Jiří Šalamoun
Born in Prague 1935, is one of those original, multitalented, imaginative Prague artists of whom it seems that this city has a never ending supply. He works in book illustration, cartoon films, stage design and printmaking, and also as editor of publications about photography and film. He has also on several occasions worked closely with television studios in Prague and Bratislava. Šalamoun , who is fluent in five languages, has for a long time been a sought-after lecture in both East and West. In 1990 he became a university lecture on graphic art and illustration at the Prague School of Applied Arts, where in 1992 he was named professor. In 1990, 91 and 93 he led the class in drawing and illustration at an international summer academy of visual arts in Salzburg. In 1992 he lectured at Miami University in Oxford , Ohio, and in 1995 at the Technical University in Mainz. Jiří Šalamoun has illustrated and edited more than 100 books, designed maybe 40 cartoon films, and created more than 60 colored lithographs, countless posters, stage sets and magazine illustrations. He has gained 50 prestigious international awards, mainly for illustration, and book and poster work, including the ADC in New York (1974, 1987). He is a holder of the Gutenberg Prize of the city of Leipzig (1986) , and has received awards at the Leipzig Book Fair in 1977 , 1982 , 2000 and 2001. He has won numerous awards for his book creation and illustration in specialized competitions such as the Most Beautiful Book of the Year and the annual awards of prestigious social institutions and publishing houses in the Czech Republic, Germany , Italy and Spain.
Šalamoun posters (mostly for the theatre) have also been successful. He has found his widest audience among (not only) children in his links with cartoon films. He has shared in more than thirty short and mid-length cartoon films of which the most famous have been the 26-part bed-time story series about Maxipes Fík between 1975 and 1984. From 1962 onwards his work in printmaking and books has been presented at major exhibitions of prints and illustrations throughout the world.
