Jan Bohuslav Sobota (1 March 1939 – 2 May 2012) was a Czech-Swiss fine bookbinder. He is known for his often playful sculptural bindings that transform the book into a three-dimensional work of art.
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Career
editSobota was born on 1 March in Hromnice, Czechoslovakia.[1] He is known for books of all sizes, including a significant output of miniature books. The son of a book collector,[2] Sobota trained in Czechoslovakia as an apprentice in the Plzeň workshop of Karel Šilinger and graduated from the Academy of Applied Arts, Prague, in 1957.[3] He completed his master's degree at the same institution in 1969, and in 1979, was declared "Meister der Einbandkunst" in Germany.[2] The same year, he submitted the first ever sculptural book to the Czech triennale. Sobota organized the first international exhibition of book sculpture in 1982, "The Book as Artistic Object in an Interior," staged in Františkovy Lázně.[3]
In 1982, Sobota and his family defected to Switzerland, where he worked privately and demonstrated bookbinding in Basler Papier Muhle. In 1984 the Sobota family moved to the US, sponsored by the Rowfant Club of Cleveland, a prestigious book collectors' club in Cleveland. Members of the international book community also sought to assist him.[4] Extensive Czech training in book conservation prepared him for positions as a book conservator at Case Western Reserve University and at the Bridwell Library at Southern Methodist University.[5] With his wife Jarmila Sobota he established the Saturday's Book Arts Gallery, which moved with the couple.[5] In 1997, the Sobotas moved back to the now Czech Republic, where they opened a gallery in Loket. Sobota died on 2 May 2012 in Loket, at the age of 73.[1]
Legacy
editBetween 1969 and 2012, Sobota's work was displayed in thirty-five individual shows and 160 group exhibitions.[6] He was posthumously awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Guild of Bookworkers in 2012.[2]
References
edit- ^ a b "Jan Bohuslav Sobota". Encyklopedie Plzeň (in Czech). City of Plzeň. Retrieved 2023-10-05.
- ^ a b c Hanka, Ladislav (2012). "Remembering Jan Bohuslav Sobota: Stories, Speculations, Pronouncements, Acknowledgements & Thoughts on a Life in the Book arts". Retrieved 16 April 2018.
- ^ a b Režný, Pavel (1988). Jan Sobota: Design Binding. Translated by Hanka, Ladislav. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. [2].
- ^ Philip, Smith (March 1983). "The Jan Sobota Appeal". cool.conservation-us.org. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
- ^ a b "Obituary: Jan Sobota, book conservator and fine binder". NOBS. 2012-05-11. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
- ^ "Jan Sobota – SMU". smu.edu. Retrieved 2018-04-16.