Gallery
03.03.09 > 17.05.09
CZECHRICULUM VITAE
Czech History and Legends in Comic Strips
The exhibition showcases significant figures in Czech history and selected Czech legends. The authors of the comic strips study at the Institute of Art and Design of the University of West Bohemia.
Despite the language differences between the Czech Republic and Belgium, the distance between Prague and Brussels is shorter than one might think. Both share a culture of images that goes far back into History. Without losing sight of their popular dimension, Czech painters, illustrators, movie-makers and animators have traced the outlines of their country’s imagination … just as their Belgian cousins are constantly doing. And when it comes to comic strip art, since 2004 the subject is part of the curriculum of Pilsen University, another thing Brussels has in common. The Belgian Centre for Comic Strip Art is pleased to present the work of these young comic strip artists, and is convinced that their talent will be an original initiation for a discovery of the teeming culture of the country now presiding the European Union.
Willem De Graeve, BCSC
This exhibit presents some of the outstanding characters of Czech history, as well as the heroes of a number of Czech legends. The authors of these comic strips are students in Illustration for Media Communication and Education from the Institute of Art and Design of the University of Western Bohemia. The young artists have illustrated the lives of persons who had a significant influence on the history of their country and whose names have become bywords for social, cultural or technical progress in their day. So people of various professions from yesteryear are right next to others from more recent times: Václav Havel (playwright and politician), Bed?ich Smetana (composer), Josef ?apek (writer), Johann Amos Comenius (« Teacher of the nations », educationist and philosopher), František K?ižík (inventer) and many more. We want to pay hommage to them by means of this exhibit and the album to be published on this occasion, and to present their life stories to the Belgian public.
The collection is further enlivened by a selection of Czech legends. Both the exhibit and comic strip art benefit from the gracious support of the town of Pilsen, candidate for the European Capital of Culture for 2015, and the Region of Pilsen.
Dr. Lenka Bryndová, Institute of Art and Design of Pilsen
