#Adolf Hoffmeister

[jareckiworld]

Adolf Hoffmeister (1902-1973) — Franz Kafka "Letter to Father" [mixed media and ink, on paper, 1966]

[holespoles]

Adolf Hoffmeister for "made in Japan", 1958

[lascitasdelashoras]

Adolf Hoffmeister - illus. for a 1967 Czech edition of Lautreamont´s Poesies

[oldsardens]

Adolf Hoffmeister - Pablo Picasso - La Paz

[czgif]

Vít Olmer and Jana Brejchová in Pipes (Dýmky) (segment "Lord's Pipe" ("Dýmka lordova")) 1966, dir. Vojtěch Jasný IMDB

[pixnflixnwrites]

Man Ray by Adolf Hoffmeister.

“I met Man Ray in Paris,” recalls Janet Lehr, a renowned dealer in photographic art.  In 1972, she recalls, “considering photography as ‘art’ was an outrageous statement.” 

“My overriding impression of Man Ray was that he was a broken man – as much an emotional victim of the Holocaust as any survivor,” added Lehr.  “He was traumatized, indeed, a victim of the war.  At times he would sell his work – always asking for payment in cash.  Sometimes he was unwilling to sell anything.  He behaved as though he were shell-shocked. His home was a squatter’s hovel with carpet covering a cobble stone ‘floor’. The main room was lined with drawers full of photographs.”

Man Ray was notoriously secretive.  “We never discussed his mind-shattering war time ‘chapter’ – suddenly finding himself an artistic ‘nobody’ in America, after having been the toast of Paris. The man I met, got to know, and bought art from, was a broken soul.  Although he had escaped and spent the war years in California, World War II took its toll on Man Ray.  As an artist, he no longer believed that dada was relevant.

[xphaiea]

Adolf Hoffmeister

[youcannottakeitwithyou]

Adolf Hoffmeister (Czech, 1902-1973). Viruses (1963).

[topcat77]

Adolf Hoffmeister

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

[from a friend]

Last week I went to the NC Museum of Art to see the exhibit of Czech painter Alphonse Mucha. In the lobby outside the exhibit, where they had the usual books, cards, etc. they had the book Brundibar by Maurice Sendak. It's a picture book depicting the children's opera that Sendak and playwright Tony Kushner revived in 2006. The picture here is the coda, not part of the original libretto, that Kushner added. The story behind the original opera is that it was written by a Czech composer Hansa Kraska w/libretto by Adolf Hoffmeister. Two children, trying to get milk for their sick mother, have to face down the organ-grinder Brundibar. It was originally performed in 1942 at the Jewish orphanage in Prague, a temporary educational facility for children separated from the parents by the war. By 1943, after Hitler had invaded Czechoslovakia, most of the children and the composer Kraska had been transported to Theresienstadt. While there, they recreated the opera and it was performed a number of times, including in 1944 for a Red Cross delegation in an attempt by the Nazis to show that the conditions in the prison camp were not terrible (even though at the time of the visit many of the residents had been sent to Auschwitz to reduce crowding). Propaganda films were made using some footage shot of the opera. Once the films were finished, the participants - the children, the composer Kraska, and the musicians - were all sent to Auschwitz where most of them were killed in the gas ovens upon arrival. I'm including links to an article about the opera and its history, and a truly riveting, heartbreaking 20-minute interview with Maurice Sendak on Fresh Air, from 2003, where he tells this story. It's where I first heard about it. So, I stood there, knowing the story and looking through the book, and came to this final page, and a chill went down my spine. Because it feels so much like we are still in this same story. If we think that somehow human beings have changed since that time, it's just not so. And that some people are so frightened and willing to ignore history, believing that looking the other way will make it not be so. The bullies always come back. And we always have to be ready to unite against them.

[jareckiworld]

Adolf Hoffmeister (1902-1973)  James Joyce  (ink, pencil, watercolor on cardboard, 1966)

[steamedtangerine]

Adolf Hoffmeister

[lascitasdelashoras]

Jorge Luis Borges por Adolf Hoffmeister, 1965

[oldsardens]

Adolf Hoffmeister - Hamlet, Zatisi s Lebkou. 1931

[already-14]

Adolf Hoffmeister – Stínohra – 1930

masmoulin.blog

[anxiolotl]

Adolf Hoffmeister, illustration for a 1959 Czech edition of Around the world in 80 days