Vojtěch Kubašta (1914-1992) became a star of the highest magnitude when he combined his artistic and architectural talents in the creation of spatial book. Not only did he draw them all, but he was also the author of the solution to the three-dimensional parts. He was actually the Czech top export artist in the previous century. Also the world famous Walt Disney asked him to collaborate.
Even after more than 60 years, his books are still selling well. Not only in his homeland, the Czech Republic, but also abroad. His classic fairy tales read children across the world – from Germany to Korea!
The Day of the Bison Hunt by Vojtech Kubasta and published by Bancroft & Co, London, 1962 and Artia in Prague, 1963. This pop-up children’s book showed what Czech children imagined to be an American camp featuring Native Americans, or as Czechs called them, Indians.
(Please give images time to load.)
I cherish the beautiful art in The Day of the Bison Hunt and bring your attention to the wonderful work of pop-up master, Czech illustrator Vojtěch Kubašta.
The book itself is a very simple story and features only a few pages, but the grand surprise is the pop-up at the end.
Who needs words when your imagination could ignite for hours looking at the wonderful nooks and crannies of this centerpiece which unfolds into a double page pop-up of a Plains Indian camp. Kubasta certainly was a master at crafting pop-up books.
The grand pop-up scene (wait for it…) includes tepees, a totem pole, a mounted chief, and Native Americans at their daily work.
But first, the story…
I remember when pop-up books would inspire hours of play. It was like a personal spectacular theater on the tabletop and I would bring out dolls, add props, create cut out actors to engage in the ‘set’, and so on. It makes me nostalgic for the children of today who escape into virtual reality or sit with their faces glued to a flat screen.
About the Artist
Vojtěch Kubašta (1914 – 1992) was a Czech architect and artist. He was born in Vienna but his family moved to Prague 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, sewing machines, pencils, Pilsner beer, sunglasses, and other products.
Every Christmas season, he designed and illustrated a new crèche in which he captured the Czech traditional Christmas setting. In 1956, he designed his first fairy tale pop-up book: Little Red Riding Hood. Kubašta offered this pop-up book to the Prague-based ARTIA publishing house for publication. ARTIA was a state-owned foreign trade corporation. In 1962, his illustrations were featured in Once Long Ago, a book of 70 fairy tales from around the world.
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 over 35 million copies have been sold. Today, original editions of his illustrations and books are sought after by collectors from around the world.
His books have also been featured on Martha Stewart Living and CBS News Sunday Morning.
Vojtěch Kubašta – A world pioneer in pop-up books is a special report about life and work of Vojtěch Kubašta. A graduated architect who fell in love with books and created hundred of pop-up books. Makers of pop-up books still use Kubašta’s structures and the principles he invented and used in his work. You can watch that here (English subtitles).
Kubašta’s first sole retrospective exhibition in North America was organized by the Bienes Museum of the Modern Book in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in February 2005. During a recent exhibition of pop-ups and movable books in Chicago in September 2006, Columbia College devoted its entire gallery to Vojtěch Kubašta’s art.
The city of Prague sponsored an exhibition of his work in December, 2006.
Thank you in advance for your support…
We know that you could spend hours, days, weeks and months finding some of this information yourselves – but at this website, we curate the best of what we find for you and place it easily and conveniently into one place. Please take a moment today to recognize our efforts and make a donation towards the operational costs of this site – your support keeps the site alive and keeps us searching for the best of our heritage to bring to you.
Remember, we rely solely on your donations to keep the project going.
We appreciate you more than you know!
If you have not already subscribed to get TresBohemes.com delivered to your inbox, please use the form below now so you never miss another post.
