Josef Čapek
Josef Čapek (born March 23, 1887 in Hronov , Austria-Hungary ; † April 1945 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp ) was a Czech painter , draftsman , graphic artist , photographer and writer .
Life
Josef Čapek studied in Prague. He spent a few years in Paris with his younger brother Karel Čapek . Josef Čapek's specific idea of cubism as a style incorporated elements of Czech folk art . Josef also illustrated most of his brother Karel's works. Josef Čapek is also known as the originator of the term robot , which his brother Karel Čapek used for the play RUR .
His work also had a social and political accent. In the 30s he created pictures that had the protest against the war as their theme. Along with Emil Filla , Vincent Kramář , Bohumil Kubišta , Otto Gutfreund and Josef Chochol, Josef Čapek belonged to a group of young Czech artists who brought Cubism to Prague in the form of pictures, design, sculptures and drawings as well as architecture.
Together with Karel Čapek, Josef also published plays and stories. The novel Shadows of the Ferns and other works from around 1930 can be assigned to Expressionism , later to Neoclassicism . As a children's book author, Čapek was best known (initially only in his homeland) for stories about the dog and the kitten , which also show the influence of Expressionism. Woof and Miau , two humanized pets, are confronted in each of the short episodes with all-too-human everyday problems that they solve more or less skillfully. Čapek illustrated the stories himself.
In the second half of the 1920s, Josef Čapek was a participant in the meetings of the informal Stammtisch group of Prague intellectuals Pátečníci .
Immediately after the German occupation of the Czech Republic in March 1939, Josef Čapek was arrested for criticizing National Socialism and taken to various concentration camps (Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen). He died between April 5 and 24, 1945 in Bergen-Belsen. In Prague and other places in the Czech Republic, streets are named after the Čapek brothers (ulice Bratří Čapků).
Works
- The son of evil . Stories. Translation by Otto Pick , Die Aktion, Berlin-Wilmersdorf 1918.
- Stín kapradiny ( shade of ferns )
- with Karel Čapek: Ze života hmyzu ( From the life of insects ); Comedy in three acts.
- Kulhavý poutník ( The Limping Wanderer ); Thoughtful, philosophical narrative
- Psáno do mraku (written in the clouds ); Aphorisms, diary entries
- Básně z koncentračního tabora ( poems from the concentration camp ); 1946
- Povídání o pejskovi a kočičce , Stories for Children 1929; German: stories of the little dog and the kitten . Written and drawn for children by Josef Čapek, translated by Jürgen Ostmeyer. Albatros, Prague 1997, ISBN 80-00-00587-5 .
- with Karel Čapek: The tale of the postman (original title: Pohádka poštácká from: Devatero pohádek a ještě jedna od Josefa Čapka jako přívažek , Prague 1931), LeiV, Leipzig 2011, ISBN 978-3-89603-366-6 .
- with Karel Čapek: Written in the clouds. Aphorisms - Fables - Parables , edited and translated from the Czech by Hans-Horst Skupy, Edition Töpfl, Tiefenbach 2019, ISBN 978-3-942592-37-6
Illustrations
- Klapperzahns Wunderelf: a story for young and old boys , by Eduard Bass . (Cover picture by Walter Trier, original title: Klapzubova Anyáctka , 1935, newly translated by Thomas Herbert Mandl), Arco, Wuppertal, 2007 ISBN 3-938375-14-0 .
literature
- Johannes Urzidil : Czech contemporary painters: Čapek, Filla , Justitz , Špála , Zrzavý . Wawra / Forum, Bratislava (Preßburg) 1936 DNB 362395667 .
- Vítězslav Nezval : Josef Čapek, 1937
- History up close: Graphics from the Č̌SR by Josef Čapek, among others, from the period 1933–1938 Published by the Čapek Society for International Understanding and Humanism eV and with contemporary texts and historical background by Ulrich Grochtmann, 5th, revised and expanded edition , Trafo, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86465-004-8 .
Web links
- Josef Čapek at Google Arts & Culture
- Literature by and about Josef Čapek in the catalog of the German National Library
- Literature and other media by and about Josef Čapek in the catalog of the National Library of the Czech Republic
- Josef Capek , at batz-hausen.de
- Broadcast by Deutschlandfunk on the volume of poetry by Josef Čapek "Poems from the concentration camp"
Individual evidence
- ↑ Karel Čapek o slově robot , Karel Čapek on the word robot (Czech)
- ↑ Václav Stehlík: Stari Friday Men Novodobí a Zpátečníci! , online at: vasevec.parlamentnilisty.cz / ...
- ^ Josef Čapek , Vita at the Hronov parish (cs)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Čapek, Josef |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Czech painter and writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 23, 1887 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hronov , Bohemia |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 1945 |
| Place of death | Bergen-Belsen concentration camp |