Iconic Czech artist Jan Švankmajer turns 90
Jan Švankmajer, one of the most celebrated Czech creatives - film director, animator, writer, playwright and artist turns 90 on September 4th. A native of Prague, Švankmajer’s considerable output has involved both animation and live-action film direction, as well as play writing, puppetry, sculpture and painting. His particular style of surrealism has influenced such directors as Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton.
Jan Švankmajer’s interest in puppetry was first sparked as a child, when he was eight years old and was given a puppet theatre as a Christmas present. He then added puppets and sets of his own making, and his interested continued through adolescence and led him to study at the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
His studies brought him into contact with a host of fellow creatives and also texts forbidden by the state. During his compulsory service in the army, he nonetheless continued to draw and paint. Afterwards, he took on work in theatres around Prague and displayed some of his drawings in public exhibitions, some banned by the state.
His first film, The Last Trick, was made in 1964. In 1968, Švankmajer signed the manifesto Two Thousand Words, which criticised the Czechoslovak communist leadership. After the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia later that year, Švankmajer and his wife, the artist Eva Švankmajerová, briefly relocated their family to Austria.
Following their return in 1969, Švankmajer’s career struggled against official censorship throughout the seventies, and he was banned from filmmaking between 1972 and 1979. During this time, he worked as a costume and set designer in Prague and Brno, and collaborated with Eva on personal art projects. Many of which are stored in Horní Stankov castle, which the couple bought and renovated.
Švankmajer returned to filmmaking in the 1980s. He has since achieved both national and international renown for films like Alice (1988), Food (1992) and Little Otik (2000). Their surrealist and dark-comedic style can be challenging for new viewers; Švankmajer readily admits that “I have never claimed to make films for everyone”, yet “I’ve grown up in this society and am part of this civilisation, not some creature different from everybody else; my feelings and impressions will be shared by some other people.”
