Vladimír Boudník: Zrcadlo vnitřního života

The book Vladimír Boudník. Zrcadlo vnitřího života presents the work of one of our most remarkable artists of the twentieth century. 

Boudník introduced his own original graphic techniques in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He called them active, symmetrical and magnetic printmaking, and they influenced a whole subsequent generation of artists who in their own way built on Boudník's legacy or defined themselves in relation to it. In spite of his innovative methods, which were unparalleled in this country or in the world, Boudník became a victim of his time, which did not understand his efforts and even ridiculed them. This is one of the reasons why various legends and erroneous assumptions have been circulating about him until now, which the forthcoming publication sets straight. 

Although Vladimír Boudník is one of our most renowned artists, there is virtually no literature that deals comprehensively with his work. In contrast to the biographical literature and inventories of his work that come, for example, from Boudník's former collaborator from ČKD, Ladislav Merhaut, art historian Eva Čapková focuses on Boudník's journey that led him to invent new graphic techniques. The author also discusses in detail his peace proclamations and Manifestoes of Explosionalism, which are among the first samizdat publications in the Czech Republic after 1948.

The publication includes a rich pictorial appendix which, in addition to a number of reproductions of Boudník's works from important institutions, also presents prints from unknown private collections that have not yet been published. As such, the book presents Boudník's work in its most comprehensive form to date, conveys an understanding of Boudník as a world-class artist, and highlights his place not only in Czech art history.