps. He also took photographs, designed jewelry and furniture, andcreated entire interiors from the floors to the ceilings.

This diverse and masterful repertoire made Mucha commercially successful and his style almostubiquitous, earning him grudging respect in his native land. Interestingly, Mucha never saw his workas a shorthand definition for Art Nouveau and in fact, ascribed his sensibilities to his spiritualconnection to nature and the land of his birth. Mucha returned to Prague in , and under the patronage of Chicago entrepreneur Charles Crane, devoted almost the rest of his life to the production of a gift for the Czech people the cycle of paintings known as The Slav Epic. Thesuite of twenty paintings is of monumental scale and focuses on both Czech and broader Slavicthemes. Czechoslovakia had finally emerged after World War I as an independent state in . Thepaintings toured internationally in celebration of this newly forged independence and were formallypresented to Muchas fellow countrymen in in honor of the founding of the Republic.

The reaction among the Czech intelligentsia to The Slav Epic was muted at best and derisive atworst. For many Czech artists Muchas introspection and preoccupation with the symbolism of Slavicheritage was anachronistic to their twentieth century concerns and aspirations. They wanted to lookforward, not backward; outward not inward. The conflict of artistic priorities mirrored the society atlarge. Even though Czechoslovakia was an independent state, in truth, the new republic was hardlya cohesive one and competing factions in both politics and culture often disagreed as to who wasanointed to determine national identity and direction. This schism left the country once again vulnerable to pressures from outside forces.

In Adolf Hitler began his move into Czechoslovakia by annexing the Sudentenland; the borderareas abutting Germany and Austria, and the location of the greatest concentrations of naturalresources, energy plants, and steel mills. This violation of Czech sovereignty was perpetrated underthe Munich Agreement and the acquiescence of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, whomistakenly believed this take over represented the extent of Hitlers ambitions. Czech PresidentEduard Benes, who was not included in the negotiations, resigned immediately and fled to Londonto set up a Czech government in exile. In Britain Benes aligned with the Soviets and Czech communists also in exile. By March Hitlers armies had invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia andimmediately re-divided the country into Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia. Ill with pneumonia,Alponse Mucha was arrested and interrogated by the Nazis. He was soon released, but withinweeks he died and Czech independence perished as well. It would be over fifty years beforeLibuses Prague was again truly free.

Under the Iron Glove:Notes on Making Art in Communist CzechoslovakiaLiterary and artistic production is an important agent of the ideological and cultural rebirth in our country,and it is destined to play a great role in the socialist education of the masses.

Declaration of the Ninth Party Congress, The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia,KSC (Komunistick strana Ceskoslovenska)

Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it. Berthold Brecht

By the Soviet Red Army, with help from Allied troops and members of the Czech and Slovak resistance, had finally vanquished the Nazis. Eduard Benes returned to serve as president ofthe so-called Third Republic headquartered at Prague. (The citys architectural landmarks hadmanaged to escape World War II relatively unscathed.) This loosely formed coalition of politicalinterests included strong socialist and communist factions. By the Soviet influenced communistparty dominated, and their takeover of all means of Czech industrial, agricultural and even artisticproduction was underway.

Conventional wisdom dictates that Czech artists in general would have protested the governmentalimposition of communist policy in areas of creative enterprise. In reality, there is evidence that asymbiotic relationship developed through a socialist institutional framework, likely authored byartists themselves. This framework established guidelines exceedingly favorable to some creative workers in the new collective. The Memorandum of the Central Bloc of the Visual Artists ofthe Czechoslovak Republic on the needs of Czechoslovak Visual Arts was published almost ayear before the communist coup of . It was an articulate and concrete document delineatingconditions by which artists would receive an elevated status and financial benefit for their contribu-tions. Indeed, these arrangements, enacted through the state via such representative bodies as theFond for the Visual Arts, enabled many artists to continue their work as free agents, whilereceiving the benefit of state support.

However, as time progressed, it became apparent that every creative worker could not count onthis framework. Artistic content falling far outside approved parameters of the Party line wasoften denounced, and those practitioners suffered censorship and even imprisonment. Writerswith political agendas were severely repressed and those who wanted to be published did not strayfar from safe territory, such as the apolitical subjects of science fiction, World War II novels,fantasy, and childrens books.

By the s the formation of Art Centrum within the Ministry of Foreign Trade stepped up thepossibilities for the export of Czech creative production. This trend toward economic interactionwith capitalist nations, and some third world countries, meant a lucky few were given the opportunity

to publish or exhibit their artwork outside the country, and on occasion, even visit or live abroadtemporarily. Inevitably, however, the warming of such relations with the West, exemplified by thePrague Spring, was quickly answered in turn by the realignment of conservative communist ideology. This was delivered in force by tanks of the Warsaw Pact armies in August .

It has been noted that the foreign intelligence operation was also housed in the Ministry of ForeignTrade. It is reasonable to conclude that the all aspects of interaction with the West, especially thoseof artists and other potential independent thinkers, were heavily scrutinized and recorded. Althoughthey may have enjoyed a higher standard of living than other workers, many artists certainly were notfree to create art of their own choosing with no fears of censorship, should the state find their worktoo provocative or outside the realm of acceptability. As a result, there was an active undergroundmovement of unsanctioned artistic effort and when they could leave Czechoslovakia, many artistspreferred exile to returning to oppressive conditions.

It is not known if Vojtech Kubata was a direct beneficiary of arrangements with Art Centrum,or the Fond for the Visual Arts, especially since his degree was not associated with the majoracademies of art. (These organizations evidently concentrated their energy on the welfare of thosein the fine arts with such connections.) However, the policies employed by these official overseersprobably laid the foundation that encouraged and supported the autonomously structured workenvironment in which Kubata was able to be so prolific.

Additionally, his concentration in the non-controversial realm of childrens books, fantasy, andfairy tales meant his career easily flew under the radar screen of overt censorship. The majority ofKubatas output was created under the auspices of the publishing wing of Artia, an import-exportorganization controlled by the state, and his work flowed from Artia through proxy publishing houses,particularly in Britain, to a broader commercial market. Even today it is difficult to ascertain ifArtia was subsumed into Art Centrum. However it is well understood that the circulation of hardcurrency that was derived from the export trade in this particular case, from the books underthe imprimatur of Artia was critical to the allocation of political power in communistCzechoslovakia.

The Czech BookBooks have their destinies, big and small, glorious and not so illustrious. They come and go and their callingand lot are similar in certain ways to the lot and calling of man; some of them are reminiscent of age-old treesthat have withstood many storms, others recall a breeze, a sigh, something fleeting and ephemeral.

Mirjam Bohatcov, The Czech Book and the World

Beautiful is the speech by which we paint all the pictures of our imagination in the imagination of others.Beautiful are the letters by which we record and reinforce speech . . . The most beautiful things of all are books . . . by which we send the depiction of wisdom to far-away peoples, either in place or time, and even intothe distant future. Jan Amos Komensk

It may be clichd to describe book publishing in communist Czechoslovakia as Kafkaesque butin this case the term has legitimate resonance. This reference to the work of Pragues own FranzKafka, one of the greatest literary figures of the twentieth century whose writing was victimized byboth the Nazi and the communist regimes, acknowledges the surreal distortion and bureaucraticdoublespeak that pervaded the field of publishing under totalitarian control. From until theVelvet Revolution of (led by poet, playwright, and ultimately president VaclavHavel), all Czech artists had to gauge carefully how, and to what extent, they expressed themselves.Writers in particular felt the sting of the governmental prerogatives on what would or would not bepublished and disseminated. Voicing a dissenting opinion was punished, and works with contentoutside acceptable subject categories received little support in the offices of Artia, one of the most

influential state organs for publishing under the Ministry of Foreign Trade. Although there was ahealthy market for books within the country and for export, most published titles were decidedlynon-controversial in nature.

Sometimes exceptions were made and artists and writers experienced more freedoms, such as duringthe period in known as the Prague Spring, when there was a push to liberalized governmentpositions in all areas of life. However, this thaw was short-lived and many writers drew harsh retribution and were purged from public access. For these writers publication was possible only ininstruments of the samizdat underground, or, on rare occasion, if a fellow writer who was not beingcensured served as a front.

Writers who chose to leave Czechoslovakia were often published in the independent migr pressesthat emerged in places such as Toronto, Cologne and Paris. Indeed, the work of some of thosewho were censured but still living in the country made it to these presses as well. Several of thebest Czech writers who went abroad found international success, among them Milan Kundera,author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. A sad legacy of the migr condition, although partlyattributable to Kunderas own decision to limit opportunity for official re-publication of his books,is that even today many of Kunderas major works remain rare and inaccessible to readers in hisnative country.

Still, it is not surprising that under communist rule there was a strong demand for Czech literatureand Czech designed books, and that within its borders, there was an equal desire by Czech citizensto read and own the books produced by the rest of the world. They are a people who have longhad a love affair with the book as an art form and possess an even stronger passion for the beautiful inbook design.

Since the s the Ministry of Culture and the Museum of Czech Writing have celebrated andhonored the best in aesthetic quality and production with the prestigious Most Beautiful CzechBook award. It is a gesture of esteem that can trace its origin over the broad span of Czech history.At the turn of the twentieth century connections were increasingly made between Czech literatureand the fine arts, spurred on by collaborating writers and artists who shared a stylistic sense andcommon ideals. Artists such as Josef Vachal (-), who was a writer, graphic artist, typographer,and painter, was the paradigm of this integration of word and image.

For Vachal the book was a genuine, creative means for securing a grasp on reality. Using thismedium he conducted a dialogue with himself, with artistic tradition and with the world . . .[bringing out] the expressive qualities of all the books components: the illustration, the bindingand the end paper, turning the book into a Gesamtkunstwerk, or total work of art.

The book designer, typographer and printmaker Vojtech Preissig is also an important figure in thehistory of Czech books, and his significant contributions to graphic arts and his internationalinfluence have recently been recognized. His seminal book, Colored Etching and Colored Engraving, isconsidered a milestone in the foundation of Modern Czech book production. An associate ofMucha, Preissig actually left Czechoslovakia in and lived and worked in the United States for twenty years, where he introduced the printmaking technique of linocut to students at theWentworth Institute in Boston. He returned to Czechoslovakia in and had numerous soloexhibitions in Prague. He was involved in resistance activity against the Nazis and was arrested and imprisoned at Dachau, where he died in .

According to Eva Wolfova, director of the Museum of Czech Writing, childrens books werealways the masterpieces of the Czech printing industry, in which the special relationshipbetween text and visual art were natural and expected. The first ever childrens picture book waswritten by the great Czech thinker Jan Amos Komensk (in Latin, Comenius) in . EntitledOrbis Sensualium Pictus (The Visible World), the multi-lingual book provided children with an encyclopedic

introduction to the natural world. Komensk (-) was the last bishop of the Old MoravianChurch and a respected philosopher and educational reformer known as the Teacher of Nations.

His pedagogical theories were considered radical in his time, but today his commitment to equalopportunity in education is a fundamental principle of the worlds greatest democracies.

In the late-s Jan Karafits (-) classic childrens book Broucci (The Fireflies) was published.Laced with gentle humor, Karafits magical story is a timeless recounting of the cycle of life.

Vojtech Preissig illustrated a version of Broucci in , and it was re-published a generation laterwith drawings by the immortal graphic artist and filmmaker, Jir Trnka (-). Trnkas drawingof the little bug is both witty and sweet, and exhibits none of the influence of avant-gardeConstructivism or the Socialist Realism often found in Soviet childrens books of the sameperiod. Soviet artists seemed to embrace the notion that their work was part of an ideologicalmission to help create a New Man [and that it was their responsibility to] mold the minds ofcitizens of Bolshevik Russia to a worldview, a set of social attitudes, an everyday ethic, and behaviorthat conformed to Communist teaching. Czech artists such as Trnka, on the other hand, exploredthe world of fairy tales and spurned the boundaries of lands, time or human age. In that regardVojtech Kubata was Trnkas brother-in-arms, and both would leave a legacy exemplified in the workof such contemporary childrens book artists as the Czech migr, now American citizen, Peter Ss.

From Trnka to Tinkerbell: Kubata and Popular CultureThe way to read a fairy tale is to throw yourself in. W.H. Auden

The screen version must perceive and emphasize the basic moral intent and the values upon which every greatpersistent fairy tale is founded. To these ends I have devoted my own best efforts and the talents of my organization, in full realization of our responsibility as a mass entertainer, and especially, in our responsibilityto our vast audience of children around the world. Walt Disney

Vojtech Kubatas evolution as an artist and designer was clearly sparked by living in Prague, a city oftremendous artistic heritage. However, when examining the strongest influences on his work, it isperhaps more helpful to imagine the view through a kaleidoscope of popular culture rather thanthe magnifying glass of the fine arts. Beyond the graphic versatility and preoccupation with Slavicroots that forges a link to Alphonse Mucha, there seems to be little in academic painting or Czechmodernism that had much bearing on the development of Kubatas distinctive style. His ownadmission that the tradition of Czech puppet theater had inspired him, is coupled with thegreater likelihood that Kubata drew upon other forces in popular culture to reflect, if not determine,his creative sensibilities: among the most important contemporary influences whose work hewould have seen were the Czech book illustrator, puppet master and filmmaker, Jir Trnka, andTrnkas counterpart in the America, Walter Elias Disney.

In as Hitler was advancing on his country, Vojtech Kubata graduated from the PolytechnicUniversity in Prague with a degree in architecture. In December the year before, the Disney Studiohad released the pioneering animation feat, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. This retelling of thefamous Grimms fairy tale enchanted movie patrons of all ages and from all countries. WaltDisney, the consummate entrepreneur and storyteller, understood the primacy of such folk tales.Passed down through generations, stories like Snow White were a common cultural property belongingto all, and Disney appropriated and adapted such tales for animation as no one had done before him.

Disneys film, with its familiar plot, beloved characters and memorable music, represented a tech-nological and artistic breakthrough designed to have a lasting impact around the globe. Disneybooks and toys arrived in Eastern Europe in the lates and early s, and much of this materialmade its way into Prague. The first known piece of Disneyana to surface there was a BlueRibbon book of the Three Little Pigs.

By the s, a succession of wildly popular Disney movies, television shows and a promulgationof related memorabilia available for the masses invaded every corner of the earth. Disney was amarketing genius, but more importantly, he understood that the movies his studio created wereonly beginning to come into their own as an art form. By surrounding himself with the very bestin artistic talent and Imagineers, he created a signature visual style to match the power of thetimeless fairy tales and childrens stories that were the basis for so many of his successful films.

One of the most significant staff appointments by Disney was his signing of watercolorist andsketch artist Mary Blair. Blairs bulls eye stylishness was responsible for the look of numerousDisney classics including Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. Blair was also the lead designerof Its a Small World, the Audio-Animatronic puppet installation (and ultimately, theme park ride)created for the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) and first seen in the Pepsi Pavilion ofthe Worlds Fair in New York in . The concept Blair created for the attraction drew heavily onher ability to suck out of culture many sources of inspiration including and especially thefolk art of both Eastern Europe and Latin America. It is with Its a Small World, and its colorful,faux-naf tribute to the children of all nations, that some very strong stylistic comparisons andconnections can be made that tie the work of Blair, and her possible Czech influences, to theillustrations of Kubata, who created several Disney related pop-up books in the s.

Mary Blair (-) studied at Chounaird School of Art in Los Angeles at the same time fellowartist, Emil Kosa, Jr. (-) was associated with the institution. He became a respected figurein creative circles and was active in the California Watercolor Society along with Mary Blairs husband,Lee Blair. Like the Blairs and other citizen artists, Kosa made a career in the Hollywood filmindustry. His greatest acclaim came for his special effects and matte painting designs for manymovies in the s, including the Academy Award he won for Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylorand Richard Burton. He also created special photographic effects in Journey to the Center of the Earthwith James Mason and Planet of the Apes with Charlton Heston.

Emil Kosa, Jr.s father, Emil Kosa, Sr. (-), came to the United States in in one of theearliest waves of Czech immigration to the country. He had settled in California by . Kosa, Sr.had been an assistant to Alphonse Mucha for many years and was an artist in his own right. It islikely that Kosa, Sr. came to the United States under the aegis of one of Muchas tours, anddecided to stay. As with Mucha, Kosa, Sr. seemed to maintain an affection and appreciation forhis traditional Czechoslovakian artistic roots. It is believed Kosa, Sr.s father owned a puppet the-ater and it was there he learned the traditional craft of making marionettes. Throughout his careeras a painter, even after he arrived in Los Angeles, Emil Kosa, Sr. continued to make puppets basedon Old World themes and used them as subjects in his work.

Mary Blair does not specifically name the Kosas as a source for any of her ideas and stylizations, butclearly she would have had interaction with at least Emil Kosa, Jr., and its just as likely she was awareof his connection to the puppet theater and folk arts of Czechoslovakia through his father andgrandfather. It was, after all, her unique talent to be attuned to all manner of inspiration and toincorporate freely those elements that best communicated the story at hand. Echoing Kubata, whoonce worked in the Czech puppet theater as scenery designer and counted traditional puppetry as oneof his major artistic influences, Mary Blair seemed to delight in the animated qualities and intimatestaging associated with puppets as an art form. Her vision was fully supported by her mentorDisney, and is expressed brilliantly in Its a Small World.

Further connections exist between Kubata and the world of puppets through the influence ofchildrens book illustrator and film director, Jir Trnka, who was a master of stop-motion animation.Trnkas acclaimed interpretations of the fairy tales and fables of the Brothers Grimm and HansChristian Andersen are able, even today, to forestall the bedtime of Czech children as they clamorfor a reading. Referred to as the Walt Disney of the East, in a newspaper headline after the

debut of one of his movie features at the Cannes Film Festival, Trnkas work has been described as,active dreaming: [a combination of] great imagination, poetry, ingenuity, invention, realistic view, andcreative vitality. A New York Newsday review compared this Prague artist to Charlie Chaplin andpraised his work as [inaugurating] a new stage in a medium long dominated by Disney.

With the same versatility seen in their American peers, both Jir Trnka and Vojtech Kubata exemplified a multi-disciplinary approach to their work. They moved with ease from one mediumto the next and borrowed with abandon from the folk traditions of their common heritage. Pulsinglifeblood of creative energy was present in their psyches throughout their lifetimes. Above all, the twoshared a strong and passionate love of fantasy and fairy tales, and against great odds, gave voice andvision to enchantment and imagination. Neither the Nazi occupation and the devastating effects ofWorld War II, nor the pervasive and dulling domination of communist ideology so heightenedduring the period of each artists greatest production could extinguish their spirits.

____________________________

END NOTES John C. Shepard, Quotes on Cities: Prague, in Giga Quotes, -, (William Jefferey Prowse, British

poet (-), quotation from poem The City of Prague, in book Little Village on Thames),http://www.gigausa.com/gigaweb/quotes/quautprowsewilliamjx.htm ( August ).

Kate Connelly, Kafka would hate to be a square, say Prague officials, Published by The Guardian, February , reprinted in the Kafka Project. quote by Franz Kafka (-) regarding his uneasyrelationship with his native city, http://www.kafka.org/essays/artikeln/square_art.htm ( August ).

Terri Windling, Alchemy and Puppetry: A Prague Sojourn, reprinted in The Endicott Studio Reading Roomfrom article which first appeared in Realms of Fantasy magazine (),http://www.endicott-studio.com/forprag.html ( July ).

Mary Ashcraft. Once Upon A Prague..., in Romar Travel Guides, ,http://www.romartraveler.com/RomarPages/OnceUponAPrague.html ( August ).

Lorenzo Cordini, Prague Legends, in My Czech Republic, -,http://www.myczechrepublic.com/prague/history/prague_legends.html ( August ).

Czech History John of Luxembourg and Charles IV, in My Czech Republic, -,http://www.myczechrepublic.com/basics/king_charles.html ( August ).

Dee, John (-), in Occultopedia: An Encyclopedia of Occult Sciences and Knowledge,http://www.occultopedia.com/d/dee.htm ( August ).

Kelley, Edward ( - //), in Occultopedia: An Encyclopedia of Occult Sciences and Knowledge,http://www.occultopedia.com/k/kelley_edward.htm ( August ).

Edwin Becker, et al., Prague , Poetry and Ecstacy, (Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum, Waanders Uitgevers,Zwolle, ), .

Medieval Growth-The Modern Age, in The Czech Republic,http://home.student.uva.nl/zdenka.sedivcova/Characteristics/HISTORY/history.HTM ( August ).

Hackett Lewis, The Enlightenment throughout Europe, in The Age of Enlightenment: The European Dream Of Progress And Enlightenment, , http://ragz-international.com/enlightenment_throughout_europe.htm( August ).

Of Industrial and Other Revolutions, in The Czech Republic, In the Kingdom of Hungary and theAustrian Empire unified as the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The court remained in Vienna.http://home.student.uva.nl/zdenka.sedivcova/Characteristics/HISTORY/history.HTM ( August ).

Becker, . Becker, -. Becker, -.

John Hoole and Tomoko Sato, Alphonse Mucha, (London: Lund Humphries in Association with Barbican ArtGallery, ), .

Ibid. Ian Johnston, An Introduction to the Work of Alphonse Mucha and Art Nouveau, July ,

http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/praguepage/muchalecture.htm ( August ). Faith Chyle Knutson, Painting by Alfons Mucha in Graces Pisek, North Dakota, Church,

http://www.mfr-eng.com/rumreich/mucha.htm ( August ). Hoole and Sato, -. Ian Johnston, An Introduction to the Work of Alphonse Mucha and Art Nouveau, July ,

http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/praguepage/muchalecture.htm ( August ). Ibid. Hoole and Sato, . History of the Czech Republic, http://www.heritagefilms.com/Czech.htm ( August ). General Information-History in Embassy of the Czech Republic, .

http://www.mzv.cz/washington/general/general.htm#books ( July ). Hoole and Sato, . Society of Communist Czechoslovakia- Creative Intelligentsia, in Word I.Q , ,

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Society_of_Communist_Czechoslovakia#Intelligentsia ( August ). Arts and Spirituality, in Creativity at Work: Quotes, May ,

http://www.creativityatwork.com/articlesContent/quotes.htm ( August ). Third Republic and the Communist Takeover, in Communist Czechoslovakia, August ,

http://www.kalabhavanshow.info/world_ref/of/cs.htm ( August ). Jan Michl, Institutional Framework Around Successful Artforms in Communist Czechoslovakia, in Open

Society Institute Electronic Publishing Program, March , http://e-lib.rss.cz/diglib/pdf/.pdf ( June ). Ibid. Jan Michl writes,arts such as music, theater, ballet, opera, and applied arts such as art and studio

glass, graphic design, book design, illustration, photography, film, painting and sculpture all found a congenial, responsive, and supportive environment under the Soviet socialist system.

Society of Communist Czechoslovakia- Creative Intelligentsia, in Word I.Q , ,http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Society_of_Communist_Czechoslovakia#Intelligentsia ( August ).

Jan Michl, Institutional Framework Around Successful Artforms in Communist Czechoslovakia, in OpenSociety Institute Electronic Publishing Program, March , http://e-lib.rss.cz/diglib/pdf/.pdf ( June ).

Prague Spring, in Civilian Resistance in Czechoslovakia, ,http://www.fragmentsweb.org/TXT/czechotx.html (July ).

Jan Michl, Institutional Framework Around Successful Artforms in Communist Czechoslovakia, in OpenSociety Institute Electronic Publishing Program, March , http://e-lib.rss.cz/diglib/pdf/.pdf ( June ).

Artia was established in - as import/export agency with a major publishing house effort as part ofthe Ministry of Foreign Trade.

Peter Lawson, Eastern Europe: Back to the Future? in Serials and Other UKSG Publications, presented atinternational conference on selling subscriptions: Global Solutions to Global Challenges, February ,http://wwwuksg.org/serials/lawson.asp ( June ).

Mirjam Bohatcov, The Czech Book and the World, Translated by J. Moss-Kohoutov, (Prague: Artia in cooperation with the General Management of the Printing Industry, ), .

Ibid., . Manifesto of Charter , in CNN Cold War-Historical Documents,

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes//documents/charter ( July ). Society of Communist Czechoslovakia-Creative Intelligentsia, in Word I.Q , ,

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Society_of_Communist_Czechoslovakia#Intelligentsia ( August ). Creative Intelligensia, in Society of Communist Czechoslovakia, , Samizdat in Russian, literally means self

publishing or the process of disseminating documentation via underground channels, usually throughphoto-copying. http://www.fact-index.com/s/so/society_of_communist_czechoslovakia ( August ).

Jan Culk, Czech Literature and the Reading Public, lecture given at University of Glasgow Igor HajekMemorial Conference, November ,http://www.artsgla.ac.uk/Slavonic/staff/Czech_literature.html ( July )

Bohatcov, . Zuzana Vesela, Most Beautiful Books Collection to represent the Czech Republic at Book Fairs, in

Radio Prague, April , http://www.radio.cz/en/article/ ( August ).

Becker, . Ibid. Brief Biography, in Vojtech Preissig, http://www.p.com/terminal/preissigbib.html ( August ). Brief Biography, in Vojtech Preissig, http://www.p.com/terminal/preissigbib.html ( August ). Zuzana Vesela, Most Beautiful Books Collection to represent the Czech Republic at Book Fairs, in

Radio Prague, April , http://www.radio.cz/en/article/ ( August ). Carter Leshuk, Introduce Jan Amos Komensk, in Games and Learning,

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/talk/questions/games_learning.shtml ( August ). Summary, in Lucas et Lucie - Silverwing (Episodes I-VI),

http://www.crtn.org/es/catalogue/production.php?id= ( August ). Brief Biography, in Vojtech Preissig, http://www.p.com/terminal/preissigbib.html ( August ). Hanae Tokita, Flashes of Wisdom: Firefly Tales a Prelude to Fireworks in Princeton, in Packet OnLine,

June, http://www.pacpubserver.com/new/news/--/firefly.html ( August ). Trnkaillustration of a little Broucci accompanies article.

Evgeny Steiner, Stories for Little Comrades: Revolutionary Artists and the Making of Early Soviet Childrens Books.,Translated by Jane Ann Miller (Seattle,WA: University of Washington Press, ), .

Bohatcov, . Fairy Tale Quotes, in Sur la Lune Fairy Tale Pages, ,

http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/boardarchives//apr/ftquote.html ( August ). Dave Smith, The Quotable Walt Disney,(New York: Disney Editions, ), . John Michael Dawson, The Collectible Childrens Curiosities of Vojtech Kubata, Biblio , no.

(January ): . Dan Patanella, Disney the Innovator vs Disney the Conservative, in Disney and Fairy Tales, -,

Patanella states, the use of fairytales was virtually risk-free. On the one hand, the tales were pure escapismand on the other they reaffirmed societys values. They were basic enough in their appeal to be marketeddirectly towards children, but the romance in some of the stories (Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella) was alsoappealing to adults. This broad appeal was essential for maximum profits; had the Disney films been solelychildrens entertainment many parents might have simply dropped the kids off at the theater while theywent to see a different production. Disney, however, designed films for the entire family to enjoy.http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/academy//disfai.html ( August ).

Sandy Lawrence Edry, Saved by the Paintings, in Society and the Arts, reprinted from Newsweek, July,, Images of the animated heroine [Snow White] and her seven faithful friends were even found atAuschwitz, where a mural of the characters painted by internee Dina [Gottliebova] Babbitt, who had seenthe movie seven times, caught the attention of Joseph Mengele. Impressed with her artistic skill, Mengeleset her to work drawing portraits of other prisoners to be used as a record of the gypsy types he sent tothe gas chamber. This work as an artist kept Babbitt alive and allowed her to survive the concentrationcamp. After she was freed, in a twist of fate, she ended up working in Prague for Art Babbit, the lead animator of Dopey, one of Disneys Seven Dwarves. He became her husband and they moved toCalifornia where they both continued work in the animation field.http://www.mail-archive.com/forum.zagraniczne@w.net/msg.html ( August ).

Vintage Disneyana in Eastern Europe-Part I,http://www.pizarro.net/didier/_private/tomart/Eastern_EuropeI.htm ( June ).

StevenWatts, The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, ) -. John Canemaker, The Art and Flair of Mary Blair: An Appreciation, (New York: Disney Editions, ) xii. Ibid. Canemaker writes, [Blairs] greatest influences came from contemporary sources everywhere . . .

European art posters and advertisements . . . Eames chairs . . . the interior design of the [Morris] Lapidusstores and hotels . . . There is a strong likelihood that Mary Blair drew inspiration from other designersof the era, including Eames associate Alexander Girard, who was himself, strongly influenced by theworlds folk art.

Gordon McClelland and Jay T. Last, Emil Kosa Jr. Biography, in Ask Art Biographies, reprinted fromCalifornia Watercolors -, http://www.askart.com/biography.asp?ID= ( June ).

Bruce MacEvoy, California Scene Painters, in Watercolor Artists, November , MacEvoy states,the California artists in this group which included Mary Blair, lee Blair, Emil Kosa Jr., and others, wereserious painters who held steady jobs and helped to build the film industry in Hollywood.http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/artist.html ( June ).

Gordon McClelland and Jay T. Last, Emil Kosa Jr. Biography, reprinted from California Watercolors- in Ask Art Biographies http://www.askart.com/biography.asp?ID= ( June ).

Emil Jean Kosa Sr. American California Artist, in Calabasas Art & Antiques, http://www.thevine.net/calabasasart/kosa.htm ( June ), and e-mail and phone correspondence with artists relatives: EricSaund, great-grandson, ( August; September ) and Ellie Ford, grand-daughter ( September ).

Edgar Dutka, Jir Trnka-Walt Disney of the East! in Animation World Magazine, July ,http://mag.awn. Com/index.php?artcile_no ( July ).

Background Introduction, in Jir Trnka Studio, http://www.kratkyfilm.com/catalogue/kf/studiojt.htm ( August ).

Czech Animators, in Still Life with Animated Dogs,http://www.pbs.org/itvs/animateddogs/animation.html ( August ).

ELECTRONIC REFERENCESArts and Spirituality. Creativity at Work: Quotes, May .

http://www.creativityatwork.com/articlesContent/quotes.htm ( August ).Ashcraft, Mary. Once Upon A Prague . . ., Romar Travel Guides, .

http://www.romartraveler.com/RomarPages/OnceUponAPrague.html ( August ).Background Introduction. Jiri Trnka Studio, http://www.kratkyfilm.com/catalogue/kf/studiojt.htm

( August ).Brief Biography, in Vojtech Preissig. http://www.p.com/terminal/preissigbib.html ( August ).Connelly, Kate. Kafka would hate to be a square, say Prague officials. The Guardian, February , .

Reprinted in the Kafka Project. http://www.kafka.org/essays/artikeln/square_art.htm ( August ).Cordini, Lorenzo. Prague Legends. My Czech Republic, -.

http://www.myczechrepublic.com/prague/history/prague_legends.html ( August ).Creative Intelligensia. Society of Communist Czechoslovakia, .

http://www.fact-index.com/s/so/society_of_communist_czechoslovakia ( August ).Culk, Jan. Czech Literature and the Reading Public. Lecture given at University of Glasgow Igor Hajek

Memorial Conference, November .http://www.artsgla.ac.uk/Slavonic/staff/Czech_literature.html ( July ).

Czech Animators. Still Life with Animated Dogs. http://www.pbs.org/itvs/animateddogs/animation.html ( August ).

Czech History John of Luxembourg and Charles IV. My Czech Republic, -.http://www.myczechrepublic.com/basics/king_charles.html ( August ).

Dee, John (-). Occultopedia: An Encyclopedia of Occult Sciences and Knowledge.http://www.occultopedia.com/d/dee.htm ( August ).

Dutka, Edgar. Jiri Trnka-Walt Disney of the East! Animation World Magazine, July , .http://mag.awn. Com/index.php?artcile_no ( July ).

Edry, Sandy Lawrence. Saved by the Paintings. Society and the Arts. Reprinted from Newsweek, July , .http://www.mail-archive.com/forum.zagraniczne@w.net/msg.html ( August ).

Emil Jean Kosa Sr. American California Artist. Calabasas Art & Antiques.http://www.thevine.net/calabasasart/kosa.htm ( June )

E-mail and phone correspondence with artists relatives: Eric Saund, great-grandson (August and September) and Ellie Ford, grand-daughter (September , ).

Fairy Tale Quotes, in Sur laLune Fairy Tale Pages, .http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/boardarchives//apr/ftquote.html ( August ).

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Progress And Enlightenment,. http://ragz-international.com/enlightenment_throughout_europe.htm ( August ).

Johnston, Ian. An Introduction to the Work of Alphonse Mucha and Art Nouveau. July .http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/praguepage/muchalecture.htm ( August ).

Kelley, Edward ( - //). Occultopedia: An Encyclopedia of Occult Sciences and Knowledge.http://www.occultopedia.com/k/kelley_edward.htm ( August ).

Knutson, Faith Chyle. Painting by Alfons Mucha in Graces Pisek, North Dakota, Church.http://www.mfr-eng.com/rumreich/mucha.htm ( August ).

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Seattle,WA: University of Washington Press, . Translated by Jane Ann Miller.Watts, Steven. The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, .

Pages from #

THE LIFE AND ART OF VOJTECH KUBATA (-)

By Ellen G.K. Rubin

Vojtech Kubata, Czech childrens illustrator, paper engineer, and author, was one of thetwentieth centurys most imaginative and remarkable artists. He combined a knowledge ofCzech folk art, puppetry, architecture, and the graphic arts to create playful universes ofwonder and magic that awed and amazed both children and adults. He was not widely recognizedduring his lifetime, nevertheless he created over three hundred titles that were published on everycontinent, translated into more than thirty-seven languages, and sold over million copies. Heleft an enduring legacy of pop-up and illustrated books that will forever entertain and astonishreaders.

Early YearsVojtech Robert Vladimr Kubata was born in Vienna, Austria, October , , and raised inPrague, Czechoslovakia, by his Viennese mother, Adla, and his Southern Bohemian father, Vojtech.When he was four years old, he was already filling sketchpads (#, ) with figures of birds, boats,and dragons. As a young man, he knew that he wanted to be an artist but his more pragmaticfather, a bank manager, hoped he would become a lawyer. Architecture had a greater appeal to theyoung Kubata, however, since he already knew he had to do something with his hands.

In , he enrolled in the Czech Polytechnic University in Prague, (Cesk vysok ucen technick v Praze), in a class of about ninety. He was tall, handsome, and personable and quickly madefriends with his fellow students. Soon thereafter, he became a part of a dynamic foursome ofstudents who called themselves, the Quadrifoliacs, after a type of four-leaf clover. Robert Jecn (#),Cudla (Rudolph) nger, Jan Hird Pokorny, and Kubata were inseparable and worked on manymajor projects while they were students and after graduating from the Polytechnic. Kubata toyedwith designing a logo for the group, a four leaf clover or the number four over a castle. Professorsdescribed them as hard-working students who always did more than they were asked. If a professor engaged one of them to work as an assistant, invariably the other Quadrifoliacs becameinvolved as well.

As students, the Quadrifoliacs collectively worked on a competition for a corner housing/commercial complex across from the Polytechnic that won second prize. Each team member hadindividual strengths that contributed to the success of their projects: Jecn was known for hisorganizational abilities; nger supplied technical expertise and supervised the design and drawingswith Pokorny; and Kubata was put in charge of the final presentation sketches. Pokornycommented, he, Kubata, was an artist who studied architecture. The foursome alsocollaborated on a school project in which they had to measure a specific architectural detail fromthe Clam-Gallas Palace in Prague. They chose the Grand Staircase, considered one of the mostbeautiful in Czechoslovakia. Kubatas final drawings showed his flare for great dramatic effect.

In spite of their student status, the Quadrifoliacs were able to find commercial work. This wasdue largely in part to Jan Pokornys father, the Deputy General Manager of koda Works, a majormanufacturer of steam locomotives, turbines, machine tools, and military arsenal. For example,they were awarded commissions to prepare drawings and renderings for the Prague subway andvarious other koda construction projects. At first, they worked in Porkorny Sr.s study, sleepingunder the tables during charettes. Later they moved to an apartment off campus that doubled as anoffice. They always worked together for [the] amusement and money.

While at the Polytechnic, Pokornys family also commissioned the Quadrifoliacs to create personalobjects. For example, the four were asked to collectively design a set of wine goblets (#) for awedding anniversary present. The enterprising young men hired a blacksmith to make the gobletsof pewter because silver was either unattainable or unaffordable. Kubata provided the whimsicaldecoration of a monkey holding a wine-tasting pipette. For the Pokorny country house, Vojtechand Jan worked together to design the furniture. Kubata alone crafted a stained glass window andstatues of a sprite for the pond in the garden and one of St. Christopher for the porch. Today thehouse is occupied by the former deputy prime minister of the Czech Republic. The sprite and St. Christopher statues remain standing in their original places but the window has mysteriouslydisappeared.

Jan Hird Pokorny, who is ninety years old and Professor Emeritus at Columbia Universitys Schoolof Architecture, recalled that Kubata was enormously skillful . . . [especially] with illustration,and the group leaned heavily on his skill. He also described his old friend as [having been]born with a pencil in his hand. He was always drawing and could work so fast.

It may have been Pokorny who introduced Kubata to one of his life-long pleasures: hiking. Onone occasion, Pokorny planned an excursion for the Quadrifoliacs into the Alps through Innsbruck.Arriving at a lodge in bad weather, they found it shuttered and closed. In desperation, they bangedon the door and summoned the innkeeper who hosted the group while they amused themselveswith games of wit during four days of foul weather. Even though Kubata never thought ofhimself as athletic; he frequently found solace in hiking. His sketchpad drawings reflected a deepappreciation for nature and his finely rendered images of flowers, mountains, and animals becamethe basis for many later illustrated works.

During his school years, Kubata tried working in various art media including clay (#), metal,and etchings. In an early work, he experimented with oils and painted a portrait (#) of a beautifulCinderella-like blond maiden sewing a delicate garment. Dagmar, his daughter, believes the image ismost likely of his mother who is known to have worked in her own mothers fine linen and lingerieshop in Vienna. Kubata especially enjoyed a school assignment documenting disappearing homesteadsin various regions of Czechoslovakia. In one such drawing he chose the area of Southern Bohemiaand captured the folk architecture of Hlubok nad Vltavou, the small town of his ancestors. Even as astudent, Kubata created illustrations of Prague buildings for several of his professors publications.

Kubatas signature changed as he progressed from young artist to college student to professionalartisan. At the Polytechnic, his signature alternated between a KU sitting above the image of a castles turret (pronounced bashta in Czech) and the simple abbreviation, VK, known to collec-tors today. Finally, he arrived at his recognizable script-like signature, V. Kubata, seen on almostall of his well-known illustrations.

After graduating from the Polytechnic in , the Quadrifoliacs garnered their largest architecturalproject. As a result of the Munich Agreement of , Czechoslovakia ceded major regions toGermany, Poland, and Hungary. Pokorny Sr., sensing the rapidly changing political climate, feltthe need to invest in tangible assets. He purchased property in the village of Tri Studne, locatedbetween Moravia and Bohemia and commissioned the recent graduates to create a small chalet-typehotel. The industrious foursome collectively designed the Hotel Sykovec, but Kubata alone was

responsible for the design of the iron entrygates, a mosaic of St. Christopher (with theKU logo over a castle signature) (#), a frescoof a folk-costumed girl on the stairway, and astained glass window in the dining room. Healso contributed to the design of some of thefurniture. On the entry wall outside the hotelare another image of the costumed girl and astatue of St. Christopher, patron saint of trav-elers and similar to the one at Pokornys home.

Nazi Occupation and World War II Despite Kubatas degree in engineering andarchitecture and Pokorny Sr.s connections,architectural projects were difficult to obtain.According to a photograph annotated byKubata, he began teaching around at the Rotter School of Graphic Design (#).Kubata then worked for a local plastics manufacturer, Baklax, designing both householdobjects and advertising and marketing promo-tions. While working there, he made thetransition from architect to graphic designer. His experience on the Quadrifoliacs commissionshoned his decorative and graphic design skills and laid the groundwork for later involvement inmany successful commercial projects.

Through the efforts of well-known professors at the Polytechnic, (Oldrich Blazcek, ZdenekWirth (#), V.V. tech, and Antonn Engel), Kubata was able to secure several jobs designingdust jackets, exlibris, and other illustration work. Pokorny contended that Kubata went into thefield of publishing by drawing scenes from Old Prague (#, ), which especially when theGermans were around, people liked and spent money on. Publishing was good business, andKubata made money.

The art of Czech puppetry flourished in the mid-twentieth century with fairy tale themes pre-dominating. Artists, authors and actors [wanted] to stress . . . the puppet theatre [as] an artisticgenre. In the late s and into the early s, Kubata worked for Cenek Sovk, a popularwriter and director of a noted puppet theater, Loutkov scna v dome Komenskho. Komenskho is a reference to Johann Amos Comenius (Jan Amos Komensk, -) of Bohemia who in published, Orbis sensualium pictus (The World Around Us in Pictures). Comenius is known as the fatherof books for children and of picture-books especially. Kubata designed puppet stage sets ofsmall Czech villages, the interiors of castles, and even some puppet costumes. Featured in Sovkstheater was the puppet, Jezek Pchcek (#), a hedgehog. He used the character to illustrate a seriesof books for Sovk published by Dolezal in the s. The story of the hedgehog family is easilyunderstood, even by those too young to read or unable to read Czech, because of the anthropo-morphized expressions arched eyebrows, down-turned mouths, and joyous smiles on thefaces of the animal characters.

In , Kubata illustrated, in color and black and white, Joyful Stories for Children (Vesel vyprven detem -Dolezal) (#). It was written by Vlasta Burian, a famous Czech actor of the s and sknown as The King of Comedians. Some of the illustrations for the book were reminiscent ofthe cartoons from The New Yorker, especially the one of New York paparazzi filming the performing

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dog (#, ) and mouse. In order to keepworking in films while the Nazis occupiedPrague, Burian entertained various Germanofficers at his villa. The Communists latercalled him a Nazi collaborator and bannedhim forever from the theater. Burians reputa-tion was later reinstated and his likeness is nowensconced in the Prague Wax Museum.

In Arabian Nights (Arabsk pohdky z noci,Dolezal- ) (#), Kubata demonstratedhis knowledge of art history by borrowingfrom the painting, Escaping Criticism by PreBorrell del Caso (-). By using trompeloeil, the genie in the story appears to escapethe confines of the illustration. The three-dimensional style of illusion foreshadowed hislater pop-up structures that characteristicallyextended beyond the margins of the page. Theillustrations in Arabian Nights are lavish andboldly colored, with fine line marginalia anddecorative initial letters giving the book the feelof an ancient sacred text. The endpapers are

remarkable because they place the reader in the center of a bustling Arabian bazaar surrounded byfanciful minarets. Typical of Kubatas trademark style, a small dog is shown lost in the maze ofthe narrow streets.

At the publisher Dolezal, Kubata met the eminent art historian, Dr. Otakar torch-Marien andhis career in the books arts was significantly advanced by the chance reunion. torch-Mariens newassociation with the long-established Prague publishing house, Aventinum, served as a drivingforce for the struggling company and the firm entered a new and productive phase. Duringthe height of World War II, Czech publishers, managed . . . with few exceptions . . . to withstandthe pressure of the occupying forces attempting to lure them into active co-operation, and avoidedthe publishing of anti-Semitic, Nazi, or other pro-regime oriented production. To circumventsupporting the Nazi agenda, Czech publishers printed the classics or titles that appealed tonational pride.

Working together, Kubata and torch-Marien created a series of three suites in portfolios, eachwith five architectural lithographs of Pragues monuments. The lithographs were hand-colored,often by Kubatas younger sister, Jarmila. Each portfolio was accompanied by a few pages oftext written by the most notable historians on the subject. The three limited editions were: LorettasMeditations (Loretnsk Meditace - ), Strahov Melancholy (Melancholie Strahova - ) and Waldstein Palace(Valdtejnsk Palc v Praze - ) (#). The last was by Zdenek Wirth, a prominent art historian,who wrote extensively on Pragues historical sites and organized a movement for the preservationof its historical monuments. In all the portfolios, Kubata used a warm, soft-colored palette andeach one featured a uniquely designed title-page vignette.

The great success of the first three portfolios was followed by a fourth one, Klementinum ()(#). The Klementinum, a sixteenth-century Baroque structure in Prague, was a Jesuit college andthe site of a mathematical museum and astronomical observatory. Today it houses the nationaland university libraries. Perhaps Kubatas optimism at the end of the war motivated him to designa standout volume showcasing fanciful images of the heavenly bodies and the signs of the zodiac.In any case, the images marked the beginnings of the exuberant style that became his hallmark. Unlike

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the previous portfolios, the cover and endpapers of the Klementinum were luxuriously illustrated. Withits large format and decorative endpapers, it appears to be the forerunner of the Panascopic pop-upbooks that followed ten years later.

Aventinum continued to prosper during and immediately after the war as Kubata continued hiscollaboration with torch-Marien. It published the first post-war literary classic, Pavel Eisners(-) Goddess is Waiting (Bohynecek), considered . . . the apotheosis of [the] Czech language.

Kubata designed dust jackets for a documentary account of Prague during the final days of the Waras well as several other titles that torch-Marien was unable to publish during the Nazi occupation.

POST-WORLD WAR IIIn Three Centuries of Childrens Books in Europe, Bettina Hrlimann called the Czechs, a nationextraordinarily rich in good illustrators. The classics of the Western, as well as the Eastern,powers [were] available, together with a colourful collection of their own [Czech] story-books,and they were illustrated by their own artists and obtainable in cheap editions. In the post-WorldWar II period, Czechoslovakian citizens lived under rigidities of the Soviet system. Kubata andother Czech illustrators resisted the Communist call for artistic conformity by creating native andfolk images with bold colors and lines. Hrlimann concluded, this was also a time when othercountries had very few picture-books to match these freely constructed [Czech] masterpieces.

After World War II, Kubata continued to illustrate childrens books, dust jackets, colophons,maps, and posters. In , he illustrated the first Czech translation of Winnie the Pooh (Medvdek Pu -Vyehrad) (#). It became an instant favorite, thus demonstrating the power of popularWestern culture to infiltrate Communist societies. Another example of the Wests influence washis design of the book jacket for the Czech edition of Betty MacDonalds The Egg and I (Vejce a j;Vladimir Zike -) (#), which was made into a movie starring Claudette Colbert and FredMacMurray and whose photographs are prominently featured on the jacket. Surprisingly, thecolophon has a cartoon character strikingly similar to Woody Woodpecker. Kubata confirmed hisSouthern Bohemian roots in illustrations for the book, The Secret of Uncle Joseph by Frantiek Herites(Tajemstv Strce Josefa; Aventinum - ). Set in eigthteenth-century Vodnany, he drew a series ofwatercolors of homesteads, preserving for posterity a rapidly disappearing way of life. torch-Marien,also from Vodnany, commissioned him to produce the homesteads as postcards. He commentedlater that even though Kubata lived andworked in cosmopolitan Prague, he was able todistill the essence of the countryside in hissketch-books. Although he worked primarilywith the publishers Aventinum (#, , )and Dolezal (#, , , ), his illustrationsalso appeared in volumes printed by Mladfronta (#), Vyehrad (#, ), Mlad lt(Bratislava) (#, , ), Melantrich (#),Nov osveta (#), Vladimr Zike (#, ),and Albatros (#).

In , the Communist Party came to power in Czechoslovakia and turned private bookpublishing and book selling . . . upside down.

Czechoslovakian intellectuals tried to managethe upheaval to their advantage, but failed.Censorship became stricter and was put underthe auspices of the Ministry of Information.Over publishing houses were closed down in [one] year . . . The Ministry of

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Information now had control over publishing, selling, distribution, and even the types of materialspublished. As a result of the new laws, it took as many as five years for permission to be grantedfor the publication of certain manuscripts.

The Soviet Unions plan to develop heavy industries changed the landscape of Eastern Europe.Industrial complexes sprung up along the beautiful rivers and overflowed into the rural areas.Kubata commented on these changes in a satirical watercolor painting of Sleeping Beauty (#). Inthe foreground, two traditionally costumed couples dance happily, while swirling around them arefour scenes illustrating the modernization of textile production. The first is a traditional SleepingBeauty spinning yarn, the second shows spinning as a cottage industry, followed by a weaver workingon a hand-operated loom, and finally in the background he calls attention to an industrial wastelandwith belching smokestacks, terrible dragons of a new reality. Clearly, the new repression in publishingdid not dull the prolific and facile pencil of Vojtech Kubata, who continued to turn out hundredsof illustrations.

Kubata married Helena Elisabeth afarikov of Prague in at the Loretta Church in Prague, achurch he illustrated so beautifully for Aventinum. The following year his first daughter, Helenawas born, and three years later, his daughter Dagmar was born (#). Kubata, now a family man,had new incentives to seek buyers for his art. His beautiful wife was strange and dominating and adifficult presence in the household. Whether or not this affected Kubatas parenting cannot, at thisvantage point, be gauged. But he immersed himself in his work while at the same time surroundinghimself with his daughters. Because his studio was in the center of the apartment, his daughterswitnessed and sometimes participated in his creative processes (#). He frequently turned hiswork projects into entertainment for the girls by making them, for example, a puppet theater withall the props and costumes. Kubata met business associates at home or at local Prague cafs,often taking his children with him, and always dressing up in suit and tie looking elegant andhandsome.

Significantly, Kubata kept his own reference library. Impatient to work and eclectic in his tastes,he preferred to have research material at his fingertips. In nearby large files and shelves he storedmagazines, newspaper articles, huge stacks of clippings, books on myths, legends and ancient cultures,and whatever else he thought would one day come in handy. When he worked on a story set inArabia, for example, he had only to open his files to capture the authentic environment or costumes ofthe period.

Mozart and PragueDuring the war years Kubata began his life-long love affair with Prague. In cooperation withanother author, Dr. Antonn Novotn (#), he produced a set of historical books about the city,incorporating classical architecture and motifs. When writing about Prague, he referred to the cityas if it were a person. Kubata became an avid collector of Prague memorabilia, including historicalmaps of the ancient city, old prints, and famous porcelain figurines. Later on, as he attainedgreater financial success, he acquired prints of the Old Masters hoping they would shield himfrom the economic insecurity caused by the Communist regime.

Throughout his career, Kubata could be found at his desk surrounded by favorite objects fromhis collections: Napoleoniana, Mozartiana, antique maps, family photos, and others. Amazingly,he also found time to serve as a corresponding secretary for the State Preservation of Prague.

Many of his childrens books, including The dragon who would not wash (O nemytm drckovi; Orbis - )(#), featured the Prague skyline and monuments. In the late s, he even designed a decora-tive scarf featuring the landmarks of Prague located near his apartment in the Smchov section ofthe city. One image is of a Soviet military tank that has since been removed and replaced with afountain.

Kubata was also passionate about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (# , ) and images of theAustrian composer filled his home studio. Curiously, he did not listen to any music while he worked.Prague showed a sincere interest in Mozart and, unlike the fickle Viennese . . . never abandonedhim. Mozart was purported to have said he loved Prague because [the people] understood him.

Kubata always kept a blue Delft mug of Mozarts Salzburg across from his desk (#).

In , to commemorate the th anniversary of the birth of Mozart, Kubata produced aportfolio of twelve Prague city scenes associated with the composer. The twelve hand-coloredlithographs were also reproduced on note cards, postcards (#), and calendars. During his visitsto Prague in and , Mozart stayed at the Villa Bertramka where he composed music andfinished the score of his most famous opera, Don Giovanni. Known as, the opera of all operas, itwas Kubatas favorite. As an avid member of Pragues Mozart Society, he annually designed itsNew Years card, then sent it to his personal list, signing the card p.f. V. Kubata, p.f. in Latinmeaning pour felicit all the best.

Artia and Pop-upsIn the early s, Dr. torch-Marien left Aventinum. The struggling publishing house, which hehad revived for the duration of his association with Kubata, was again having difficulties andKubata sought work elsewhere. Capitalizing on his love of Slovakia, Kubata worked for Slovtour(#a-d), the Slovakian state travel agency, and designed its logo that was used for thirty years.He created striking tourist posters of the Demnov Caves and the Jasn ski resorts (#) andsouvenir booklets for Slovtour using movable and pop-up elements. According to his daughter,Dagmar, Kubata said, pop-ups make [the ads] livelier. As far as can be determined, these promotional materials seem to be the first time he commercially produced three-dimensionalephemera. It is likely that he was influenced by his collection of nineteenth-century lacy pop-upgreeting cards.

Under the Communists, Czechoslovakia accelerated its industrial growth and manufactured many consumer products for export. During that time, Kubata worked for the Czechoslovakian

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Chamber of Commerce designing advertising materials for light bulbs (#, ), sewing machines(#), radios (#), sunglasses (#), and Pilsners famous beer (#). The ads, in vivid colorsand clean lines, were printed in numerous languages and often contained movables and pop-upsthat breathed life into the flat paper products. With all of these projects, he sought the possibilit[ies]in the movable paper.

In , Kubata began illustrating for Artia, the state-run publishing and trading house. Childrenspublishing, and publishing in general, were enjoying a rebirth. The printing presses in Czechoslovakiahad not been destroyed in the war as they had in Germany. The old Czech presses allowed for theheavy application of dyes. During printing, the paper became richly saturated with color thatappropriately supported Kubatas highly stylized faux-naif design. It was while he worked forArtia that he found his greatest and most lasting successes.

In the mid-s Kubata offered Artia his first pop-up book, a crude, primitive affair, by his ownaccount. Soon after, he quickly developed a simple method of cut-and-folded cardstock with aslant-cut that gave the illustrations greater volume and depth and allowed the scenes to extendbeyond the edges of the page. Many of his books incorporated pull-tab mechanisms, adding tothe tableauxs complexity. A perfectionist in many respects, Kubata believed, everything must bejust right! Beginning with the stories of the Brothers Grimm (#, , , ) and the classic,Robinson Crusoe (#), Kubata wanted to create for children a small theatre inside the book.

At home, Kubatas desk was strewn with colored pencils, scissors, cardstock, and paper. He incorporated whenever he could, cellophane and aluminum foil into the illustrations, and anyother element that would accent the reality of the diorama he was creating. He once entertained in

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his studio a famous author who came to see how his pop-ups were made. According to the visitor,Kubata seemed to have everything worked out in his head and knew how the pop-up would finally turn out even before he began the design process. The visitor did not realize that each and every one of [Kubatas] books demanded an extensive knowledge of descriptive geometry.

Kubata admitted, however, to hating math but loving geometry because it made perfect sense.Although his pop-ups were minutely calculated to give the greatest sense of perspective, he knewfull well that as far as the dimensional imagination is concerned, children take it as incidental.

According to Opus VK (see Appendix), a pamphlet that attempted to list all of Kubatasworks, Christopher Columbus () was the first pop-up book in what was later to be called thePanascopic Model Series, a possible reference to the model and stand-up books from the earlierEnglish Bookano series by S. Louis Giraud. Primarily based on the Klementinum (#) format of, each folio-sized book had a heavy cardboard triptych cover with an illustrated story stapledin the center. The back covers unfolded to reveal double page pop-ups standing as high as thirteeninches. Bancroft, in , packaged twelve (#, ) of the books using the Panascopic format.

Through his pop-up creations, Kubatas fantasy world becomes real to the reader. At a timebefore there was a television in every home and before video games such as GameBoy and Sega,Kubatas pop-ups provided children with the opportunity to interact with their own imaginationsby opening up the three-dimensional images of Columbus caravels sailing the roiling Atlantic(#), medieval knights jousting in front of a castle (#), monkeys swinging gaily on swayingpalm trees in a far-off jungle (#), or a farm with free-standing movable animals. Several of thepop-ups, especially those with holiday-related Christmas or Easter themes, were also publishedwithout text and were intended to be used as table decorations (#, , , ).

Kubatas witty illustrations reflected his Weltanschauung and his compassion for humanity andnature. The endpapers of Noahs Ark -, showed Noah explaining to the animals the fate thatwas going to befall them: the faces of each anthropomorphized animal, appropriately, expresseshorror, sadness, or shock. Similarly, Lothar Meggendorfers (-), International Circus - ,also individualized the characters in the audiences of the dioramas.

At Artia, Vojtech Kubata published more illustrated and pop-up books than one would thinkhumanly possible. The sheer number of titles he designed continues to confound contemporarypaper engineers. Today, a single pop-up book, from concept to publication, can require up to twoyears to completion. According to Opus VK, Kubata illustrated and paper engineered over ninetybooks between -, and collectors and scholars are still discovering titles that were notrecorded. His use of embellishments on numbers, corners, head- and tale-pieces, and decorated margins, like those in