Jan Švankmajer: The Last Living Surrealist

Fantastic stuffed creatures, reliquaries with pigs' ears or the mythical Jabberwocky from Alice in Wonderland. The world-famous artist, filmmaker, puppeteer and animator Jan Švankmajer is approaching his 90th birthday and is still as creative as ever. The last real great European surrealist, adored by the legendary Tim Burton, is showing his (un)real world in the GASK gallery in Kutná Hora until 4 August, 2024.

Magnificent Kutná Hora

Kutná Hora, less than an hour away from Prague and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region GASK, housed in the vast premises of the former Jesuit college, are well worth a visit. Add to this the unique appeal of Jan Švankmajer's art and you have a great day out packed with culture, history, and rounded off with good food. Don't miss a visit to the magnificent St. Barbara's Church, the mediaeval silver mines or, on the way to Kutná Hora, in the village of Kaňk, one of the local restaurants around, Na Pašince. You can take a look at some of Czechia’s other extremely interesting galleries here.

Surreal conjuring

The exhibition Disegno Interno presents the full range of Švankmajer's work: from collages, objects and book illustrations to spiritualistic media drawings, objects, animations, films and fetishes inspired by African rituals.

One long room has been transformed into a mysterious natural history cabinet with fanciful fauna and flora, strange creatures made of shells, eggs or antlers, complete with feathers or stained crockery. The agates growing out of a shirt and the mineralized shoes pay homage to another great artist, the Belgian surrealist René Magritte.

Childhood as an endless source of inspiration

GASK also gives you the chance to see a number of rare exhibits from Švankmajer's personal cabinet of curiosities, the ‘Kunstkammer’, which he built at the château in Horní Stankov in Šumava. Besides found or purchased objects, his collection includes art from natural tribes in Africa and Polynesia. The winner of the main prizes at the Cannes and Berlinale festivals makes no secret of the fact that he has never left his childhood behind and is constantly in touch with it.

Švankmajer's possibilities of dialogue

His tactile objects are a lot of fun (you CAN touch them!) and his films, which you can see in GASK, are timeless. It was Švankmajer's films that made him famous all over the world.

Space in the Jesuit college has also been given over to Švankmajer's late wife, the artist Eva. The winner of prestigious awards, she had a distinctive sense of humour. She once painted a smiling Rembrandt without any teeth, for example. She put them nicely off to the side...