Adolf Hoffmeister (15 August 1902 – 24 July 1973) was a Czechoslovak illustrator, caricaturist, painter, writer, poet, journalist, politician, diplomat and traveler.

Life and career

Early life

He was born in Prague, to the family of a Prague lawyer. He grew up in a cultivated intellectual environment, his uncle was the composer and educator Karel Hoffmeister. In the years 1912–1921, he studied at the Real Gymnasium school in Křemencova Street in Prague, where most of the future members of the avant-garde group

Devětsil The Devětsil () was an association of Czech avant-garde artists, founded in 1920 in Prague. From 1923 on there was also an active group in Brno. The movement discontinued its activities in 1930 (1927 in Brno). Founded as U. S. Devětsil (Uměleck ...

met. When Devětsil was founded on October 5, 1920, Adolf Hoffmeister became its youngest member and at the same time an executive. After graduating, he continued his studies at the Faculty of Law of

Charles University ) , image_name = Carolinum_Logo.svg , image_size = 200px , established = , type = Public, Ancient , budget = 8.9 billion CZK , rector = Milena Králíčková , faculty = 4,057 , administrative_staff = 4,026 , students = 51,438 , undergr ...

in Prague, which he completed in 1925 by obtaining a doctorate. In the summer semester of 1924 he studied Egyptology at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. From 1917 he started writing poems, which he first published in magazines under various pseudonyms, he devoted himself to drawing and linocut. In 1922 he published the first book of poems and prose, participated in seventeen works at the spring exhibition Devětsil and in the same year traveled to Paris. He met artists such as

Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, although his t ...

and Ossip Zadkin. He left the group Devětsil and joined a group of artists named the "New Group". In the following period, he devoted himself to caricatures, which he sent to ''

Lidové noviny ''Lidové noviny'' (''People's News'', or ''The People's Newspaper'', ) is a daily newspaper published in Prague, the Czech Republic. It is the oldest Czech daily still in print, and a newspaper of record.

Inter-war career

After graduating from law school, he regularly traveled abroad and worked as a correspondent for many magazines. After graduating from law school, he regularly traveled abroad and worked as a correspondent for many magazines. In addition to information about cultural events, he also sent his own drawing portraits of personalities with whom he met in person. In 1926 he published the novel The ''Tropic of Capricorn'' and a collection of poems The ''Alphabet of Love''. He also was the editor of the

Pestrý týden Pestrý týden was a Czech illustrated weekly magazine published from 2 November 1926 to 28 April 1945, during the First and Second Czechoslovak Republics and during the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. It helped establish top photo-reporters ...

magazine. In 1927 he had his first solo exhibition in the Odeon exhibition hall. In April 1927, the poet

Vladimir Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (, ; rus, Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский, , vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ məjɪˈkofskʲɪj, Ru-Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.ogg, links=y; – 14 Apr ...

lived with him during his stay in Prague. Together with Nezval, he accompanied the French poet

Philippe Soupault Philippe Soupault (2 August 1897 – 12 March 1990) was a French writer and poet, novelist, critic, and political activist. He was active in Dadaism and later was instrumental in founding the Surrealist movement with André Breton. Soupault ini ...

and publisher Léon Pierre-Quint in Prague. Miroslava Holzbachová performed Hoffmeister's ballet ''Park'' to the music of Jaroslav Ježek in Umělecká beseda and his comedy premiered at the

Osvobozené divadlo Osvobozené divadlo (1926–1938) (''Liberated Theatre'' or ''Prague Free Theatre'') was a Prague avant-garde theatre scene founded as the theatre section of an association of Czech avant-garde artists Devětsil (''Butterbur'') in 1926. The theatr ...

, ''The bride'' directed by

Jindřich Honzl Jindřich Honzl (14 May 1894 – 20 April 1953) was a Czech theatre theorist, film and theatre director and pedagogue who was a leading representative of Czech modern theater. Biography Honzl was born on May 14, 1894, in Humpolec in the family ...

. The photographer of the performance was

Jaroslav Rössler Jaroslav Rössler (25 May 1902 – 5 January 1990) was a Czech photographer. He was a pioneer of Czech avant-garde photography and a member of the association of Czech avant-garde artists Devětsil. Biography Rössler was born on 25 May 1902 in ...

. Hoffmeister's permanent collaboration with Voskovec, Werich and Ježek began, for which he prepared programs and posters and drew numerous caricatures. In 1928 he had his first solo exhibition in Paris (''Visages par Adolf Hoffmeister'') at the ''Galerie d'Art Contemporain'' and a rerun of this exhibition at the ''Galerie l'Epoque'' in Brussels. The successful exhibition opened the possibility for him to cooperate with the foreign press, especially with the newspaper ''L'Intransigeant.'' He became a member of the committee of the

PEN club PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internationa ...

in Prague. From 1929 he was a member of the progressive organization of Czech intellectuals, the Left Front. In 1930, the publisher

Otakar Storch-Marien Otakar is a masculine Czech given name of Germanic origin (cf. Audovacar). Notable people with the name include: *Otakar Batlička (1895–1942), Czech adventurer, journalist, ham radio operator, member of Czech Nazi resistance group in World War ...

sent him on trips around Europe to interview important personalities of European culture and illustrate them with his caricatures. Hoffmeister met with

Tristan Tzara Tristan Tzara (; ; born Samuel or Samy Rosenstock, also known as S. Samyro; – 25 December 1963) was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, comp ...

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...

André Gide André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (in 1947). Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the Symbolism (arts), symbolist movement, to the advent o ...

Paul Valéry Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry (; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, mus ...

Georg Grosz George Grosz (; born Georg Ehrenfried Groß; July 26, 1893 – July 6, 1959) was a German artist known especially for his caricature, caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada an ...

, G.K. Chsterton etc. The book of interviews ''Write As You Hear'' was published in 1931. He became one of the artists of the so-called

Mánes Union of Fine Arts The Mánes Association of Fine Artists ( or ''S.V.U.''; commonly abbreviated as ''Manes'') was an artists' association and exhibition society founded in 1887 in Prague and named after painter Josef Mánes. The Manes was significant for its inte ...

, when they were offered full artistic freedom. H e traveled with

Bedřich Feuerstein Bedřich Feuerstein (15 January 1892 – 10 May 1936) was a Czechs, Czech architect, painter and essayist. Feuerstein was born in Dobrovice and studied at the Czech Technical University under professor Jože Plečnik. Between 1924 and 1926 he ...

to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

and met many cultural figures such as

Anatoly Lunacharsky Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky (russian: Анато́лий Васи́льевич Лунача́рский) (born Anatoly Aleksandrovich Antonov, – 26 December 1933) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Bolshevik Soviet People's ...

, Akexander Tairov, Ervin Piscator,

Hannes Meyer Hans Emil "Hannes" Meyer (18 November 1889 – 19 July 1954) was a Swiss architect and second director of the Bauhaus Dessau from 1928 to 1930. Early life Meyer was born in Basel, Switzerland, trained as a mason, and practiced as an architect i ...

and on his way back in Leningrad with

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

and

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxley ...

. Having been in the 30s in Germany and working with the satirical magazine ''

Simplicissimus :''Simplicissimus is also a name for the 1668 novel Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus, Simplicius Simplicissimus and its protagonist.'' ''Simplicissimus'' () was a satire, satirical German language, German weekly magazine, headquartered in Munich ...

,'' the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

turned the line of the magazine in to an entertainment magazine. Hoffmeister participated in the publishing of the anti-fascist weekly "Simplicus", then "Simpl" in Prague, together with German emigrants such as

John Heartfield John Heartfield (born Helmut Herzfeld; 19 June 1891 – 26 April 1968) was a 20th century German visual artist who pioneered the use of art as a political weapon. Some of his most famous photomontages were anti-Nazi and anti-fascist statements ...

. He traveled to Spain while the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

was about to accur and became a member of the Committee of Aid for Democratic Spain. He participated in the congress of the PEN club in Prague and the activities of the Association of Czechoslovak Writers. At the beginning of 1939, his caricatures were exhibited in Topič's salon at the posthumous exhibition of

Karel Čapek Karel Čapek (; 9 January 1890 – 25 December 1938) was a Czech writer, playwright and critic. He has become best known for his science fiction, including his novel ''War with the Newts'' (1936) and play ''R.U.R.'' (''Rossum's Universal Ro ...

and at the exhibition of portraits of members of SVU Mánes.

World War II and emigration

Two days after the occupation of Czechoslovakia by German troops and the proclamation of the Protectorate, Hoffmeister received an invitation to France on March 18, 1939, which was arranged by

Louis Aragon Louis Aragon (, , 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review ''Littérature''. He wa ...

. He received an extraordinary French visa and fled to Paris on April 23. There he established contacts with resistance organizations and with the help of the French communists founded the ''Maison de la Culture Tchécoslovaque.'' In September 1939, after the occupation of eastern Poland by Soviet troops, he was arrested and charged on the basis of anonymous allegations together with many other citizens of Czechoslovakia ''as'' an agent of Moscow''.'' In January 1941, with the help of Jan Werich and Jiří Voskovec, he crossed

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. He shortly traveled to

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

but then returned to New York. In 1943 he took part in the ''Art in Exile'' exhibition at the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

and, together with Antonín Pelc, had an exhibition of political cartoons at the Museum of Modern Art, which was opened by

Edvard Beneš Edvard Beneš (; 28 May 1884 – 3 September 1948) was a Czech politician and statesman who served as the president of Czechoslovakia from 1935 to 1938, and again from 1945 to 1948. He also led the Czechoslovak government-in-exile 1939 to 1945 ...

Return to Czechoslovakia

In June 1945, he was invited by the Minister of Information

Václav Kopecký Václav Kopecký (27 August 1897 – 5 August 1961) was a Czechoslovak Communist politician, journalist and chief ideologue of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia during the leadership of Klement Gottwald. A high-ranking member of the party sin ...

to return to Czechoslovakia. Hoffmeister joined the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

and in November 1945 became the head of 6th Department of the Ministry of Information and Education, where he was in charge of foreign cultural relations. He held this position until March 1948. As a member of the Czechoslovak delegation, he participated in the First General Assembly of

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

and participated in the preparation of the exhibition ''Art tchécoslovaque 1938–1946'' in Paris. The French government awarded him the Order of the Legion of Honor. In February 1948, he became chairman of the action committee of the Union of Czechoslovak Artists. In March, he led a Czechoslovak delegation to an international conference on freedom of information in Geneva. He received an offer from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to enter the diplomatic service and in June he was appointed Czechoslovak ambassador to Paris. In 1955 he was sent to Beijing and Shanghai as the commissioner of the cultural part of the exhibition ''Ten Years of Building Czechoslovakia'' and included his experiences in the 2nd edition of the book ''Postcards from China''. In the book ''One Hundred Years of Czech Caricature'', he was the first art historian to write the history of this genre. On May 1, 1960, Adolf Hoffmeister was awarded the Order of the Republic. He was involved in favor of the imprisoned

Laco Novomeský Laco Novomeský (full name: Ladislav Novomeský) (27 December 1904, Budapest — 4 September 1976, Bratislava) was a Slovak poet, writer, publicist and communist politician. Novomeský was a member of the DAV group; after The Second World War he ...

, who was charged with bourgeois nationalism but received an amnesty in 1960.

Later life

After the crushing of the

Prague Spring The Prague Spring ( cs, Pražské jaro, sk, Pražská jar) was a period of political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected First Sec ...

, he left his home again for two years and was a professor at the Université de Vincennes (

University of Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis (french: Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis) is a public university in Paris, France. Once part of the historic University of Paris, it is now an autonomous public institution. It is one of the th ...

), but in 1970 he returned to Prague. In 1970–1972 he was active again as a professor at the

Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague The Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (AAAD, cs, Vysoká škola uměleckoprůmyslová v Praze, abbreviated VŠUP, also known as UMPRUM) is a public university located in Prague, Czech Republic. The university offers the study d ...

in Prague. In 1970, He was summoned for inspection at the Central Committee of the Communist Party and subsequently expelled from the Communist Party and from all public, publishing and exhibition activities. During the period of

normalization Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Most commonly it refers to: * Normalization (sociology) or social normalization, the process through which ideas and behaviors that may fall outside of ...

, he was disqualified as a non-person and as a "Salon Communist". Adolf Hoffmeister died of a heart attack on July 24, 1973 in his cottage at Říčky.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoffmeister, Adolf 1902 births 1973 deaths People from Prague Czech painters Czech illustrators 20th-century Czech painters Czech poets Czech caricaturists 20th-century Czech poets 20th-century Czech dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Czech writers Czech cartoonists 20th-century Czech novelists 20th-century Czech male artists Czech male dramatists and playwrights Czech diplomats Communist Party of Czechoslovakia politicians Communist Party of Czechoslovakia members Ambassadors of Czechoslovakia to France Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres