Kobliha František 1877–1962, Březina Otokar 1868–1929

Winds from the Poles

vernis-mou 11 pcs signed PD in pencil by F. Kobliha, cover woodcut, 39 × 29,5 cm, print no. 190/250, slightly damaged cover Published by the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1939, second volume of the Vltava edition, printed by Mirro Pegrassi, edition of 250 copies, copy no. 190
Eleven graphic sheets by František Kobliha made by technique vernis-mou for the poetry collection Winds from the Poles by Otakar Březina, published in 1946, represent an example of the author's original approach to the medium of illustration. Březina's symbolic poetic work, searching for a way to absolute knowledge of the world and human self-knowledge through metaphorical spiritual values, has greatly influenced the Czech artists and sculptors of the time, including František Bílek and Jan Konůpek. The collection Winds from the Poles contains metaphysical reflections on the mystery of life with references to medieval mysticism and the otherworldly world led František Kobliha to a unique treatment of the themes of the universe. The theme of infinite and unknowable cosmic space, which in also fascinated František Kupka, Vojtěch Preissig or Alois Bílek, Kobliha captured the mystical space of the unearthly atmospheric phenomena, a vortex of stardust, stars and planets that is extremely distant and inaccessible to man physically, but with which he is on a level of spiritual transcendence. The human face appears on some pages emerges from the abstracted depths of the universe as a projection of the immaterial transcendent connection. František Kobliha, painter, graphic artist and draughtsman, an important representative of the Czech symbolist artistic movement, member of the Sursum group, at the beginning of the the early twentieth century, he contributed to the development of graphic art, the Czech beautiful book and the book graphics as a distinct artistic work of authorship. For Kobliha, the book's subject, the literary text, represented a welcome inspiration and a starting point for Kobli's own distinctive artistic interpretation of the literary theme. For example, he worked on the sets Late to the Morning and The Vengeful Cantilena, inspired by the poetry of Karel Hlaváček, the poetry collection of Karel Hynek Mácha's Máj, the theme of Tristan and Isolde, and in his later work he dealt with the work of Edgar Allan Poe.