Adolf Hoffmeister

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Adolf Hoffmeister (15 August 1902 – 24 July 1973) was a Czech writer, playwright, painter, draughtsman, scenographer, cartoonist, translator, diplomat, lawyer, university professor and traveller. During the war, he served as editor of the radio station Voice of America, and after the war the Czechoslovak ambassador to France. In 1951 he became a professor at the Academy of Arts and Crafts in Prague. He was a founding member of Devětsil (1920), chairman of the Union of Czechoslovak Visual Artists (1964–1967, 1968–1969), and a member of International Association of Art Critics. Hoffmeister represented Czechoslovakia at UNESCO, the PEN Club and other international organizations. Hoffmeister's career was ended by the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 and the subsequent occupation.

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Youth and studies Adolf Hoffmeister was born in Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now the Czech Republic) on 15 August 1902. He was born into the family of the Prague lawyer Adolf Hoffmeister (1870–1936) and his wife Marie, née Schnöbling (1881–1967). He grew up in a cultivated intellectual environment – his uncles were the composer and teacher Karel Hoffmeister and the classical philologist Ferdinand Hoffmeister. From 1914 the Hoffmeister family lived in the cubist house Diamant at the corner of Spálená Street No. 4, which was commissioned by Adolf Hoffmeister. In 1912–1921 he studied at the Masaryk Ist State Czechoslovak Real Gymnasium in Křemencova Street in Prague, where most of the future members of the avant-garde group Devětsil met. When Devětsil was founded on 5 October 1920, Adolf Hoffmeister became its youngest member and its managing director. In 1919 he met the Čapek brothers and S. K. Neumann. After graduating from high school, he continued his studies at the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague, which he completed in 1925 with a doctorate (JUDr). In the summer semester of 1924 he studied Egyptology at Cambridge University. He joined his father's law firm as a law clerk, becoming one of three…Citește mai mult

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1926–1930 After graduating in law, he travelled abroad regularly and worked as a correspondent for many magazines. In addition to information on cultural events, he also sent his own sketches of personalities he had met in person (G.B. Shaw, G. K. Chesterton, London 1926). In 1926 he published a novel, The Tropic of Capricornus, and a collection of poems, The Alphabet of Love. As editor of the magazine Pestrý týden he became close to the magazine's editor-in-chief, Staša Jílovská. In 1926–1930 he was married to the prose writer and art theoretician Maria Prušáková (1903–2004, later remarried Honzíková, wife of the architect Karel Honzík). In 1927 he had his first solo exhibition in the gallery of the publishing house Odeon. In April 1927, the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky stayed at his home during his visit to Prague. At Jiří Frejka's Dada Theatre, E.F. Burian presented a Voice-band programme with choral recitation of verses by several poets, including A. Hoffmeister. Together with Nezval, he accompanied the French poet Philippe Soupault and the publisher Léon Pierre-Quint around Prague. Miroslava Holzbachová performed Hoffmeister's ballet Park to music by Jaroslav Ježek at the Umělecká beseda. His merry play The Bride, directed by Jindřich Honzl, premiered at…Citește mai mult

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1931–1939 In 1931, the artists of the so-called Secession from Mánes returned to the Mánes union when they were offered full artistic freedom. Hoffmeister temporarily returned to painting and exhibited two paintings at the 162nd Mánes Members' Exhibition in the autumn. In the summer he travelled with Bedřich Feuerstein to the Soviet Union and met Luncharsky, Tatlin, Tairov, Piscator, Meyer, and on the way back to Leningrad also G. B. Shaw and A. Huxley. He published his experiences in the book The Surface of the Five-Year Plan. He proposed the set for the V. Dyk's play Forgetful at the National Theatre. Hoffmeister's caricatured map of Europe was used on stage and in print in a new play Caesar by the Osvobozené divadlo (1932). Hoffmeister's critical comedy Singing Venice (published in book form by Melantrich, 1946) was staged at the Estates Theatre. Hoffmeister's reworking of Carlo Goldoni's play La bottega del café was successfully staged at the National Theatre and then in theatres throughout the country. He participated in an exhibition of surrealist art at the Mánes (Poetry 1932), and visited Egypt and Palestine. In 1933, he exhibited 106 caricatures in České Budějovice (together with Antonín Pelc) and was elected to…Citește mai mult

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Emigration Two days after the occupation of Czechoslovakia by German troops and the declaration of the Protectorate, he received an invitation to France on 18 March 1939, arranged by Aragon. He was granted an extraordinary French visa and fled to Paris on 23 April. There he made contacts with resistance organisations and, with the help of French communists, founded the Maison de la Culture Tchécoslovaque. In September 1939, after the occupation of eastern Poland by Soviet troops, he was arrested on the basis of an anonymous denunciation and accused, along with many other Czechoslovak citizens (Pelc, Diviš, Reinerová, Kopf, etc.), as an agent of Moscow. He was imprisoned for seven months in solitary confinement in La Santé Prison. There he wrote a puppet play, The Tramp or King Famine, for his nieces and nephews, which was brought out of prison by his lawyer. In 1940, a military tribunal acquitted him of anti-French activities, but he continued to be interned in the concentration camps of Roland Garros (Paris), Damigny (Normandy) and Bassens (Bordeaux). On the day of the French surrender, he escaped to Casablanca but was again interned. On the guarantee of his compatriots living in Morocco, he was released and…Citește mai mult

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1945–1959 In June 1945 he was invited by the Minister of Culture Václav Kopecký to return to Czechoslovakia. Hoffmeister joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) and in November 1945 became head of the VI Department of the Ministry of Information and Education, where he was put in charge of foreign cultural relations. He served in this position until March 1948. In 1946, he married Lilly Strich, who had lived with him in the US during the war. From his marriage he had sons Martin David (director, * 1947) and Adam (artist, * 1953). He bought a cottage in Říčky v Orlických horách, where he often worked and rested until the end of his life. At the Mánes union exhibition, he exhibited a drawing of J. Stalin entitled "Even if the ravens would wrap themselves in peacock feathers, they would not cease to be ravens". As a member of the Czechoslovak delegation he participated in the First General Assembly of UNESCO and took part in the preparation of the exhibition Art tchécoslovaque 1938–1946 in Paris. The French government awarded him the Order of the Legion of Honour. The following year he was a member of the delegation to the Second…Citește mai mult

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1960–1963 On 1 May 1960 Adolf Hoffmeister was awarded the Order of the Republic. He was involved in the cause of the imprisoned Laco Novomeský, who was granted amnesty in 1960. As a member of the Central Committee of the Union of Czechoslovak Visual Artists (1960–1964), he participated in the revival of art associations and attended the first exhibition of the Mánes creative group. In November 1960 he exhibited cartoons and illustrations at the Václav Špála Gallery. He was a Czechoslovak delegate to the Conference of European Commissions of UNESCO in Turin, to the 11th General Conference of UNESCO and in 1961 to the UNESCO meeting in Paris. In 1961 he exhibited in Litoměřice, Hradec Králové, East Berlin, Paris, the following year in Ostrava and Pardubice. At a solo exhibition at the Brno House of Art (1962) he exhibited 788 works. In 1962, thanks to his efforts, the Spring 1962 exhibition was held at Mánes, where the new Block of Creative Groups was also presented, bringing together independent and opposition artists. In April, as a member of a government delegation, he took part in a tour of Central and South America (Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Mexico, Cuba). He met the poet…Citește mai mult

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1964–1968 In 1964 he exhibited in London, Mannheim and Cairo, at the Venice Biennale and at several places in Czechoslovakia. He participated in the Cannes Film Festival and was chairman of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. At the Second Congress of the Union of Czechoslovak Visual Artists, held in December 1964, where 3/4 of the leadership of the Union was replaced, Adolf Hoffmeister won the secret ballot for chairman against a candidate nominated by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Stanislav Libenský). During the congress the Union was reformed and in the following years Czech art flourished thanks to the foreign contacts that Hoffmeister supported and facilitated. The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia did not count on his election at all, as he even figured as the so-called main object in the State Security action called Snob, in which the police tried to compromise some influential artists who seemed to be sympathetic to Western culture. In 1965–1967, as chairman of the Union of Czechoslovak Visual Artists (SČVU), he ensured cooperation with Bloc officials, the Ministry of Culture, and the Cultural Department of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, took care of the social and intermediary activities of the Fine Arts Fund, and…Citește mai mult

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1969–1973 In 1969, as chairperson of the Union of Czechoslovak Artists, he supported the exhibition Sculpture and the City, organized by Hana Seifertová in Liberec (Kaddish by Aleš Veselý was exhibited). In connection with the federalization of the state, the Union of Czechoslovak Artists was dissolved and two national associations were established in its place. Hoffmeister spoke at the founding meeting of the Union of Czech Visual Artists in April 1969 and announced at the same time his intention not to run for chairman. The Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Socialist Republic subsequently refused to approve the statutes of the Union. This act was the pretext for a large-scale purge and, along with Hoffmeister, members of the former presidium lost their positions. Subsequently, in May 1969, at its last (and officially banned) meeting, the Coordinating Committee of Czech Creative Unions decided to terminate its function due to obstacles preventing normal activity. Adolf Hoffmeister hosted Graham Greene in Prague in February 1969, visited Max Ernst in Paris in March and attended a PEN Club meeting in London. He gave a series of lectures on Czech culture in Vincennes, and after completing his semester at the Academy of Arts, Architecture…Citește mai mult

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Cultural and political engagement In 1920 he co-founded the Union of Modern Culture – Devětsil, was a member of the Mánes Union of Fine Arts, and a member of cultural and political organisations (Left Front, Society for Economic and Cultural Rapprochement with New Russia, Club of Czech and German Theatre Workers). After emigrating to France, he was in contact with resistance organisations and founded the centre of Czechoslovak cultural workers in exile. Since March 1944, Hoffmeister headed the Czechoslovak section of the Voice of America. From 1945 until his expulsion in 1970 he was a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. In 1945–1948 he was the head of the VI Department of the Ministry of Information and Education, where he was in charge of foreign cultural relations. In February 1948 he became chairman of the action committee of the Union of Czechoslovak Visual Artists. From 1948 he was Czechoslovakia's permanent delegate to UNESCO and in 1948–1950 he served as Czechoslovak ambassador in France. He was deputy head of the Czechoslovak delegation to the Third and Fourth General Assembly of the United Nations in New York City (1948, 1949) and a candidate for the UN Security Council. As a commissioner…Citește mai mult

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Awards 1937 Gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris. 1946 French Order of the Legion of Honour 1947 Commander of the Order of the Crown of Romania 1947 Commander of the Order of Polonia Restituta 1958 French Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres

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Work Adolf Hoffmeister was a lawyer, politician, cartoonist, illustrator, collage artist, writer, poet, playwright, and organizer of foreign exhibitions and art collector. Some of his texts have the authentic contemporary testimony or historical documentary, most of what he drew or edited and pasted as collages retains the lasting validity of a living work of art. Philippe Soupault described Hoffmeister on the occasion of his 1961 exhibition in Paris as one of the most famous portraitists of our time.

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Paintings Hoffmeister was one of the leading figures of the second generation of the pre-war Czech avant-garde, who had the opportunity to experience Western modern art before the outbreak of the First World War and published his artistic and literary experiments while still at grammar school. At the "Real Gymnasium in Křemencova Street" he learned to draw according to the model under Camillo Stuchlík and in drawing classes taught by Ladislav Šíma. His first drawings and linocuts, based on Czech cuboexpressionism, were made between 1917 and 1919 (Still Life at the Window, linocut, 1917). In the following series of pastels, his desire to express reality with simple synthetic symbols led him to the verge of abstraction (Landscape at the Lake, 1918). From 1920 onwards, social themes became important to him, which demanded more dramatic expressionist means of articulation (War, 1920). He gradually absorbed the influences of Kubišta, Morandi, Rousseau and synthetic cubism and integrated them into his own style of poetic naivism, which was more of an intellectual construction or a particular primitivist form of Dada. Devětsil consciously gravitated towards creators outside the currents of contemporary modernism, such as Henri Rousseau and Jan Zrzavý, while the post-war primitivizing idiom was…Citește mai mult

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Likenesses Hoffmeister began publishing his first cartoons in 1924 in Lidové noviny and from 1927 used them to illustrate his own texts published in books. As a cartoonist, Hoffmeister had a developed sense of the dignity of man, reflecting the democratic traditions in which he grew up and whose roots he absorbed, not the socialist way of life to which he later subscribed, without accepting it wholeheartedly. In his work, caricature is neither a descriptive imitation nor a psychologizing introspective insight. He was always striving for simplicity and the attainment of an unchanging standard – a type that could be repeated at any time, and that emphasized generalizable qualities of character and physiognomy. Hoffmeister's drawing style, based on delicate, economical and precise pen-drawing, emerged in a more or less definitive form between 1925 and 1927. He almost never used hatching, shading or laving, and had a pronounced aversion to the technique of brush drawing. Hoffmeister's earliest cartoons (1924–1925) show that once he found an adequate artistic expression, he did not change it later. The basic technique was linear ink drawing, sometimes supplemented by collage after 1928. The drawing was spare, economical, expressive, concise, purist and disciplined (Masaryk by One Stroke,…Citește mai mult

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Scenic design In 1926, the Osvobozené divadlo (Liberated Theatre) was founded on the grounds of the Devětsil as its theatre section. From the beginning Hoffmeister participated in its programme as author (The Bride, 1927) and co-author of plays (The World Behind Bars, 1935) and especially as cartoonist and set designer (Caesar, 1932, Reverse and Obverse, 1936). Voskovec and Werich's writing gradually changed from pure humour and absurdist Dadaist comedy to anti-fascist comedies in the late 1930s, and Hoffmeister's stage design changed along with it (Map of Europe for the play Reverse and Obverse).

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Surrealist painting In the early 1930s, influenced by Surrealism, Hoffmeister briefly returned to painting (A Fever Dream, 1931–1932) and participated in the important 1932 Poetry exhibition at the Mánes, where the Paris Surrealist group was also represented. However, he did not become a member of the Prague Surrealist group (founded in 1934). Hoffmeister continued to uncompromisingly defend freedom and the principles of modern art even in the pre-war left-wing environment, and in 1937 he took part in the Exhibition of the Czechoslovak Avant-Garde in Burian's Theatre D 37.