Zdeněk Burian

Zdeněk Michael František Burian, ( born February 11, 1905 in Kopřivnice, Moravia; † 1 July 1981 in Prague) was a Czech artist and graphic designer and has been internationally known primarily for his illustrations of books about prehistoric animals and humans.

Life

Burian was born the second child of Edward and Mermína Burian. With fourteen years, in June 1919, he entered the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague. Already during the first year of study, he joined the second year. However, he did not finish the training in Prague, probably depressed from big city life and the environment of his older classmates, but left Prague. This was followed by occasional work on construction sites, as Porter, at showcase arrangements, as well as forest workers. Here he found shelter in the Boy Scouts settlements in the vicinity of rivers Sázava, Berounka and Kazin.

His distinctive talent for drawing, he developed autodidactically. In particular, his stays in nature influenced his later work regarding image design and more realistic representation. Burian lent itself to different techniques and took a job in 1921 with the publisher A. Sveceny to. In the same year his first illustrated work " dobrodružství Davida Balfoura " is (are The Adventures of David Balfour ) by Robert Louis Stevenson. From 1922, followed by other works, and in the following years he worked successfully with the publishers JR Vilimek, J. and J. Moravec Touzimsky together in the field of adventure, fantastic scientific and popular - scientific literature. Advantage came to him while his precise knowledge of nature from the time of his own stays in the wild in the early 1920s as well as his ability to paint quickly. Apparently he was able to complete a common image in less than an hour. This made ​​him very popular with the publishers.

From 1924 to 1925 Zdeněk Burian did his military service in the Czechoslovak army at the duty Valašské Meziříčí. Here, he also worked as a painter Division. In 1927 he married Františka Loudová. From the marriage emerged daughter Eva.

From about 1930 on, he illustrated for the Czech book market fulltime books not only Czech but also foreign authors such as Karl May, Jules Verne, Rudyard Kipling, Alexander Dumas, JF Cooper and Jack London. In 1935, he met the Czech palaeontologist Josef Augusta know. This won him the illustration of popular science books about prehistoric humans and extinct animals and plants. The first six paleontological reconstructions emerged in the same year, in addition to his full-time work in the book and book cover illustration. This was the beginning of a fruitful collaboration for both, Burian and Augusta, which ended only in 1968 with the death of Augusta. Burian continued thereafter work on pictorial reconstructions of prehistoric life with other technically sound writers ( Špinar, Wolf, Mazák, Beneš ) until his death continues.

Due to the increasing success with his primeval interpretations Burian also gained great fame abroad since the 1950s. It was followed by numerous exhibitions at home and abroad on various occasions, mainly for its paleontological, paleoanthropological work. Furthermore, Western publishers have been aware of him, so that he could take some orders from Germany, America or Switzerland and, in times of the Cold War with Czechoslovakia as an integral part of the Eastern Bloc not self-evident. In the Jan Jelinek 1962 furnished Anthropos Pavilion in Brno, the archaeological findings presented in a novel way and in the museum design was internationally influential, Burian painted the archaeological reconstructions.

Died in 1978, his wife Frantiska. Burian spent the last years of his life mostly in the Moravian town of Štramberk, where he had his studio. He died at the age of 76 years on 1 July 1981 after surgery complications in the Prague hospital. On July 10, 1981 Zdeněk Burian was adopted in the crematorium Praha- Strašnice.

Owing to its great popularity and quality of his work taught him the Zoo Dvur Kralove nad Labem 1983, the permanent exhibition Vývoj človeka na zemi, where his last, unfinished cycle of paintings is shown. 1989, a plaque commemorating Zdeněk Burian in Koprivnice was enzhüllt. On 8 August 1991 was the posthumous honorary citizen of the city Koprivnice. Finally, on 28 May 1992 was the opening of Zdeněk Burian Museum in Štramberk in which changing exhibitions of his paintings, but also images of other Czech artists.

Work and style

Zdeněk Burian worked almost until his death in 1981, leaving behind an almost monumental number of images. There are differences as to the size of Burian's body of work, depending on the book or catalog, it includes 14000-20000 work. In a recent exhibition catalog for the zoo Dvůr Králové nad Labem is summarized his work of Burian's biographer V. Prokop as follows: " ... in addition to illustrations and envelopes to 456 book titles Burian created more than 200 independent book covers, and illustrated to the 550 reprinted in magazines narratives. 's illustrations and book covers thus reached the impressive total of 14000! impressive are also the almost 1100 oil paintings and more than 250 independent tempera paintings, gouaches, pastels, and other techniques. paleontological and paleoanthropological issue is with 386 oil paintings, 128 Tempera paintings represented, gouaches and pastels, as well as more than 350 pen and pencil drawings ... "

In 1978 he started for the zoo Dvůr Králové nad Labem a 34- picture series on the history of life on earth (similar to his work in 1956 under the technical supervision of Augusta). Due to his sudden death in 1981, this cycle remained unfinished until then with 22 completed works. The Zoo Dvur Kralove nad Labem has established the 22 pictures from Burian's last creative period as a permanent exhibition, complemented by 58 previously created paintings.

Some of the best known and most stylish works such as Animals of primitive times (1956 ), men of the past (1960 ), or even dinosaurs of ancient seas (1964 ), which enabled the global popularity and popularity of these images only first appeared in German language. The books have been translated into many languages ​​( German, English, French, Russian, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese ) translated and brought Augusta, later Špinar, but especially Zdeněk Burian international reputation. Two books, each with an assortment of pictures of prehistoric animals on the one hand ( Animals of primitive times, in 1972, Zdeněk V. Špinar ) and the prehistoric man on the other ( primitive man, in 1977, Josef Wolf) provide a good overview of the work of Burian by his work of the 1950s represent a summary by the end of the 1970s. Both books were launched repeated internationally until the 1990s, and are also a reason for the still high level of awareness of the Burian - motives.

All images in these paleontological publications are all based on research and represent the then state of knowledge about the people and animals of the prehistoric, but because these books are among the first that the entire evolution of life on our planet from the Precambrian to the Neolithic documented and the images were also used in other publications (for example, the universe - earth - Man, 1954, GDR ), they were paving the way, and Burian's interpretations of prehistoric nature inspire to this day our image of these creatures, especially the dinosaurs and Urelefanten, as well as the pros and stone Age people. Burian is next to Charles R. Knight of the most important stylistic influences illustrator for prehistoric life of his time. The motifs of his works are so well known and widespread that they are also now copied on many stamps or in various children's books. Also found in many textbooks his works remain active use, in particular motifs to highlight themes, which since the early 1980s is not as strong visual change has occurred in the representation and interpretation (for example, Paleozoic, Mammals, Ice Age, human ancestors ). Just about everyone is subconsciously at least with some of the most famous images of Burian familiar (for example, his Brontosaurus before the lake or its Neanderthal front of the cave ).

The characteristic feature of Burian's paintings is the successful opposition of one hand scientifically accurate representation of living beings and in the presentation fantastic, sometimes even surreal -looking landscapes, in which he places his figures. Fog, haze clouds, evening and dawn, storm clouds on the horizon, whitecaps on ocean waves, a dusty atmosphere above a desert floor or the full moon between exotic trees - such scenes generate in the viewer different moods, yes sometimes even a romantic longing to be shown to the world empathize. His " imaginary realism " by which he represented the primeval scenes was indeed often copied but hardly achieved. Considering Burian images precisely, we notice also a great attention to detail: hardly an image that is also typical of the shown time plants are not to be found where there are no stones in the foreground or to stand out bizarre rock formations in the background. Although the images are often outdated scientifically today, they provide a remarkable atmosphere and go far beyond a mere technical reconstruction of fossils beyond. This makes them, in contrast to many recent reconstructions, artistically significant and timeless.

Another preference formed images with Native American motifs. Many of the themes of the early adventure stories came from the Western milieu. And even in his ethnological works from the 60s and 70s, there are many designs of Indians. Next to the pictures for the paleontological / anthropological books Burian created still continually illustrations and book covers of many novels, such as for the entire Czech Jules Verne edition, a special edition of Tarzan or the works of Karl May

Much of the illustrated through him books and magazines published exclusively in the Czech language and was never distributed internationally. Even in the few translated copies partially missing pictures or drawings from the original editions. Thus, the main part of the contributions of Burian for adventure and fantasy literature, and partly also to the Paleontology Anthropology outside the Czech Republic is unknown and difficult to impossible to access. In the Czech Republic these days older novels with his illustrations are occasionally re-issued; also made ​​repeated reissues of his now famous book on paleontological subjects Kniha o pravěku ( Animals of primitive times ) Zdeněk Vlastimil spinar ( 1916-1995 ), where, in contrast to the first edition, some images have been supplemented or replaced by images from his later years. Abroad, this work was launched for the last time in 1991 in 15th edition by Werner Dausien publisher of the German-speaking countries and 1995 in a slightly updated form in 5th edition by Thames and Hudson in the English-speaking world. New books that can present the entire spectrum beyond Augusta, Spinars and Wolf books the foreign audience (comparable to the Czech plants Otisky času of B. Zaruba 1997 Zdeněk Burian or of V. Prokop 2005), are, with the exception of The Lost Worlds Zdeněk Burian of the J. Schalansky 2013, not available in Germany.

Worth mentioning is the film that was in 1955 turned on the basis of Burian's paintings and drawings of Josef Augusta's works (eg Divy prasvěta 1942 Animals of primitive times 1956), or with the background images: " Go back in time ", original title: " Cesta do pravěku ", directed by Karel Zeman. The film has impressive trick scenes for its time. So who knows something Burian images, will recognize images in many scenes. The film is now in two, albeit very spartan DVD versions available in German language.

Illustrated Works (selection)

Paleontological - Paleoanthropological topics

• Divy prasvěta, 1942, J. Augusta (13 color photos, 75 drawings)
• Space - Earth - Man, 1954 (18 pictures, more than double-sided folding colored images )
• Animals of primitive times, 1956, J. Augusta (60 large-format illustrations of the development of life from the Cambrian to the Quaternary )
• Men of the past, 1960, J. Augusta (42 large-format illustrations of the evolution of man)
• Pterosaurs and ancient birds, 1961, J. Augusta (31 color illustrations )
• The book of the mammoths, 1962, J. Augusta (40, partly double-sided picture panels )
• Dinosaurs of the prehistoric oceans, 1964, J. Augusta ( part 47 double-sided picture panels )
• Titans of primeval continents and oceans, 1966, J. Augusta (48, partly double-sided picture panels to elephants, rhinos, whales and giant flightless birds )
• Grzimek's Animal Life - evolution of living things, 1972 (13 double- page color illustrations, since nowhere else re-imaged )
• Animals of primitive times, in 1972, Z. spinar (160 -color images, compilation of previous images from the collaboration with Augusta and later from the cooperation with spinar )
• Primitive man, 1975, J. Kleibl ( 116 pictures, mostly from the collaboration with Augusta)
• Jak vznikl Človek ( Sága rodu homo ), 1977, V. Mazak (116 original drawings)
• Primitive man, 1977, J. Wolf ( 172 color images of Augusta, Kleibl, Mazak, Wolf)
• Animals of primitive times, 1979, J. Benes ( 128 colored images of Burian and spinar, not partly previously published)
• Primitive man and his ancestors, in 1980, V. Mazák (67 color pictures)
• The world of extinct animals, 1982, B. Zaruba ( 80 colored, some new pictures )
• Paleontology obratlovcu, 1984, Z. spinar (132 pictures, some colored illustrations previously unpublished photos )
• Paleontology, 1986, Z. spinar (37 older pictures black and white)
• Cesta do pravěku, 1995, as Zaruba (135 colored, partly unpublished illustrations )
• Otisky času, 1997, as Zaruba (323 color illustrations from the previous books since 1942)
• The lost worlds of Zdeněk Burian, 2013, J. Schalansky (ed.) Matthes & Seitz, Berlin, 2013, ISBN 978-3-88221-081-1. (251 color images and drawings from books since 1942, without mammals and humans)

Scientific narratives ( German translations)

• The Mammoth Hunters, 1952, E. Storch
• Adventure of the great river, 1954, E. Storch
• The Bronze Treasure, 1955, E. Storĕch
• At the campfires of the Paleolithic, 1958, J. Augusta
• Petrified World, 1962, J. Augusta
• -Blown life, 1964 J. Augusta

Zdeněk Burian, his life, his work

• Zdeněk Burian - monograph in 5 parts 2 supplementary volumes, 1982 PM Sádecký
• Zdeněk Burian - a paleontology, 1990, V. Prokop
• Zdeněk Burian - Pravěk a dobrodružství ( rodinné Vzpomínky ), 1991, E. Hochmanová - Burianová
• Zdenek Burian ilustrator. A monograph Soupis Dila, 1995, V. Prokop
• Stoleti Zdenka Buriana, 2004, V. Hulpach
• Zdeněk Burian, 2005 V. Prokop