Zdeněk Smetana and His Worlds | Exhibition

The exhibition "Zdeněk Smetana and His Worlds" will showcase his evening cartoons, as well as short films, illustrations from more than 50 books, free graphics, and painting works.

Who among you was not accompanied in childhood by the evening cartoon characters of various little creatures speaking in the brilliantly lisping voice of Jiřina Bohdalová? Come and remember them and their creator – the artist, animator, director, and film magician Zdeněk Smetana – at the Holešovice market, hall number 17. The Art Movement company has prepared a retrospective exhibition from October 1 about the man who taught most of us to dream… Rákosníček, Křemílek and Vochomůrka, Racochejl, Brundibár, Štaflík and Špagetka, and Maláčarodějnice. All these characters and many others carry the personality of Zdeněk Smetana. A man who illustrated over fifty books during six decades and received many awards for his work, including prizes from Berlin, Venice, Cannes, and London. At the same time, he filmed, directed, and wrote scripts for a number of distinctive short films before his legendary series "Fairy Tales from Moss and Fern" "took off" in 1968. The character Večerníček with a paper hat and on a rocking horse introduced them in a series of sequels for an incredible twenty-five years. However, the retrospective exhibition "Zdeněk Smetana and His Worlds" is not just an emotional look back. It also reveals a glimpse of the private life of the artist, who also devoted himself to artistic graphics and oil painting. After the war, he even studied drawing under the guidance of painter Cyril Bouda, before he truly "found himself" while working at the animated film studio Bratři v triku, whose artistic director at that time was Jiří Trnka. There, he went through the classic path from coloring and contouring finished drawings to in-betweening to his own creations. And although it always aimed primarily at the child audience, it carried a deep human message: kindness, friendship, imagination, and a sense of story. He later lectured on this as a leading professor at the Department of Film and Television Graphics at the AAAD. So take a moment to return to the carefree moments of your childhood. And if you bring along some of your descendants or grandchildren to the exhibition, you will enjoy it together literally "to the second power." You will show them a piece of timeless Czech culture, which drew from folk humor and verbal creativity. And even during the gray socialism era, it showed a colorful world, like when a rainbow forms in the sky. The exhibition "Zdeněk Smetana and His Worlds" showcases original film designs, storyboards, sketches, and the free painting and graphic work of this artist. It also brings modern interactive elements, projections, and programs for schools and families with children. Including the opportunity to try a short animation under the guidance of experienced instructors or to create your own poster for the Zdeněk Smetana exhibition at regular art workshops. The architectural design of the current exhibition was handled by Martina Kárová, who is also behind the Tim Burton and Worlds of Czech Animation exhibitions, and its curator is the award-winning creator Jan Bubeníček.