Gallery
22.06.10 > 19.09.10
František Skála
Cecil's Quest
With Cecil’s Quest, a fascinating and original tale in cartoon strip form, the Czechs once again demonstrate that they are as diligent in their image culture as they are at brewing beer.
Contrary to what one might think, it is only a short hop from Brussels to Prague. Not just from a geographical point of view, but especially when it comes to culture. Both Belgium and the Czech Republic share this same image culture extending far back in history. Without ever losing sight of their popular dimension, Czech painters, illustrators, film makers and animators have sketched out the contours of their country’s imagination – just as their Belgian cousins do all the time.
The Belgian Comic Strip Centre is delighted to be hosting František Skála in its gallery, and is certain that this author’s talent and originality will allow us all to become better acquainted with the rich Czech culture.
Willem De Graeve, CBBD
František Skála (1956) studied at the School of Decorative Arts in Prague and has worked on animated films and illustrated children’s books. He is known as an illustrator and sculptor, a creator of objects and installations, a performer whose work has been awarded several prestigious prizes (Certificate of Honour for Illustration, IBBY, J. Chalupecký Prize). For the 45th Venice Biennial he travelled from Prague to Italy on foot and exhibited the drawings he did during the walk and objects he made from items found along the way. In 2004 to 2005, exhibitions of his works were viewed by nearly 100,000 visitors.
Of Cecil´s Quest, which recounts the adventures of little Cílek in 322 photographs, Skála said: \"The technology of photographing puppets in nature is rather like making an animated film without the facilities of a fully equipped film studio. It was like a classical feature film, with the difference that I had to do all the work of the whole film crew myself\".
