Czechoslovakia

Film posters in history. Sixties poster designs.

Poster Designer / Stanislav Vajce

Applied Arts / Graphic Art / Fine Art / Sculpture

• b. 26th April 1935, Klatovy, Czech Republic

Education:

• 1954 – 1958, Secondary School of Applied Arts, Uherské Hradiště (Hroch Vladimír)¹
• 1958 – 1963, Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (Alois Fišárek)

Exhibitions (selected):

• 1969 – Junge Künstler aus der ČSSR, Haus am Kleistpark, Berlin²
• 1969 – Tschechoslowakische Plakate, Kunstgewerbemuseum Zürich
• 1972 – Eva Vajceová, Stanislav Vajce, Galerie bratří Čapků, Prague
• 1983 – Tjekkisk Kunst i Danmark, Kobenhavn

Awards:³

• 1965 – Rodriguez Acosta Prize
• 1968 – 1st prize for relief/sculpture made for 50th Anniversary of Czechoslovakia
• 1968 – 1st & 3rd Prize, Poster Exhibition, Brno Biennials, Czech Republic
• 1982 – Grand Prix for portrait work, Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• 1984 – Prize of the Ministry of Culture of Bosnia and Herzegovina for portrait work at International Biennial of Portrait, Tuzla

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[quote]“Stanislav Vajce’s art of painting – if by this we mean the art of masterfully guiding the brush – resolutely rejects the academic approach to painting and replaces it with a sensitive and sweeping painting style.”⁴ [/quote]

It’s almost tradition that many Czechoslovak poster designers were involved in painting or had some sort of fine art study background. 1950s were accumulating incredible potential and vitality among artists, but political climate of totalitarianism was breeding machine-like art and did not allow any personal burst out.⁵ In mid 50s Stalinist era was slowly ceasing to extinction and for the following decade Czechoslovakia was witnessing quite surprising changes. Many artists were meeting up in newly created art groups or were allowed solo exhibitions. However, political apparatus was still in charge as the movie poster commissioner had a good number of contemporary artists circulating on their list.

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Pure fascination awaits for those who choose to observe movie posters of Stanislav Vajce closely. His inspiration seems endless and same goes to his ability to work with such an infinity. Stanislav Vajce’s devotion to art matter started fairly early in his age. As a 15 year old boy, he traveled daily to Klatovy in order to apprentice as a sign-painter and gilder.⁶ This affection remained with him ever since; in his future art, as well as he was frequently using gold and hand typing in his poster work.

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[quote]“Vajce is also in habit of listening to music while painting when he is alone in his studio. ”⁷ [/quote]

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Stanislav Vajce’s movie posters are real joy to look at, he blends many different techniques that are meeting in very amusing results. There is no limitation to his designing approach. He likes to play with the surface and texture, mixing montage, collage and obviously the brush stroke. The use of every day objects and body parts are repeatedly reoccurring. His use of eye cutouts is almost as striking as the famous scene’s from Luis Buñuel’s and Salvador Dalí’s Un Chien Andalou, eye element keeps returning in several of his posters. Stanislav Vajce’s poster designs are only a step away from his paintings, but unlike in his fascinating assemblages, he likes to employ that cinematic touch in his posters and that is the use of the photograph. Breaking boundaries (in design) seems the most natural to him. His movie posters are pure visual poetry with certain tenderness and delicacy.

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Between 1964 − 1972 Stanislav Vajce designed 24 movie posters. He emigrated together with his family to West Germany in 1987 where they live ever since.

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Interview with Stanislav Vajce’s wife Eva:

We felt very privileged and lucky at the same time when we’ve heard from Stanislav Vajce’s daughter in law Kirsten. We are willing to make an interview with exile poster artist for so long and are constantly trying to find those “channels”, but we were never as close. It did not take long and we were granted with the reply from Stanislav’s wife Eva Vajce⁸⁹ . We were very happy to find out that she would try to answer some of our questions. Unfortunately Stanislav Vajce’s health does not allow him to participate in this interview. Several questions regarding actual poster designing processes had to be deleted, but we believe Mrs. Eva’s fascinating replies are telling more than we could ever ask for.

[quote]“At the beginning I have to let you know that my husband is seriously ill and unfortunately he will not be able to give answers to your questions. In regards to your effort in trying to approach Stanislav, I would love to try to answer some of them, at least briefly, according to my knowledge.”[/quote]

We’ve learned that after your studies at Secondary School of Applied Arts in Uherské Hradiště (1954 – 58) you graduated from Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (1959 – 63). What were the possibilities for a young graduate of the art school in the mid 1960s in the totalitarian state, in embrace of Communist propaganda and social realism?

[quote]“My husband studied at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague a monumental painting under the supervision of professor Fišárek. Since he was not in the Communist Party, he did not expect to be able to live of painting, or to get any sort of architectural commissions and began to devote himself to book graphics. He discovered the art of gramophone record covers was not efficient enough. Record company Artia¹⁰ had business success around the world with top-class recordings of classical music, but had sales difficulties due to the appearance of the product. Records with his packaging were the attraction for foreign buyers. Along with that, he started to design posters, illustrations, etc.”[/quote]

Between 1964 – 1972 you’ve been working on movie posters, similarly as many other contemporary artists. Why was the poster making so popular among artists and what brought you to designing?

[quote]“Poster designs were relatively well paid at that time, thus quite a fight/competition among the graphic artists, it was simply a question of existence. Otherwise, my husband did not belong to these typical “graphic artists”, which is why, as I suppose, he was not represented on poster exhibitions, even though the quality of his work deserved it. On the contrary he did not care about the appreciation, it was indifferent and unfamiliar to him. The commissions for the posters were coming from Mrs. XX, I do not remember her name anymore, because Stanislav was sympathetic and did not ask for any. There was the so-called art committee made out of artists such as Vaca, etc., similarly as with all art commissions. The members of such a committee were nominated by the Union of Fine Artists and they were politically engaged to the party, in many times it did not matter how good their art was. The most of the contracts were distributed among themselves. If Stanislav occasionally passed, it was always because of the high quality of his artwork, he was always aside of art groups or unions. Graphic artists were holding together quite strongly. Perhaps, in my opinion, they had complex from “painters”.[/quote]

1960s have brought considerable liberalisation to countries such as Czechoslovakia. Changes have been evident in literature, film and art as such. State borders ceased to be as much guarded and few artists at that time managed to present their work also abroad. The films of the Czechoslovak New Wave won several awards at major film festivals and Czechoslovakia reappeared on the map of the world. Film posters took place in international competitions and many artists have been featured in such prestigious magazines as Graphis or Gebrauchsgrafik. However occupation of Czechoslovakia by the associated states of the Warsaw Pact at the end of August 1968 made early end to all of this. Normalisation has prevented many artists from continuing to work, some have been forced to emigrate, and many names have disappeared from poster scene. How did the situation after August 68 reflected on your work?

[quote]“In 1966, we managed to travel to Italy and my husband fell in love with Italian countryside. After our return, he began to paint pictures inspired by this journey and by chance, the head of one of Dílo’s galleries (“Artwork” Gallery – which was the sales section of the Union of Fine Artists) who saw them in the studio persuaded my husband to put them on sale. Since all the works of art had to go through the committees consisting of artists with party and political commitment and approval, the matter was rather disgusting. Still, here and then they had been forced to approve some of his work, so he devoted himself much more to painting.”[/quote]

[quote]“The most important for Stanislav was that his paintings had a great response and many were sold. Directors of Dílo Galleries had to show revenue, so they were trying to commission husband’s paintings by personal agreement with agents, etc. The secretary of the Union of Fine Artists Dr. Lhota was also admirer of husband’s work and if there was any show cancellation and exhibition gallery became vacant, he literally sneaked my husband in within very short notice.”[/quote]

[quote]“Another one of his admirer was the poet Karel Sýs, a convinced communist, to whom my husband illustrated poems. Karel Sýs had a great literary interest in husband’s art and because he was the editor of Rudé Právo¹¹, he enforced publishing. On one hand, we were spied on, because of our religious foreign ecumenical engagement and political dubiousness, on the other hand my husband had influential advocates who tried to make his work available to the public. It was all due to the fact that his paintings were irresistible for the large audience, art collectors and exhibitors had great success with them.”[/quote]

[quote]“Such a system was censoring all of the artistic activities, not only for graphic art and that was the biggest dirt (not to be called otherwise). The system allowed to distribute contracts among artists not by the quality of their work, but because of the political engagement. Simply said.”[/quote]

[quote]“From my own experience in 1986, when committee openly said to the architect and investor: Vajce does not get an approval stamp on her proposal, she had guzzled enough already, she will never get a bite again, literally in exactly same words. (I previously won an anonymous competition where members of the government committee and architects mistakenly assumed I was in the party, and because they liked my proposal the most, they overpowered the Union of Fine Artists (fiasco). This is just to illustrate the situation, I’m writing to you openly, as it was.”[/quote]

It is clear that the main poster commissioner was ÚPF (Ústřední Půjčovna Filmů / Formal state distribution 1957-1991) with its own censoring committee that was deciding which posters could go into distribution. In article with Zdeněk Ziegler we read that some of the poster designers as Karel Vaca, or Dobroslav Foll were also part of such a committee.¹² Could you describe a little how was approval process working and what were the selection criteria? Or were there any taboos that were not permitted to be shown?

[quote]“As I see it, the main criteria was money distribution.”[/quote]

It’s almost half of the century that you have not been designing film posters, nevertheless they still look very modern and impressive. How do you personally perceive them after such a long distance of time?

[quote]“In my opinion, they appear in such a way, because graphic art was always taking part in Stanislav’s versatile art besides of illustration, landscape painting, portrait, drawing, monumental painting, sculpture.”[/quote]

Many thanks to Eva & Stanislav Vajce for sharing their precious time and knowledge with us.

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Examples of record sleeves designed by Stanislav Vajce:

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Please see other fascinating posters designed by Stanislav Vajce.

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Resources:

Literature:

• 3. Milena Klasová: Stanislav Vajce / Galerie Klatovy, 2015 / published for Stanislav Vajce’s retrospective, also printed debut about artist
• 4.6.7.  Milena Klasová: Stanislav Vajce / Galerie Klatovy, 2015, p.119, p.26, p.133,
• Collective authors: Czech film posters of 20th century / The Moravian Gallery in Brno, Exlibris Prague, 2004.
• 12. Flashback / Czech and Slovak Film Posters 1959-1989, ed. Libor Gronský, Marek Perůtka, Michal Soukup, Olomouc Museum of Art, 2004, p.34 (Welcome to hard times… by Zdeněk Ziegler)

Online:

• 8.9. abART / Eva Vajce + Eva Vajce’s artwork showcase
• 1.2. abART / Stanislav Vajce
• 5. more about the situation in art schools in the article about Bedřich Dlouhý, see NEGLECTING THE ART

Additional online research:

• 80th birthday anniversary exhibition of Stanislav Vajce in Galerie Klatovy, Czech Rebublic, 1. 2. – 6. 4. 2015
• 10. Artia Record Company
• 11. Red Justice / The Red Truth – official newspaper of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia

Images used:

• Stanislav Vajce’s record covers: discogs.com
• Images of Stanislav Vajce’s artwork are property of the artist and are all copyrighted.

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Note: this showcase is part of our ongoing article Film posters / Made in Czechoslovakia. The story of film posters, please read Take 1 / Take 2, or see artist’s INDEX for more blog posts.

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Film posters in history. Sixties poster designs.

Poster Designer / Stanislav Duda

Animation / Applied Arts / Book Illustration / Graphic Art

 

 

• b. 2nd July 1921, Ostrava, Czech Republic ¹
• 2008, Czech Republic

Education:

• 1941 – 1947, Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (Antonín Strnadel)

Art groups:

• Bilance (also Jaroslav Fišer) ²

Exhibitions (selected):

• 1954 – 1958 Group exhibitions, Bilance
• 1956 – Exhibitions of Graphic Artists from Czechoslovakia. Poznan, Moscow, Warszaw ³
• 1958 – EXPO. Brussels, Belgium
• 1965 – Plakate aus der Tschechoslowakei. Munich, West Germany ⁴
• 1959 – 1969 Ontario, Wien, Hamburg, Karlovy Vary, Bochum, Koln, Tolentino, London
• 1967 – Contemporary Czechoslovak Poster. Olomouc, Czech Republic
• 1964/1970/1972/1976/1980 – Brno Biennials, Czech Republic

Awards (selected):

• 1964 − Applied Arts Prize. 1st Biennials of Czechoslovak Poster and Applied Arts. Brno, Czech Republic
• 1968 – Prize for Installation. XVI. Triennale, Milano, Italy ⁵
• 1985 – Jiří Trnka Prize for animation Omalovánky / Colouring Books. Czech Republic
• 1986 − 1st Prize for animation. Chicago Film Festival, USA

Awarded posters:

• 1964 – Honourable mention for Harold Lloyd in his best Comedies movie poster (bellow). International Film Festival, Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic ⁶
• 1965 − 1st Prize for The Haunted Castle / Strašidla ze Spessartu movie poster. Filmplakat Wien, Austria
• 1984 – Silver Hugo for Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid movie poster. Chicago Film Festival, USA

 

 

Welcome to the humorous world of Stanislav Duda, possibly one of the longest lasting poster designer Czechoslovakia had on offer. His poster activities are dating to late 40s, where he gained several awards for his commercial poster designs. ⁷  Stanislav Duda begins to work professionally right after his graduation as graphic designer in Centrotex company (import / export of mostly textile products) where he stayed until 1953. From then onwards he works on his own as freelancer. He takes part in several group exhibitions representing graphic art from Czechoslovakia and also participates on International Exposition in Brussels (EXPO 58), where Czechoslovakia won prize for the best pavilion.

 

By the beginning of 1960s when Stanislav Duda started designing movie posters he was already well established graphic artist. Not sure if it was just by mere coincidence or because of his personal character, but it seems that majority of his 1960s movie posters were designed mostly for grotesque comedy (most of the posters shown in the article). Parallel to his illustrated caricatures that could be seen in several popular periodicals or art magazines, one can suggest that circumstances were working in his favour.

 

 

It is interesting to observe artist’s development through out his career. Stanislav Duda remained faithful to drawing all the way to mid 1980s. Apart of occasional use of very simple collage (Bewitched Love, 1969 (bellow) / Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, 1985) or his phenomenal movie poster for Francois Truffaut’s Day for Night (great example of his graphical abilities) he was focused mainly on illustration and experimented a lot with fonts and colour. Eventually he also takes control over typography and masters everything in very unique almost childish quality of naive artist as can be seen in his later poster designs.

 

 

Stanislav Duda was author of several animated films and illustrated a good number of books for both children and adults. His work brought him a world recognition in pretty much everything he has touched. He has designed around thirty movie posters all with genuine signature and obtained some important movie poster awards.

Note: this showcase is part of our ongoing article Film posters / Made in Czechoslovakia. The story of film posters.

Many other magnificent posters by Stanislav Duda can be observed in our movie poster archive.

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Resources:

Literature:

• II. Bienále Užité Grafiky Brno ’66, Medzinárodní Výstava Knižní Grafiky a Ilustrace, Moravská Galerie v Brně. / 2nd Biennale of Graphic Design Brno ’66, The International Exhibition of Book Graphics and Illustrations, Moravian Gallery Brno, 1966
• 3.5. IV. Bienále Užité Grafiky Brno 1970, Medzinárodní Přehlídka Plakátu a Propagační Grafiky, Moravská Galerie v Brně. / 4th Biennale of Graphic Design Brno 1970, The International Exhibition of Poster and Promotional Graphics, Moravian Gallery Brno, 1970 (p.41)
• V. Bienále Užité Grafiky Brno 1972, Medzinárodní Výstava Ilustrace a Knižní Grafiky, Moravská Galerie v Brně. / 5th Biennale of Graphic Design Brno 1972, The International Exhibition of Illustrations and Book Graphics, Moravian Gallery Brno, 1972
• VII. Bienále Užité Grafiky Brno 1976, Mezinárodní výstava ilustrace a knižní grafiky, Moravská Galerie v Brně. / 7th Biennale of Graphic Design Brno 1976, The International Exhibition of Illustrations and Book Graphics, Moravian Gallery Brno, 1976
• IX. Bienále Užité Grafiky Brno 1980, Medzinárodní Výstava Ilustrace a Knižní Grafiky, Moravská Galerie v Brně. / 9th Biennale of Graphic Design 1980, The International Exhibition of Illustrations and Book Graphics, Moravian Gallery Brno, 1980
• 6.Současná světová grafika, Deset brněnských bienále / The World Graphic Design at the Ten Brno Biennials, Jiří Hlušička. Odeon, Praha, 1985 (p.272)
• 7. 1948, 1949, 1955 – 1st, 2nd & 3rd Prize for commercial poster design. IV. Bienále Užité Grafiky Brno 1970, Medzinárodní Přehlídka Plakátu a Propagační Grafiky, Moravská Galerie v Brně. / 4th Biennale of Graphic Design Brno 1970, The International Exhibition of Poster and Promotional Graphics, Moravian Gallery Brno, 1970 (p.41)
• 4. Exhibition Catalogue: Plakate aus der Tschechoslowakei / Posters from the Czechoslovakia. Münchner Stadstmuseum, Munich, West Germany, 16.2 − 20.3. 1965. Texts: Alena Adlerová & Johanna von Herzogenberg.

Online:

• 1. abArt / Stanislav Duda / Most of the biographical details are coming from AbArt’s archive unless otherwise referred.
• 2.  AbArt  / Group of Artists and Graphic Designers established in Prague between 1957 − 1968. Main activities were exhibitions of group members in Czechoslovakia and abroad.
• Article about exhibition Plakate aus der Tschechoslowakei / Posters from the Czechoslovakia, Munich, West Germany (1965) was printed in Gebrauchsgraphik Magazine, January/1965 and is available thanks to International Advertising & Design DataBase (pages 46-60).
• Centrotex / cs.wikipedia.org

Images used:

• Harold Lloyd in His Best Comedies, 1963 / The King of Kings, 1963. Exhibition Catalogue: Plakate aus der Tschechoslowakei / Posters from the Czechoslovakia. Münchner Stadstmuseum, Munich, West Germany, 16.2 − 20.3. 1965. Texts: Alena Adlerová & Johanna von Herzogenberg
• When Comedy Was King / Stanislav Duda, 1965.Exhibition Catalogue: IV. Bienále Užité Grafiky Brno 1970, Medzinárodní Přehlídka Plakátu a Propagační Grafiky, Moravská Galerie v Brně. / 4th Biennale of Graphic Design Brno 1970, The International Exhibition of Poster and Promotional Graphics, Moravian Gallery Brno, 1970 (p. 145)

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Film posters in history. Sixties poster designs.

Poster Designer / Bedřich Dlouhý

Fine Art / Graphic Design / Typography

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• b. 2nd August 1932, Plzeň (Pilsen), Czech Republic

Education / Pedagogue:

• 1949 − 1952, Specialised Ceramics school in Prague ¹
• 1953 − 1959, Academy of Fine Arts, Prague (Karel Souček, Miroslav Hollý)
• 1990 – 1995, taught as professor at Academy of Fine Arts, Prague

Exhibitions / Awards:

• up to 70s artist exhibited mostly in group shows across the Europe and Czechoslovakia
• IV. Biennale de Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1965 (Awarded)

Art Groups:

• Palette of Homeland (unofficial trans.) / Paleta vlasti (Hockey team consisting of several of artist’s friends)
• Šmídrové (from 1954)
• Confrontation / Konfrontace (from 1961, also Jiří Balcar)
• Retarded / Zaostalí (from 1987)

Film posters created: 23 (1962-1971) ²

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[quote]”It may sound slightly disrespectful, but I am aware that I have a huge wide inventiveness and it makes and justifies me to take interest in many sectors of the art form.” ³[/quote]

We are somewhere in mid fifties, in times of the most absurd terror upon democracy, constant greyness (Stalin’s monument in Prague and similar monsters are being raised across the Czechoslovakia) and bleak vision of existence. At the Academy of Fine Art in Prague the group of three interesting characters are meeting up. In the following words we will try to get closer to one of them.

[quote]”I started out as no one in that field and I was getting jobs for pretty inconsequential films from Romania, Bulgaria and Russia. They were productions of a third or second category. Because of the impressive quality of my work, film poster committee and ÚPF representatives (Formal state film distribution 1957 – 1991) were constantly adding to a momentum. It was reflected in good quality commissions for example for Fellini’s or Visconti’s magnum opus. I had to earn it.” ⁴[/quote]

Bedřich Dlouhý was not such a tyro/novice at the beginning of his poster designing career as he explains in the quote above. By the time he started to design movie posters (1962) his portfolio contained already good body of art work, some important exhibitions and possibly something extra to it. To his future colleagues he must have been known as someone incredibly talented, the man without hesitation and very likely also without compromise.

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Neglecting the art

Among Bedřich Dlouhý’s best early pieces was exhibiting with art group Šmídrové. Their first exhibition in 1954 called Malmuzherziáda (varieté of painting, music and act as we understand) was made in the hardest times of Stalinist propaganda and Social Realism. Jan Koblasa (Czech artist and the member of the group) in the documentary made for Czech Television demonstrates the climate of late fifties as “very dark and grey”. Days in art school, as days among communist collaborators (“recommended working class was gaining high school diplomas to get legal access to Universities). Loneliness among them was unbearable.” ⁵ No wonder that the three of them had met under such a circumstances. The group itself had very playful character with Neo Dadaist expression, hockey team and brass band.(Traditional folk music was not in favour of communist propaganda either, they had their own songs full of ridiculous slogans.)

[quote]“We loathed to look as an artists. We loathed to do things as an artists. We played hockey as part of our manifest Šmídrové. It may sound unbelievable, but the main thing was not to be an artist.” ⁶[/quote]

After their first collaborative exhibition the group was officially established. Show or rather happening in 1957 called “Exhibition for one day” brought in too much controversy. Event had to be cancelled in duration, but it took place elsewhere the following day. On the day one Václav Havel (Czech writer, poet, ex-president) was giving the speech and on the second day he was already taking part with good number of other artists and musicians. Bedřich Dlouhý’s discharge from the Academy followed and lasted for a while.

Poster days and …

As for the film poster Bedřich Dlouhý was testing the new medium so intensely as anything else. His posters might appear visually settled and designed in quite minimalist style. In our examples even his typography might look very basic. Less is more, but not for Bedřich Dlouhý’s movie posters. They are full of hidden symbols and impressions even when they seem so simple.

Please come closer and let’s take a look at his The Fall of Berlin movie poster for instance. Fairly suggestive photograph of burning German capital is taking over the larger part of the poster. Pure catastrophe straight into ones face and quite rightly in monochrome. Message is very simple, anyone could guess what the movie poster offers. Bedřich Dlouhý does not want you to only see the movie but he also wants you to use the rest of your senses.

[quote]”I enjoyed improvising incredibly.” ⁷[/quote]

He takes your attention a bit further by exploring the large circle in the middle of the rich red bottom half of the poster. Red colour could represent the tons of blood and it is possibly also used to say big STOP. Almost like the red colour on traffic light advising one to stop, only the circle here is empty. Negating reality and pointing out that people will never learn. Or take the circle together with rectangularly shaped photograph. Two objects want to look little something like exclamation mark and set the message to following? STOP THIS! ? Similarly to the inner part of the circle that tells how it could all end up if we do not stop the wars. His movie poster for Hiroshima Mon Amour was designed in absolutely different style, but the poster also suggests close catastrophe.

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There are not only serious movie posters author has designed, he does not omit humour and irony (posters designed for The Pink Panther / Blake Edwards in 1966 or In the Woods / Akira Kurosawa in 1970 ) ⁸ when necessary. He does not use any particular style either, but instead he approaches each individual poster very differently. The one connecting link we have found is that Bedřich Dlouhý’s curiosity does not like to leave things as they are. He wants to get right into to the core of his subject by bringing out the deepest details and he starts from there. He slips between the most complicated expressive forms (techniques frequently used in his paintings) ⁹ to the most simple designs masterly. Visual illusion and yet with fantastically clear almost microscopic explanation.

Even thought Bedřich Dlouhý created some of the most iconic movie posters of the 60s, his unconventional approach to art form did not meet with the official agenda of the following decade. Similarly to many other artists in the beginning of the 70s he was forced to stop exhibiting and discontinued with designing movie posters.

Note: this showcase is part of our ongoing article Film posters / Made in Czechoslovakia. The story of film posters.

Available posters designed by the artist.

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Resources:

Literature:

• Collective authors: Czech film posters of 20th century / The Moravian Gallery in Brno, Exlibris Prague, 2004.
• 2. Flashback / Czech and Slovak Film Posters 1959-1989, ed. Libor Gronský, Marek Perůtka, Michal Soukup, Olomouc Museum of Art, 2004. (p.49). 25 movie posters to our knowledge.
• Tomáš Vlček: Současný Plakát / Contemporary Poster, Odeon, Prague, 1976.
• Československý Plakát / Czechoslovak Poster, exhibition catalogue, Olomouc (Czech Republic), 1967. One of the most important poster exhibition in the history of Czechoslovak poster design. We wish to return back to catalogue and give it a full blog post once we are ready.

Online:

• 1. abArt / Bedřich Dlouhý / see for the full list of exhibitions. abArt takes always first place and star when it comes to research.
• 3. / 4. Czech Radio Archive / offers few of his interviews
• 5. / 6. / 7. Fenomém Underground / Underground Phenomenon (unofficial title), Collective authors, 2012. Documentary made for Czech Television. 52 min.
•  8. Filmový plakát (Bedřich Dlouhý) / excellent archive of Czechoslovak poster art

Additional research:

• for Pinterest users, some posters are available to see in our board
• 9. Museum Montanelli, Prague / Return of the King, exhibition 2015

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Film posters in history. Sixties poster designs.

Poster Designer / Josef Duchoň

Book Illustration / Fine Art / Graphic Design / Typography

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• b. 17th January 1929, Hostěradice (Prague-West), Czech Republic

Education:

• 1945 − 1949, State Graphic School, Prague (Richard Lander)
• 1949 − 1955, Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design, Prague (Karel Svolinský)

Art Groups:

• Association of Czech Graphic Artists Hollar / Sdružení českých umělců grafiků Hollar (1957)
• May 57 / Máj 57 (1964)

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Remember the day when we were unfolding our first large size movie poster. There was quite an excitement about the whole thing. Firstly it was about the size of a poster. All of our movie posters were in A3 size until then and we were astonished by the remarkable change in dimensions. Almost three times larger in size, movie poster offered much clearer detail and we had impression that printing was handled with slightly extra care. For common reason as we had later found out, A1 posters were bit more representative, they were used occasionally for poster exhibitions. Our second astonishment was the visual content.

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Josef Duchoň’s lovingly puzzled collage for children’s adventurous movie set in the jungle (Black Mountain, 1972) was tenderly looking at us. What a joy! His movie posters have become one of our most favourite ever since. As we are describing the temperature, we could also mention, that we have very similar feelings towards Ever Alexander Půček‘s children’s posters.

Fascination of Josef Duchoň with children’s fantasy is in the right place and it was frequently reflected in his book illustrations. From 1959 he was co-working for the State publisher of children book as an illustrator. Early 1960s brought Josef Duchoň also to movie poster design. He created over two dozens of exceptionally impressive movie posters in period of almost 20 years¹.

His work is extremely explosive, but not in a destructive way. On the other hand, Josef Duchoň is using the mixture of several artistic methods to reach viewer’s sensation. As a surreal artist his choice of collage technique is natural. Wonderful variation of live pastel colours achieved by the use of elegantly shaped and carefully placed woodcuts and his manipulation with objects is masterful. Thanks to monochrome cut outs and neat typography his movie posters are gaining quite significant depth and very vibrant character.

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Josef Duchoň started exhibiting as a member of Association of Czech Graphic Artists Hollar in mid 1950s². (Important art group established in Prague, 1917.) Among 161³ Czech leading artists and graphic designers one can find other interesting poster artists such as Jiří Balcar, Adolf Born, Jan Kubíček, Jiří Šalamoun or Jaroslav Sůra to name few.

His first solo exhibition is dated to 1960. Liberal Czechoslovakia allowed Josef Duchoň to exhibit work also internationally. He took part in Biennale of Young Artists / Paris (France, 1963), Intergrafik / Berlin (Germany, 1965), Myth of the XXth Century / Coventry (UK, 1967) or in exhibition of Czech graphic artists in Oregon (USA, 1967). It seems that 1970s political changes stopped his exhibition activities for some time. There was no place for surreal, or any sort of abstraction in uniformed Czechoslovakia. However children’s publications were not censored, anything was possible in there and movie posters just very mildly⁴. Josef Duchoň remained faithful to a fantasy.

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Note: this showcase is part of our ongoing article Film posters / Made in Czechoslovakia. The story of film posters.

Please see other fascinating posters designed by the artist.

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Resources:

Literature:

• 1. Collective authors: Czech film posters of 20th century / The Moravian Gallery in Brno, Exlibris Prague, 2004. Josef Duchoň’s movie poster appears in year 1964 in their chronological catalogue. Our poster archive dates his movie poster activity up to 1981.

Online:

• 2. abArt / Josef Duchoň / Big thanks to abArt for their research on invisible.
• 3. cs.Wikipedia.org / Association of Czech Graphic Artists Hollar
• Prostor / Extensive list of artist’s exhibitions.
• 4. Read more about censorship in our article about anonymous artists.

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Film posters in history. Sixties poster designs.

Poster Designer / Antonín Dimitrov

Graphic Art / Painting / Set Design / Typography

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• b. 27th February 1928, Mšecké Žehrovice/Rakovník, Czech Republic
• d. 27th December 2014, Bobcaygeon, Canada
• lived in Canadian exile from 1968

Education:

• 1945 – 1953, Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (Antonín Strnadel)

Exhibitions:

• until 1968 mostly Prague exhibitions
• Toronto, Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (member), Canada, 1991
• London / United Kingdom

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In few of our recent articles we have discussed absurdity and inappropriate behaviour of Communist leaders. Terrifying act of those in power and their constant fight towards fictional enemy was very systematical. In country as small as Czechoslovakia it was not impossible to succeed.

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Similarly to Jan Brychta, Antonín Dimitrov’s profile was simply deleted. Second successful attempt of leaving the country in 1968 took Antonín Dimitrov with his wife Olga to Canada. His first try when he and his soul mate swam across the river Danube to neighbouring Austria, just to get caught and handed in to Russian soldiers, cost him several years in prison and forced labor.

Before their disappearance, Antonín Dimitrov and his wife worked professionally as a set and costume designers in various theatres across the country. Antonín’s rebellious nature has been proved several times. Exclusion from the Art Academy for his incorrect political views (note: even the students had to be the members of Communist party. Same applied to parents, if there was a non member in the family, studying at higher education was impossible. Not talking of grand parents.) and his unsuccessful immigration right after that are only few examples of his misbehaviour.

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His collaboration with Czechoslovak New Wave directors, specially with Juraj Herz must have also spiced the soup up. Juraj Herz’s Cremator was the movie Communist could not swallow, similarly to other two titles in the showcase. In cases when the Communists decided to ban the movie everything would go off the shelf. Film director, author of the script / writer and the same destiny would meet the film poster.

Movie posters of Antonín Dimitrov are reflecting the times utterly. His posters are incredibly attractive, no matter if he touches the scissors or the paint brush. Excellent typographer and master of the blend, his virtues are sensibly hidden mostly in the collage. His posters are missing on one thing, there are only very few of them. He possibly did not design more than ten movie posters.

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Even though Antonín Dimitrov luckily led succesful life in the exile. As a set designer he and his wife worked on numerous theatre and opera productions. He was also head of the design programme at the prestigious Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana¹ . But for Czechoslovak film poster his departure was a great loss. Many fascinating artists remained and learn how to overcome the situation, while building one of the most impressive poster archive in design history. It would be truly interesting to see what else could Antonín Dimitrov pull out of that hat.

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Note: this showcase is part of our ongoing article Film posters / Made in Czechoslovakia. The story of film posters.

Available posters by artist or other fascinating film posters designed for Czechoslovak New Wave.

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Resources:

Literature:

• plenty with zero results

Online:

• abArt / Antonín Dimitrov / Big thanks to abArt for their research on invisible.
• Royal Canadian Academy of Arts / list of members since 1880
• 1.  Obituary of Antonin Dimitrov, Hendren Funeral Homes, Norwood and Bobcaygeon, Ontario / it is sad when only biography on artist can be found in his obituary.  Beautifully written, one should take a look.

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Film posters in history. Sixties poster designs.

Poster Designer / Jan Brychta

Book Illustration / Caricature / Film Animation / Painting

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• 11th of May 1928, Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic
• 14th of November 2013, London (?), United Kingdom
• lived in London exile since 1968

Education:

• State Graphic School, Prague (Zdeněk Balaš, Josef Vodrážka)
• 1945 – 19.., Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (Josef Kaplický, Antonín Pelc)

Exhibitions:

• from late 1950s until 1968 mostly Prague exhibitions
• Surrealism Unlimited 1968 – 1978, Camden Arts Centre, London 1978

Awards for Film Animation:

• The main prize in the category of animated films, Oberhausen 1966
• The prize of the union of cinema owners, Oberhausen 1966
• Grand Prix “Bronze Caesar”, Tours 1966

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In 1968 Jan Brychta vanished off the face of the earth and that is the fact. Russian occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968 brought in many immediate changes within the state. Political trials were about to return back to fashion and not everyone was waiting for the resume. Or at least Jan Brychta did not.

It would be hard to say what made such a successful artist leave his homeland, as Jan Brychta’s art was everywhere and available to everyone in all possible forms. From beautifully illustrated books, film animations to caricatures in daily newspaper and television graphics / adverts. Simply put 1960s daily life was somehow incomplete without Jan Brychta.

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It is fascinating to watch how with short step in time and history someone so publicly pleasing can become persona non grata. Researching many years later it really looks that party members did a great job. There was no Jan Brychta after 1968 in Czechoslovakia and same for his wife Lída Brychtová (artist and book illustrator) as they managed to escape the country together with their children Edita and Aleš.

Through out his Czechoslovak career as a daily caricaturist, film animator and pioneer of television graphics Jan Brychta was never far away from the movie poster. His rapid illustration and excellent story telling could be easily applied to the discipline. As a surreal artist and two dimensional painter use of a collage and illustration was a natural choice. His portfolio ends with his disappearance in late 1960s. Jan Brychta’s posters are absolute pleasure to look at and it is real pity it does not contain more than ten movie posters. The master of many techniques with only one common goal which was to keep everyone amused.

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British audience could recognise Jan Brychta’s illustration thanks to BBC children’s television series Jackanory.

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Note: this showcase is part of our ongoing article Film posters / Made in Czechoslovakia. The story of film posters.

Available film posters by Jan Brychta.

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Resources:

Literature:

• plenty with zero results

Online:

• abArt / Jan Brychta
• Krátky Film, Praha / Short Film, Prague. Archive of Jan Brychta’s 1960s animated films.

Images used:

• Collective authors: Záznamník – Naše Domácnost 3 / Family Guide Jotter – Our Household Vol.3. Obchodní Tiskárny, Praha, 1963. Cover and inner pages of the book.
• Film a Doba 1 / Film and Times 1 / Bratislava City Gallery, 1965. Magazine spread out.

Additional research:

• Interview with Alex Brychta (Oxford Reading Tree) by Shoo Rayner / YouTube, Interview with Jan Brychta’s son Aleš Brychta
• How To Obtain a Good Child, 1965 / YouTube, Adult animation by Jan Brychta in Czech language

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Film posters in history. Sixties poster designs.

Poster Designer / Robert Brož

Art Editor / Book Illustration / Graphic Art / Typography

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– b. 10th of August 1939, Prague-Čelákovice, Czech Republic

Education:

– 1954−1958, School of Industrial Art, Bratislava

Exhibitions:

– Biennale Brno 1966, 1970 and later
– Bratislava, Prague, Sofia, 1968
– BIB, Biennale of Book Illustration, Bratislava 1969, 1971 and later
– IBA Leipzig, 1971
– Biennale Warsaw 1971, 1975
– Barcelona, Berlin 1973

Awards:

– Diploma, International exhibition of young poster designers, Sofia, 1968
– Merit Award, IBA Leipzig, 1971
– Merit Award, The most beautiful book of the Year, Bratislava, 1972 and 1977

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Robert Brož’s appearance in Czechoslovak film poster archive is rather rarity, even though designing posters was one of his main profession. As a typographer and graphic designer he has created numerous number of book covers (Bronze Medal, IBA Lepzig, 1971), posters and specialised in creating ex libris for collectors. He was also editor and graphic designer of Slovak publishing house Osveta.

We only know of one single film poster Robert Brož has ever designed. It was created for children’s tale Pilgrimage to San Jago (unofficial title) and done very much in what you would call Brussel style. Common design resonating pretty much in everything made in late Sixties Czechoslovakia (precious times swept away by shady 1970’s propaganda).

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Finding out Robert Brož’s name on majority of books published for Slovak photographer Martin Martinček made us nicely surprised. Martin Martinček’s photography is hugely admired by us and we thought you might like to see more examples of Robert Brož’s design. As he was not exactly movie poster designer, we still believe in his importance in Czechoslovak graphic art and are adding his name to our Sixties designers list.

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We will be coming back to Martin Martinček in later individual posts on photography, where we’ll try to show a glimpse of his excellent work and maybe we’ll even reveal some of his unseen prints from our collection of photographs.

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Note: this showcase is part of our ongoing article Film posters / Made in Czechoslovakia. The story of film posters.

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Resources:

Literature:

• II. Bienále Užité Grafiky Brno ’66, Medzinárodní Výstava Knižní Grafiky a Ilustrace, Moravská Galerie v Brně. / 2^nd Biennale of Graphic Design Brno ’66, The International Exhibition of Book Graphics and Illustrations, Moravian Gallery Brno, 1966
• IV. Bienále Užité Grafiky Brno 1970, Medzinárodní Přehlídka Plakátu a Propagační Grafiky, Moravská Galerie v Brně. / 4^th Biennale of Graphic Design Brno 1970, The International Exhibition of Poster and Promotional Graphics, Moravian Gallery Brno, 1970
• V. Bienále Užité Grafiky Brno 1972, Medzinárodní Výstava Ilustrace a Knižní Grafiky, Moravská Galerie v Brně. / 5^th Biennale of Graphic Design Brno 1972, The International Exhibition of Illustrations and Book Graphics, Moravian Gallery Brno, 1972
• VII. Bienále Užité Grafiky Brno 1976, Mezinárodní výstava ilustrace a knižní grafiky, Moravská Galerie v Brně. / 7^th Biennale of Graphic Design Brno 1976, The International Exhibition of Illustrations and Book Graphics, Moravian Gallery Brno, 1976
• IX. Bienále Užité Grafiky Brno 1980, Medzinárodní Výstava Ilustrace a Knižní Grafiky, Moravská Galerie v Brně. / 9^th Biennale of Graphic Design 1980, The International Exhibition of Illustrations and Book Graphics, Moravian Gallery Brno, 1980

Online:

abArt / Naděžda Bláhová

Images used:

• * Collective authors: Stretnutie / Meetings, Martin 1970. Book cover, colour letterpress. V. Bienále Užité Grafiky Brno 1972, Medzinárodní Výstava Ilustrace a Knižní Grafiky, Moravská Galerie v Brně. / 5^th Biennale of Graphic Design Brno 1972, The International Exhibition of Illustrations and Book Graphics, Moravian Gallery Brno, 1972 (p.55)
• ** logo – Martin Martinček – Exhibition Catalogue, Hora a horské bystriny / Mountain and mountain stream (unofficial translation). Galéria Mesta Bratislavy / Bratislava City Gallery, 1971
• *** book cover – Martin Martinček – Milan Rúfus, Kolíska / Cradle (unofficial translation). Osveta, Banská Bystrica, 1972.
• **** book cover, book design – Martin Martinček, Vrchári / Highlanders (unofficial translation). Osveta, Martin, 1975

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