Czech Art

I have just been enjoying a fascinating post on the blog Adventures in the Print Trade about Czech Graphics of the 1970s. As I indicated in a previous post on Jiri Trnka - a visit to the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in the Trade Fair Palace in Prague first opened my eyes to the wealth and creativity of Czech artists that was hidden by the Iron Curtain, and it is good to see Neil of the Print Trade blog making the same discovery.

One of the delights of discovering Czech art and especially its graphics is for me the influence of fairytales - another reason why I am not surprised that it has struck a chord with Neil, who is an authority on the subject. Fairytales seem to have infused Czech life in a way that is very special. So often people coming to my part of the world will comment that Cesky Krumlov is a fairytale place. And whilst visually I can see why people might say this, I think it is something more profound, something deep in the Czech pysche, that is calling.

Czech graphics are distinctive. There is something playlike about them, they have a humour that can be dark (like many a Grimm fairytale) but also are light of touch. My Czech puppeteer friend who first introduced me to this place is also, among her many accomplishments, a wonderful artist. In particular I like her prints. She was always being told when she was living and working in England how unusual her art was. Without in anyway diminishing the standard and originality of her work I now can see that it is rooted in the graphics of her homeland.

Blog Themes - Czech History and Politics

As the blog gets larger I thought I might help readers interested in certain topics by creating some pages which list the blog's content by theme. I promise to update the pages as new posts are added.

The themes are: Czech Nature, Czech Customs & Culture, Places to visit in South Bohemia, Buying and Restoring a Czech House, Czech History and Politics, Day to Day Life in the Czech Republic. This post covers Czech History and Politics, click on the links above for the others.

CZECH HISTORY AND POLITICS

• Golden Path Celebrations
  
• Budweiser Budvar
  
• Elections
  
• More on Riverworks
  
• Jindrichuv Hradec
  
• Farming and the Landscape
  
• Czech Church Art
  
• Egon Schiele
  
• Art Nouveau in Ceske Budejovice
• Prachatice
• Kratochvile
• Exchange Rate
• Airport Security
• Ducks Fight Back in Cesky Krumlov
• Town Planning and Cesky Krumlov
• More on Town Planning and Cesky Krumlov
• Flood Control and Willows
• Does UNESCO Know
• Beachcombing on the Vltava
• Update on Flood Measures
• Message to Krumlov Town Hall
• UNESCO Acts
• Update on Riverworks
• Vyssi Brod Walk
• Vyssi Brod
• Finsterau Museum of Sumava Architecture
• Boletice Church
• The Czech Roma
• Bohemian Baroque
• Rococo Treasures of Kvitkuv Dvur
• Ales Gallery Of Gothic Art
• Lady at the Window (fresco)
• And the Monkey
• 1968 Russian Invasion
• Schwarzenberg Canal
• Rotating Theatre
• More on the Castle Gardens
• Mystery Car
• Centre of Europe
• Centre of Europe 2
• Follow up on Centre of Europe
• Compare and Contrast
• Olsina
• Against the Radar
• Plague Column
• Carp Farming - Jakub Krcin
  
• Visit to Ceske Budejovice
• Whitewashing
• Svejk or Kafka
• Sad Story of the Alchemist's House
• UNESCO Or Not
• Crosses and Shrines
• Sudetenland
• Good Friday at Rimov
• Prague First Impressions
• Something About the Celts

This post was updated on the 8th August 2010.

Blog Themes - Buying and Restoring a Czech House

As the blog gets larger I thought I might help readers interested in certain topics by creating some pages which list the blog's content by theme. I promise to update the pages as new posts are added.

The themes are: Czech Nature, Czech Customs & Culture, Places to visit in South Bohemia, Buying and Restoring a Czech House, Czech History and Politics, Day to Day Life in the Czech Republic. This post covers Buying and Restoring a Czech House, click on the links above for the others.

BUYING AND RESTORING A CZECH HOUSE

• Restoring an Old Farmhouse Making a Home
• Getting Ready for Czech Winter
• Scything
• Well in the Cellar
• Art Nouveau Architecture - New Property Search company
• Latest on the Central Heating
• Thaw
• No Hot Water
• Whether To Get a Czech Lawnmower
• New Stove
• Decorating a Czech Farmhouse
• Bohemian
• Update on the House
• Indispensable Tool
• Dryrot
• Chopping Wood
• Roots - Love of Wood
• Roots - The Shed
• The Search for the House
• The Search for the House 2
• Finding the House
• A First Look at the Barn
• Looking Back
• Finding the House - The Old Man
• Debating the Builders
• My First Winter in the House 1
  
• My First Winter in the House 2
  
• My First Winter in the House 3
  
• My First Winter in the House 4
  
• My First Winter in the House 5
• Chimney
• The Party
• In the Orchard
• Making Our House a Home
• Whitewashing
• Beer - Czech Breakfast
• Beginnings - the House
• Why Buy a House in South Bohemia
• First Impressions - The Train
• Beginnings - Fairies
• Beginnings - Puppets
• Beginnings - The Puppeteer

Themes Covered in This Blog - Theme 1 Czech Nature

As the blog gets larger I thought I might help readers interested in certain topics by creating some pages which list the blog's content by theme. I promise to update the pages as new posts are added.
The themes are: Czech Nature, Czech Customs & Culture, Places to visit in South Bohemia, Buying and Restoring a Czech House, Czech History and Politics, Day to Day Life in the Czech Republic. This post covers Czech Nature, click on the links above for the others.

Czech Nature

• Basket of Forestfruits
  
• Poppyseed
  
• Swimming with the Fishes
  
• Chicken of the Woods
  
• Moldavite
  
• Yummy Snails
  
• Cherries
  
• Czech Moles
  
• Spring
  
• Farming and the Landscape
  
• Birdwatching in Winter
  
• More on Frost and Snow
  
• Small Furry Housemate
  
• Snow at Both Ends
  
• An Enterprising Woodpecker
• God I Love This Country
• Ants in the Wood
• Fox
• Bark Beetles
• Dawn in the Woods
• The Early Bird Catches the Mushroom
• How Little Things Grow (Swallows)
• More Swallows
• Goodbyes (Fireflies and Martagon Lilies)
  
• Stork
• Devil's Wall Walk
  
• Woodland Flowers
• Wild Berries
• Miracle After the Storm
• An Encounter with White-tailed Eagles
• Spring Flowers 2009
• Arrival of Summer Birds
• Gold, the Colour of the Czech Landscape
• A Different Palette
• Tracks in the Snow
• Diamonds in the Snow
• Carp
• Strange Wading Birds (Egrets)
  
• More Czech Birds
• How to Hunt Mushrooms
• Czech Butterflies
• Meetings with Foxes
• Old Lady and the Caterpillar
• Sound of Evening (crickets)
• Yet More Czech Flowers
• Enforced Rest (Lizard)
• Czech Weather
• The Arrival of Summer
  
• Chanterelles
• Squirrels
• More May Flowers
• May Flowers
• Some Czech Wild Animals
• Mys
• Sun and Snow
• Czech Weather
• Czech Winter Sunshine
• Bears in the Moat
• Carping
• Encounter with a Wild Boar
• Remnants of Autumn
• The Walk from the Station
• Birds in the Czech Republic
• The Walk Home
• Spring

This post was brought uptodate on 5th August.

An Enterprising Woodpecker.

Please forgive the rather bad photo, it was taken through a misty window. I have been watching this chap for some weeks now. He or she comes regularly to investigate the cracks between the tiles on the barn next door and in the barn wall. Why peck at the frozen bark of the local trees, when you can have insects in ready-made cracks?

The barn is a real attraction for the local birds. I can stand at my window and watch nuthatches, redstarts, treecreepers, bluetits and more feasting on the insect buffet offered by the old barn. Allowing the bird life to come to me certainly beats wandering around in the cold weather clutching a pair of binoculars.

Restoring An Old Farmhouse, Making A Home

Across the village from our house stands an old farmhouse. The village is built at the upper end of a valley and sits in a semi-circle, as a result I look out of my lounge window and see the old farmhouse directly opposite my home. For a long time it was semi-derelict and a bit of a blot on the landscape. But now things are changing.

A local man has taken it on as a project. He needs a family home and is prepared to put in the hard work to turn this ruin into one. I wish him all the best in his endeavour. It was bad enough transforming our place, but he really has taken on a monster. Over the last few months the old roof has been removed and replaced. It looks to me as though he is doing much of it himself - work on the roof seemed to happen at weekends, the scaffolding was made not of the normal metal poles but of silver birch trunks nailed in place.

But making the house waterproof is the first step, every time I walk past I look at the windows and through them to the derelict interior. The new owner is a brave man, but for many Czechs the rise in house prices has made being brave the only option if you want a home.

Art Nouveau Architecture in Budejovice

Over the last few weeks I have been developing a website which promotes a comprehensive service for finding, buying and running properties in South Bohemia. The service is run by a fellow ex-pat, who has been helping Brits buy properties in the area for several years now. By the way I did it for free, so this is not a commercial.

I'm not a web designer, but I must say I am rather pleased with the result on http://sites.google.com/site/czechhouseandcottage/

It was created using Google's Sites, with a bit of HTML adjustment.

And it allowed me the pleasure of wandering round Ceske Budejovice taking photos of beautiful Art Nouveau apartment buildings ( see above). Of course the site also covers how to find cottages, and houses in Cesky Krumlov, Ceske Budejovice and South Bohemia, but we found we already had photos of the other property types.


As a Brit one tends to focus on the delightful old cottages, farmhouses and townhouses that abound here, and certainly that is what attracted us to buy here. But from an investment point of view Ceske Budejovice makes a lot of sense: Budejovice Airport is opening to international flights in 2012 and the city is the commercial centre of the region. And then there are these lovely Art Nouveau apartments and villas, and even Art Deco ones too.