Vojtech Kubašta
Encyclopedia
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
and artist
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
.
Vojtěch Robert Vladimír Kubašta was born in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. His family moved to Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
when he was four years old and he lived there his entire life. He demonstrated his artistic talent at the age of four. He had a great desire to become an artist. His father, however, had different goals for his son. He wanted him to study law.
Nevertheless, the young Vojtěch persisted with his aspiration to become an artist and, eventually, his father agreed that his son could become an architect. The study of architecture, at that time, was considered more of an artistic undertaking than a technical discipline. Some of the great Czech master painters, graphic artists, and illustrators were lecturing at the Polytech University in Prague. Kubašta graduated with a degree in architecture and civil engineering in 1938. His career as a professional architect was short. From the early 1940s, he worked as a commercial artist, and also as a book designer. His illustrations became increasingly popular.
When the communist government nationalised the entire publishing industry in 1948, Kubašta had to search for new venues to market his artistic talent. He was involved in designing advertising materials for Czechoslovak products abroad. He created three-dimensional cards that advertised porcelain
Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
, sewing machine
Sewing machine
A sewing machine is a textile machine used to stitch fabric, cards and other material together with thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of manual sewing work performed in clothing companies...
s, pencils, Pilsner beer, sunglasses, and other products. Every Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
season, he designed and illustrated a new crèche
Nativity scene
A nativity scene, manger scene, krippe, crèche, or crib, is a depiction of the birth of Jesus as described in the gospels of Matthew and Luke...
in which he captured the Czech traditional Christmas setting. In 1956, he designed his first fairy tale pop-up book
Pop-up book
The term pop-up book is often applied to any three-dimensional or movable book, although properly the umbrella term movable book covers pop-ups, transformations, tunnel books, volvelles, flaps, pull-tabs, pop-outs, pull-downs, and more, each of which performs in a different manner...
: Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood, also known as Little Red Cap, is a French fairy tale about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. The story has been changed considerably in its history and subject to numerous modern adaptations and readings....
. Kubašta offered this pop-up book to the Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
-based ARTIA
Artia
Artia was a Cold War-era government-run company in Prague, Czechoslovakia that is best known today for publishing books and fairy tales for children....
publishing house for publication. ARTIA was a state-owned foreign trade corporation.
During the years that followed, Vojtěch Kubašta's three-dimensional books made him the publishing house's best-known book designer and illustrator. His pop-up books have been published in 24 different languages and 35 million copies have been sold. Today, original editions of his illustrations and books are sought after by collectors from around the world.
The exhibition of his work in the Gallery in the Grove is the first time that Vojtěch Kubašta's original artwork had been viewed by the Canadian public. His magical pop-up books have been displayed in the Toronto Public Library, as a part of Osborne Collection of early children’s books in April 2002. His books have also been featured on Martha Stewart Living
Martha Stewart Living
Martha Stewart Living is a magazine and a television show featuring entertaining and home decorating guru Martha Stewart. Both the magazine and the television program focus on the domestic arts. Martha Stewart Living began as a quarterly magazine in 1990, published by Time Inc..and is currently...
and CBS News Sunday Morning
CBS News Sunday Morning
CBS News Sunday Morning is an American television news magazine program created by Robert Northshield and original host Charles Kuralt. The program has aired continuously since January 28, 1979 on the CBS Television Network, airing in the Eastern US on Sunday from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m...
.
Kubašta's first sole retrospective exhibition in North America was organized by the Bienes Museum of the Modern Book
Bienes Museum of the Modern Book
The Bienes Museum of the Modern Book, previously known as the Bienes Center for the Literary Arts, is the rare book department of Broward County's Main Library in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States...
in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, on the Atlantic coast. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 165,521. It is a principal city of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010...
in February 2005. During a recent exhibition of pop-ups and movable books in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in September 2006, Columbia College
Columbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago is one of the largest art colleges in the United States with nearly 12,000 students pursuing degrees within 120 undergraduate and graduate programs...
devoted its entire gallery to Vojtěch Kubašta's art. The city of Prague sponsored an exhibition of his work in December, 2006.
External links
- Voitech Kubasta: Pop-Up Innovator University of Virginia Library Exhibit: "Pop Goes the Page: Movable and Mechanical Books from the Brenda Forman Collection"
- Gloria in excelsis deo. Illustrated by Vojtěch Kubašta. Czechoslavakia: c. 1960 at Smithsonian Libraries.
- http://www.robertsabuda.com/sneakpeek/snpk0104-annbook.asp