Adolf Born (12 June 1930 – 22 May 2016) was a Czech painter, illustrator, filmmaker and

caricaturist A caricaturist is an artist who specializes in drawing caricatures. List of caricaturists * Abed Abdi (born 1942) * Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) * Alex Gard (1900–1948) * Alexander Saroukhan (1898–1977) * Alfred Grévin (1827–1892) * Alf ...

, "known for his murkily-tinted pictures of bizarre fauna, and Victorian gentlemen in top hats and top coats". Schmadel, L. D., ''Dictionary of Minor Planet Names'', Sixth Revised and Enlarged Edition, Vol. 2 (

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

Springer Verlag Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing. Originally founded in 1842 in ...

, 2012)
p. 926
In recognition of his lasting contribution as a children's illustrator, Born was a finalist for the biennial, international

Hans Christian Andersen Award The Hans Christian Andersen Awards are two literary awards given by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), recognising one living author and one living illustrator for their "lasting contribution to children's literature". Th ...

in 2008. His various international rewards and honors also include the Grand Prix at the International Salon of Cartoons in Montreal and the Knight of the

Order of Arts and Letters The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is ...

in France.

Biography

Born was born in the town of

České Velenice České Velenice (, german: Unterwielands, Gmünd-Wielands, Gmünd-Bahnhof, 1938–45: Gmünd III)) is a town in Jindřichův Hradec District in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 3,500 inhabitants. It lies on the border ...

on the

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

n side of the southern border with Austria, moving to Prague with his family in 1935. He received his visual arts education between 1949 and 1955 at the School of Applied Arts in Prague, in the Department of Caricature and Newspaper Drawing. Since the 1960s his works have been exhibited throughout the world. In 1966, in collaboration with

Gene Deitch Eugene Merril Deitch (August 8, 1924 – April 16, 2020) was an American illustrator, animator, comics artist, and film director who was based in Prague from the 1960s until his death in 2020. Deitch was known for creating animated cartoons ...

, Born animated the first ever screen adaptation of a work by

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philology, philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was ...

, '' The Hobbit!'' Initially better known to the public as a cartoonist published in magazines, censorship prompted him, from 1973 onwards, to focus more on animation and book illustrations. In 1974 Born was declared cartoonist of the year in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, and he won the Palma d'Oro at the

International Festival of the Humor of Bordighera The International Festival of the Humor of Bordighera was one of the main Festivals devoted to humor, satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-ficti ...

, Italy. One of the forms he specialised in was the

bookplate An ''Ex Libris'' (from ''ex-librīs'', ), also known as a bookplate (or book-plate, as it was commonly styled until the early 20th century), is a printed or decorative label pasted into a book, often on the front endpaper, to indicate ownership. ...

(the "''ex libris''"), usually using colour lithography. He held over 100 exhibitions, illustrated hundreds of books, and designed many theatre sets and costumes. He was married and had one daughter. The asteroid 17806 Adolfborn, discovered by

Petr Pravec Petr Pravec (born September 17, 1967) is a Czech astronomer and a discoverer of minor planets, born in Třinec, Czech Republic. Pravec is a prolific discoverer of binary asteroids, expert in photometric observations and rotational lightcurves a ...

at the

Ondřejov Observatory The Ondřejov Observatory (; cs, Observatoř Ondřejov) is the principal observatory of the Astronomical Institute () of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It is located near the village of Ondřejov, southeast of Prague, Czech ...

, is named after him. Born died on 22 May 2016, at the age of 85.

Works

Mach a Šebestová Mach a Šebestová (in English: Mach and Šebestová or Max and Sally) is a Czech cartoon series. It was created by writer Miloš Macourek, animator Jaroslav Doubrava, and painter Adolf Born. The animated characters were voiced by Petr Nárožn� ...

, a cartoon series Macourek, M., & Born
''Mach a Šebestová ve škole''
(

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

Albatross Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacifi ...

, 1982).

References

External links

Born at ArtForum
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Born, Adolf 1930 births 2016 deaths Czech children's book illustrators Czech painters Czech male painters Czech monarchists Recipients of Medal of Merit (Czech Republic) People from Jindřichův Hradec District Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres