2024-02-14 07:09:43
In particular, the work of the last decade is included in a new exhibition of works by the illustrator Renáta Fučíková, which can be seen throughout February at Prague’s Hollar Gallery. She reminds us of an important storyteller who illustrated more than six dozen historical books and, in addition to drawing, also designs postage stamps.
Fučíková is presenting herself in the metropolis five years after a major retrospective in Ville Pellé. The exhibition at the Hollar Gallery will last until March 3.
“In my author’s books, the characters of Shakespeare’s, Moliere’s, Goethe’s and Chekhov’s plays parade, real personalities of contemporary England, France, Germany and Russia pass by. Queens and pilgrims of ancient times and people of various professions of modern times, heading to other parts, meet in the European scenery of the world and returning again,” the artist explains the title of the show, which reads “Na scénu”.
In addition to famous playwrights, the viewer will meet well-known residents of Prague, from Franz Kafka to Bohumil Hrabal to Václav Havel, or Czechs who succeeded in the USA, for example Madeleine Albright, Miloš Forman, Arnošt Lustig, Ivan Lendl or Martina Navrátilová.
There are also examples of drawings using various techniques and designs for postage stamps that Fučíková has created since 2004.
According to the curator of the exhibition Andrea Sloupová, the author covers a rich range of topics in broad historical contexts as well as detailed shots. “He intersperses classic storytelling with comics, combines reality with fiction, describes the external world as well as the one we carry inside,” says the art historian.
Renáta Fučíková also presents her latest illustrated book Queens and Pilgrims. | Photo: CTK
One part of the exhibition presents Fučíková’s book tetralogy, published by the Vyšehrad publishing house in the Greatest Dramatics series. The author gradually retold the plays of William Shakespeare, Moliere and Anton Pavlovich Chekhov in such a way that readers could better place them in context. For this, she used contemporary means, including comics, with the aim of reaching even the youngest readers.
“I would like children to take history not just as a bunch of data that they have to learn for a test at school, but as information about our common European memory,” the artist told Aktuálně.cz years ago, speaking from her own experience in this regard. She began writing one of her most famous works, The History of Europe from 2011, because she was dissatisfied with what her then ten-year-old son had learned at school about the history of the old continent.
Now the author is completing a volume dedicated to the dramatic work of Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Vyšehrad will publish it in the fall.
The second part of the exhibition focuses on Fučík’s latest illustrated book Queens and Pilgrims. In it, under the slogan Forget Vyšehrad, forget Bivoje, he elaborates the oldest Czech history.
“It is my reaction to Jirásk’s stories, which used previous legends and pseudo-chronicles, written on the order of the monarch or based on the patriotic needs of the 19th century,” explains Fučíková. The book will be officially launched as part of the exhibition on February 15.
The third part focuses on her illustrations for the book by the poet and Germanist Radek Malý called Franz Kafka: A Man of Our Time, which won the Grand Prix award at the Biennale of Illustrations in Zagreb.
The work was also published in German, English and Spanish, and a Greek and Korean edition is also planned. The Hollar Gallery has planned an author’s reading from the books Franz Kafka: A Man of His and Our Time and Legends and Litany on February 29.
Fučíková, who celebrated her 60th birthday last month, has been awarded many times abroad and at home. Among the most important author’s titles, which she accompanied with narrative illustrations, are the monumental History of Europe, a series of biographical publications about important figures of Czech history, and a book of 189 Prague stories called Prague in the Heart.