Adolf Born — Windows

Adolf Born was a Czech painter, drawer, illustrator, animator, caricaturist, occasional photographer and costume designer. He has become famous mostly thanks to his work on an animated TV series called Max and Sally. As a caricaturist, he had a specific sense for cartoon comedy and he was also no stranger to dark humour. His sharp, but also conciliatory attitude toward various human weaknesses can be perceived as a typically gracious Czech humour. His freelance work was inspired mostly by his travels, admiration of both historical and literary figures and mythological heroes, childhood memories, but also dreamlike fantasies or primitive peoples’ art. His prints were based primarily on cartoon humour. These two lineages of his work had developed in parallel and started merging only in the 1970s. In his early days, he preferred the techniques of woodcut and linocut and later began turning towards lithography. From the 1960s, he concentrated primarily on this technique, especially due to its wide range of expression vehicles he liked to experiment with.

A colour lithograph titled Windows from the Nitra Gallery’s collection, dates back to the late 1960s when Born’s printmaking was in the last stages of searching for its unique style which found its final form in the 1970s. Some of its typical features include vivid colours and pastel-like patterns, which, however, still play second fiddle to the predominant drawing which is full of expressive lines, especially in the background. The depicted image is rather simple and straightforward: a uniform apartment building full of windows – the likes of which can be found in every urban neighbourhood – with its residents staring out at us. Each of them is a unique character portrayed as a caricature. The lithograph’s theme, but also Born’s attitude toward printmaking during this period is described by Simeona Hošková in regard to another colour lithograph from the same year titled Indian Villager: “His ornamental sign language of letters and markings lies the foundation for Born’s supposed world labyrinth. On the other hand, he used caricature-like language to depict the principle of ʻlabyrinth’ in the Windows lithograph that comments cheerfully on the otherwise dull uniformity of an urban apartment building lifestyle.” [1] The Windows print was issued in a rather small volume of 30 copies, which was typical for Born. It was not irregular to produce a volume of around 200 copies at the time, which makes the ownership of one of his pieces all the more valuable to the gallery.