Jiří Anderle

“Right at the beginning of the war, Pavlíkov suddenly filled up with an incredible amount of people since the Germans were throwing the Czechs out of the Sudetenland and the Czechs were moving inland. We’ve had so many new friends among those boys and girls. Pavlíkov was so crammed that those coming from the Sudetenland would have to live in pear drying rooms. But for us kids, this was fantastic because it broadened our game territory. Small kids, our friends were living in the pear drying rooms. In front of the rooms were fields, hop gardens, orchards… So we played with them in there. It was not for us to realize that it was a tragic consequence of war. Children have their own very intense world, filled mostly with children’s games.”

“Those were sad experiences. I was still going home for the weekend back then. In the end, it only took an hour by bus or an hour by train and fifteen minutes by bus from Prague. I saw those beloved cows being taken out of the barns and to the collective stabling. My grandpa, who was long retired by then, worked in the collective stable as a night guard. I often used to bring him coffee there. I saw my neighbors slowly gathering in there, visiting their beloved cows which they cared about greatly. They would always grab the cow’s head, weep and said: ‘Aren’t you homesick in here? Aren’t your feet cold? Would you fancy an apple?’ They would pull apples out of their pockets. Those were emotional scenes. ‘Don’t you want some bread? You used to love bread crusts so much!’ Now, those cow eyes… I will never forget it in my life. It was terrible.”

“I created a series of graphic works and when one of my colleagues from the Academy saw it, he said: ‘This can’t just lay here. Art historians must see it.’ Such a selfless peer he was, without grudge or envy: ‘I like it so much, I have to show it to Dr. Mašín. And to Kotalík.’ These two saw it and told about it to professor Míček who included me in a breakthrough exhibition which took place here in 1966 on the occasion of the International Association of Art Critic’s congress. The topic was clear – current tendencies of Czech fine arts. Furthermore, the catalogue started with the sentence: ‘The exhibition is framed from the youngest to the oldest generation. From A to Z, from Anderle to Zrzavý.’ At that instant I lost all of my friends from the arts world. I was holed up with the Black Light Theatre when suddenly I crawled up as a snake out of the hole with such a glorification. Anyone would be annoyed by that. Moreover, I was travelling the world.”