Wolves

The sixth poetry collection by František Dryje (1951) is loosely inspired by one of the last cycle of pastel drawings by Eva Švankmajerová (1940–2005) called The Wolves Have Been Reintroduced to the Czech Forests Again (2004), which is undoubtedly one of the most outstanding series in her oeuvre – it could be, among other things, understood as a painful existential reflection on the awareness of death and mortality. The poems and pastel drawings are based on the same motifs and values, which are the same for both artists. Dryje and Švankmajerová are both distinguished representatives of the creative (expressive and imaginative) line stemming from the history of Czech Surrealism (Nezval, Havlíček, Effenberger, etc.).

Dryje states: “... I am trying to grasp and process external stimulation, be it ‘high’ or ‘low’, in a unique way … to swallow it and spit it out embodied in my flesh and dressed up in my own skin – I am trying to view the world primarily through the prism of subjectivity which refracts the luminous beam of any external impulse coming from somewhere thus illuminates the way to the one true and imaginative form of communication.”