Ivan Martin Jirous (23 September 1944 – 9 November 2011) was a Czech poet and dissident, best known as the artistic director of the Czech psychedelic rock group The Plastic People of the Universe, and later one of the key figures of the Czech underground during the communist regime. He is more frequently known as Magor, which can be roughly translated as "shithead", "loony", or "fool" (though meant as a positive title), a nickname given to him by the experimental poet Eugen Brikcius. Trained as an art historian but unable to work in this field in Czechoslovakia under the Communist regime, Jiro
Ivan Martin Jirous (23 September 1944 – 9 November 2011) was a Czech poet and dissident, best known as the artistic director of the Czech psychedelic rock group The Plastic People of the Universe, and later one of the key figures of the Czech underground during the communist regime. He is more frequently known as Magor, which can be roughly translated as "shithead", "loony", or "fool" (though meant as a positive title), a nickname given to him by the experimental poet Eugen Brikcius.
Trained as an art historian but unable to work in this field in Czechoslovakia under the Communist regime, Jirous became a member of the dissident subculture, and during the period of normalisation, Jirous was imprisoned five times for his activities. His particular contribution to the dissident movement was the concept of "second culture", according to which simply expressing oneself through forbidden cultural and artistic activities would ultimately undermine the totalitarian system, a concept closely related to his friend Václav Havel's "living in truth", and Václav Benda's "parallel polis".
Jirous won the Jaroslav Seifert Prize in 2006 and the Tom Stoppard Prize in 1985 for the poem Magor's Swan Song (Czech: Magorovy labutí písně).
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R.I.P Ivan
Early life
Jirous was born in Humpolec in Vysočina. His mother was a teacher, and his father worked in tax. He completed his secondary education at Dr. A Hrdlička's Secondary Comprehensive and Primary School in Humpolec (now known as Dr A Hrdlička's Gymnasium).
Initially, Jirous wanted to study at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU), but his cousin Jiří Padrta, editor of the journal Výtvarná práce, steered him towards art history. In 1962, Jirous sat the entrance exam to study history of art at the Philosophy Faculty of Charles University in Prague. A condition of entry for students at the time was the completion of a year in industry before beginning their studies; in Jirous' case, he had to work as a construction worker and stoker. Jirous studied between 1963 and 1968. The topic of his diploma thesis was visual poetry in the works of the poets Jiří Kolář and Henri Michaux. His sister Zara, who was two years older than him and married to the photographer Jan Ságl, also pursued fine art.
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Underground activities In 1967, Jirous became familiar with the underground group The Primitives Group, and later in 1969 became the artistic director and manager of The Plastic People of the Universe (PPU). His wife, Věra Jirousová, wrote a lot of the band's early lyrics. Due to his opposition to his country's totalitarian regime, Jirous was prohibited from publishing his literature. Instead, he had to work as a night watchman and gardener to avoid being unemployed, which was a punishable offence. Jirous was imprisoned five times for his underground organisation and artistic activities. He was often cautioned under paragraph 202 - "disturbing the peace". Jirous was first imprisoned between 1973 and 1974 for an incident in a pub with a retired Security Service Major. Jirous was convicted alongside Eugen Brikcius, Daníček and Jaroslav Kořán. After singing the song "Send the Russian killers to hell where they belong" and exchanging words with the Major, Jirous ate the middle of the newspaper Rudé právo and exclaimed "Today I ate Rudé právo, just like one day we will gobble up the Bolsheviks". In June 2011, his conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court. Jirous's most influential work was Notes on the Third Czech Musical…
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After 1989
After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, Jirous became a member of the Czech PEN club. He and Stanislav Penc wrote to the Interior Ministry in protest against the police intervention at CzechTek 2004. Until his death, Jirous lived in Prague and in a converted farmhouse in Vysočina, where the Magorovo Vydří music festival took place every year from the revolution until 2005. Since 2006 it has been held at Skalákovy mlýn.
Although his friend Jaroslav Eri Fric described him as "a devotee of purity, tenderness and justice", Jirous was vulgar and confrontational, often intentionally, and sometimes physically aggressive when drunk.
Jirous died suddenly on 9 November 2011. His memorial service took place on 17 November 2011 in the Church of Saint Ignatius in Prague, with the service conducted by Bishop Václav Malý. He was buried in a local cemetery to his home in Vysočina.
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Personal life
Jirous's first wife was Věra, née Vařilová (1944–2011), a poet and art historian. In 1972 their son was born, Tobiáš, now an actor, writer and DJ. Jirous is named as Tobias's father on his birth certificate, but Tobias's biological father is in fact the philosopher Jiří Němec.
In 1976, Jirous married for a second time, to the painter Juliana, née Stritzková (1943–2023), the granddaughter of Josef Florian. Jirous and Juliána had two daughters, Františka (born 1980) and Marta (born 1981). Jirous spent a large proportion of his daughters' childhoods in prison, but remained in contact with his family. The marriage broke down shortly after his release. His daughter Františka is a novelist, and the chair of the organisation Magor's Estate, which aims to transform Jirous's estate in Vysočina into a monument to poets. Marta continued her father's poetry in the collection Walk with an Angel.
Jirous also had a son, Daniel (born 1992), with translator Daniela Degtěvová. Daniel studies architecture and lives in Prague.
Jirous was in a relationship with the songwriter, Dáša Vokatá, from the 1990s until his death in 2011.
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Works
Ivan Martin Jirous first started publishing art criticism during the 1960s. At first, he focused on foreign modern art (Russian avant-garde, Lucio Fontana, Andy Warhol), then later examined the relationship between beat music and art, and later, he specialised in the Křižovnická school of clean humour without the joke (Naděžda Plíšková, Karel Nepraš and Jan Steklík). Jirous was also interested in older art, such as the sculptures of Václav Levý. Jirous contributed to journals including Ateliér, Divadlo ("Theatre"), Host do domu ("Guesthouse"), Sešity pro literaturu a diskusi ("Notebooks for literature and discussion"), Výtvarná práce ("Visual works"), Výtvarné umění ("Fine art"), Výtvarný život ("Visual life"), to the international periodicals Art Canada and Exile Testimony, as well as the samizdat publication Vokno.
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Spirituality
Addressing specific people, referring to other authors
"I do not consider myself a poet, rather I know that I love poetry"
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Poetry collections (Czech titles)
Magorův ranní zpěv, samizdat 1975 - complete collection of his first poems
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Magorova krabička, samizdat 1979
Mládí nevykouřené, samizdat 1975, 1979 and 1980 - in all three of his first poetry collections, Egon Bondy's influence is evident
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Magorova mystická růže, samizdat 1981
Magorovy labutí písně, samizdat 1985, London 1989 - This collection arose while Jirous was in prison and was smuggled out to be published. Since he was unable to write while in prison, Jirous instead had to memorise all of his work. The collection includes a number of contemporary cultural and public figures which means it can serve as a "poetic dictionary" of representatives of dissent from that period. This collection received the Tom Stoppard award.
Ochranný dohled, samizdat 1985 - thematically follows Magorovy labutí písně
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Children's work
Magor dětem, (1982-1986) samizdat 1986 - poems and fairy tales which were written in letters to his daughter from prison.
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Other books
Magorův zápisník, 1999, a collection of cultural texts and essays written between 1965-1990.
Magorovy dopisy, 2006, letters written between 1973 and 1985 to his wives Věra and Juliana from various Czech prisons.
Humpolecký Magor, 2007, a collection of memories from his classmates and teachers from Humpolec, which are combined with some of Jirous's unpublished works.
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CDs
Agon Orchestra & Ivan M. Jirous - Magorova Summa, 2009, Guerilla records, read by Ivan M. Jirous.
Ivan Martin Jirous - Pravdivý příběh Plastic People, 2009, read by Ivan M. Jirous, an Oldřich Kaiser.
Ivan Martin Jirous - Magorovy labutí písně, 2011, Guerilla records, read by Ivan M. Jirous.
Ivan Martin Jirous - Magorovi ptáci a další příběhy, 2012, Guerilla records, read by Ivan M. Jirous.
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Bibliography
Zantovsky, Michael (2014). Havel: A Life. London: Atlantic Books. ISBN 9780857898524.
