Albín Brunovský

Biography

He designed the last series of Czechoslovak banknotes. Money of this kind is hardly ever regarded as art, but the man who worked on it had spent his whole life on miniatures and small-scale graphic work.

Albín Brunovský was born on Christmas Day, 25 December 1935, in Zohor, not far from Bratislava. He began in the theatre, working on stage design and posters. In 1955 he entered the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava and studied there until 1961 under Professor Vincent Hložník. Hložník’s school was known for its high standard of graphic training and its humanist outlook; for its founder and many of his students, Goya’s cycle “The Disasters of War” served as a model. From 1963 to 1966, by some accounts, Brunovský did postgraduate work in the same department.

From 1966 he taught at the school himself, leading the book illustration course, and he worked there until 1990. He became a professor in 1981 and a few years later created his own engraving school; by some accounts, he was rector from 1989. He had many students, and in Slovak art history people speak of the “Brunovský school”: it combines fantastic and real elements with a confident command of classical graphic techniques. His students later drew the last series of Slovak koruna banknotes as well. In 1967 he became one of the founders of the Bratislava Biennial of Illustrations, an international exhibition of original illustrations for children’s books. Within it he founded and ran the UNESCO–BIB workshop for illustrators from developing countries. In the same year he received a gold award at the biennial for his illustrations to Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid”. Later came the Golden Apple of the BIB for Josef Bodenek’s book “The Horned Goat and the Hedgehog” (1977) and for Madame d’Aulnoy’s “The Peacock King” (1981), as well as the Hans Christian Andersen honour list for Ľubomír Feldek’s “The Blue Book of Fairy Tales” (1976). He also illustrated Cervantes, Gogol, Hoffmann (“The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”, best book of the year in Czechoslovakia in 1968), Villiers de l’Isle-Adam and Pavol Dobšinský’s “Slovak Fairy Tales”; for these last drawings he received the Klement Gottwald State Prize in 1989.

He changed techniques readily. During his student years he cut woodblocks and linocuts, then moved to the “scraper” and chalk lithography, and in the mid-1960s etching became his main medium. He also made bookplates and postage stamps. Many of his illustrations are in watercolour, and later large paintings appeared: “The Meeting of Numismatists”, “A Lady with a Hat”, “Vernissage in Nature”. For the lobby of the new building of the National Council of the Slovak Republic he painted seven pictures on walnut panels.

His early work shows surrealist traits: a leaning towards the absurd and the free play of the subconscious. Later his outlook became more critical, of the individual and of society alike. He is characterised by a love of detail and a fine, miniature line that turns into ornament, so that a picture often looks decorative. He himself said that his pictures do with him what they want: you come to the studio, sit for a while beside an unfinished work, and suddenly notice that it is already evening.

Awards came from the early 1960s: the Fraňo Kráľ Prize (1962), prizes at the graphic art biennials in Lugano, Kraków, Varna and Frechen, and awards at bookplate competitions in Poland, Denmark and Italy. In 1980 he became a Merited Artist, in 1985 a National Artist of Czechoslovakia, and in 1995 he received the Martin Benka Prize.

Brunovský died in Bratislava on 20 January 1997.