Both names belong to the top of the Czech literature, not only Hrabal, also Kolář who used to write a poetry. He then moved (in the 50s I guess) towards an experimental poetry, picture poetry and then he completely abandoned that for fine art. He was making mainly collages. Lived in France since the 80s. The book is a special piece thanks to the folding reproductions of Kolar's collages; publishers nowadays would think twice to compose their book like that, similar extravagances were a better side of the so called planned economy of the past where money came from the state and thus could be sometimes spent in a more lavish way. This book by Hrabal, compilation of his short stories, hasn't been translated into English, as far as I know, but there is a bunch of his other books in English on bookfinder.to be continued...
6 comments:
Wauw - what a wonderful blog you have. I love your stories, pictures and the input fra the Czech Repubic.
Best wishes
Dorthe from Denmark
I am really pleased by what you say, thank you!
I tried to read your post on Ljubljana and Sønderborg. If I understood well (I don't speak Danish) you compared some responses to urban changes in these two cities, in Ljubljana 1OO years ago and in Sønderborg right now. I guess, contemporary architecture has enemies also in Denmark which after all doesn't surprise me but still... There was a huge case last year in CR about the design for National library in Prague by Jan Kaplicky, more about it here, Necessary to say that it was mainly the president and the mayor who opposed the design, which in its consequence is worse than if it was the public. They didn't build the library in the end. But maybe your post was about something else. .-)
Happy to put a nice czech blog to my favourites.
Christine
Happy to put a nice czech blog to my favourites.
Christine
Thanks for the link - very interesting to read the discussion about old og contemporary architecture. And yes, the discussion goes on in Denmark as well. I wrote about Sonderborg, because the city - like Lubjana - has a lot of Art Nouveau-buildings. The reason is Sonderborg has been Danish, the German and from 1920 Danish again, and the A.N.-buildings were build and decorated in the German periode. At that time Danish architects turned towards the English art-and-craft-movement, so Sonderborg is the only Danish city, where you can find A.N.
I am looking forward to read more posts about books. I went to Prague 10 years ago, and bought some books ilustrated by Czech illustrations. They were so beautiful. And somewhere I've got a book about Chech Cubism, I better find that book again. It was very fascinating.
this is great!
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