Eva Švankmajerová

Eva Švankmajerová (25 September 1940 – 20 October 2005) was a Czech surrealist artist. She was born Eva Dvořáková. A native of the Czech town of Kostelec nad Černými lesy, she moved to Prague in 1958 to study at the Prague School of Interior Design and later the Academy of Performing Arts (Theater Department). From 1970, she was an active member of the Czech and Slovak Surrealist Group. She was a painter and ceramicist, and her poetry and prose regularly appeared in the journal Analogon. Most recently, her work has appeared in English in Surrealist Women: an International Anthology (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998) and Baradla Cave (Twisted Spoon Press, 2001). Švankmajerová was married to the Surrealist filmmaker Jan Švankmajer, with whom she collaborated on such films as Alice, Faust, and Conspirators of Pleasure. They had two children, Veronika and Václav, and lived in Prague until her death from breast cancer in 2005.

Filmography

• 1964 – The Last Trick (orig. Poslední trik pana Schwarcewalldea a pana Edgara) – production assistant, director: Jan Švankmajer
• 1967 – The Garden (org. Zahrada) – costume designer, director: Jan Švankmajer
• 1971 – Jsouc na řece mlynář jeden – designer, director: J. Brdečka
• 1976 – Laterna magika: Ztracená pohádka – designer, director: Jaromil Jireš
• 1978 – The Ninth Hearth (orig. Deváté srdce) – visual effects, director: Juraj Herz
• 1983 – The Pit, the Pendulum and Hope (orig. Kyvadlo, jáma a naděje) – designer, director: Jan Švankmajer
• 1986 – Jost Burgi – Demystifikace času a prostoru – animator, director: M. Havas
• 1987 – Laterna magika: Odysseus – animator, director: E. Schorm
• 1987 – Alice (orig. Něco z Alenky) – designer, director: Jan Švankmajer
• 1994 – Lesson Faust (orig. Lekce Faust) – designer, director: Jan Švankmajer
• 1996 – Conspirators of Pleasure (orig. Spiklenci slasti) – designer, director: Jan Švankmajer
• 2000 – Little Otík (orig. Otesánek) – designer, director: Jan Švankmajer
• 2005 – Šílení – designer, director: Jan Švankmajer

Books

• Baradla Cave (Jeskyně Baradla) (1995, Edice Analogon) – Original Czech edition
• Baradla Cave (2001, Twisted Spoon Press: ISBN 978-80-902171-7-1) – English translation
• Anima Animus Animation (1998, Slovart Publishers/Arbor Vitae) – Text in English

See also

• Surrealism
• Jan Švankmajer
• Women Surrealists

External links

In English

• Eva Svankmajerova at IMDb
• Obituary in The Independent (UK) by Marcus Williamson
• Obituary in The Guardian (UK) by Christopher Masters

In Czech

• Zemřela výtvarnice Eva Švankmajerová BBC Czech
• Eva Švankmajerová (25. 9. 1940—20. 10. 2005) Nekrolog.cz
• Galerie online

In Slovak

• Zomrela Eva Švankmajerová

In French

• Eva Svankmajerova, femme qui a ressuscité le surréalisme
• Décès de l'artiste surréaliste Eva Svankmajerova