2024-04-14 15:34:55
His ancestors founded the oldest European condom brand in Prague. However, after the rise of Nazism, the family had to flee the country. Nicholas Lowry thus grew up in New York, where he still works as the president of the Swann Galleries auction house. At the same time, he has been collecting period Czech posters for many years and has now completed the filming of the feature-length documentary Identita, in which he will guide viewers through the history of Czech graphic design.
Director Kateřina Mikulcová’s film entitled Identita: Film about Czech graphic design will be shown in cinemas this October. In it, Nicholas Lowry will show viewers the work of Alfons Mucha, Ladislav Sutnar, Karel Teige or Josef Váchal, as well as famous domestic brands – from the Pilsner Urquell brewery to the shoe company Baťa. “We visited Pilsen, Zlín, Bzenc, Litomyšl and Brno. Until then, I always stayed mainly in Prague during my visits to the Czech Republic. So I finally had the opportunity to travel all regions,” boasts the American auctioneer with Czech roots.
At the same time, the documentary not only maps the milestones of more than a century of history of Czech visual culture, but also its present. “We filmed with Martin Pecina and Aleš Najbrt. We also met students from UMPRUM, who represent the emerging generation of artists. I think that contemporary Czech design is at least as good as the work of earlier authors. I have no doubt that it will find application in the world,” he says stylishly dressed hipster with a massive mustache while posing by a log with tourist signs. After all, these too will appear in the film, as will the Moravian folkloric design that made a big impression on Lowry.
Tiles from the Prague metro and tourist signs from Czech forests. In the documentary Identita, Nicholas Lowry takes viewers to all corners of Czech design. | Photo: Jakub Plíhal
His parents were antique dealers, Mucha hangs in his house
He has a rich collection of Czech historical posters in his New York apartment. “I’ve collected so many that I can’t even hang them all. I currently have a ball invitation from 1927, an advertisement for Jawa motorcycles from the 1930s, a theater poster by Alexander Vladimír Hrska from the same period, and a magazine cover by Alfons Mucha on my walls. Both my parents made a living as antiquarians, so I was surrounded by old books and graphics myself as an auctioneer. So the collection connects my profession with my Czech roots,” explains Lowry.
His great-uncle Gustav Schwarzwald founded the company Primeros in 1909. “They produced a whole range of rubber products – from bottle caps to surgical gloves. However, condoms became their more well-known product. The brand was very successful, it had factories in Germany and Poland, and its products were sold in France and Hungary. But after the signing of the Munich Agreement the Nazis arrested my great uncle. Fortunately, my father and his family managed to escape. First they went to France, but then the Germans had to continue to Lisbon, where my father and his parents finally got on a ship that took them to New York ,” Lowry recounts.
“When my father left Prague, he was seven years old. He arrived in New York at the age of nine and spoke French, Portuguese and English. Now he is ninety-two and speaks only English. But when he was younger and came to visit me during my stay in Prague, he sometimes Czech, which he remembered from his childhood,” Lowry points out. He first visited the land of his ancestors three months after the Velvet Revolution and lived there for four years. “Everybody loved us Americans in Prague at that time. Everyone recognized us immediately by our jeans and sneakers. Whenever we entered a smoky, noisy pub, the regulars stopped talking and stared at us like an apparition,” he recalls.
Nicholas Lowry is an enthusiastic collector of Czech historical posters. In his New York apartment, the front page of a magazine by Alfons Mucha hangs on the wall. | Photo: Jakub Plíhal
He misses Prague’s cafes the most
According to him, at the beginning of the 1990s, Prague had not yet been affected by Western influences. “People were nice and everything was cheap. You’d be hard-pressed to find a better city to live in back then,” Lowry thinks. As he enjoyed eating at local establishments, he began writing restaurant reviews for the English-language newspaper Prognosis. In addition, the editors cooperated with the first domestic private radio station, Radio 1, and thus he became its moderator. “Every weekday I was doing a half-hour show in English. We eventually started broadcasting from a studio next to the popular Bunkr club, where I was DJing. It was a fantastic time,” says Lowry.
To this day, what he appreciates most about the Czechs is their sense of humor. If he had to mention what he misses the most after returning to the United States, it would be, among other things, the cafes of Prague. “Going to cafes here doesn’t cost nearly as much money as in New York. You can enjoy them every day. You can also find much nicer housing in Prague. The apartments are more spacious, with higher ceilings, giving you more freedom. Compared to New York, Prague is a village, which I mean as a compliment. The atmosphere of the city is much more intimate, less hectic,” adds Lowry.