PER ASPERA AD ASTRA 

Zdeněk Burian (1905 Austria-Hungary-1981 CSSR) - curriculum vitae in brief

For his exceptional talent and diligence, he was admitted into the second year of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague at the age of fourteen, in 1919, one year after the restoration of the Czech statehood…

Two years later, at the age of sixteen (1921), he illustrated his first book (R.L. Stevenson/The Adventures of David Balfour)…the total number of books illustrated by Zdeněk Burian (mainly classics of adventerous literature and paleo-anthropological reconstructions) is estimated at five hundred and he illustrated the same number of stories…

His gouache technique in particular but also techniques of negative drawing, realistic pointillism or combined techniques utilizing pastel/gouche/watercolor are still unsurpassed…

Since 1942, and basically through the entire second half of the 20th century, Burian became the world leader in paleoanthropological reconstruction – portraying the evolution of life on Earth and pioneering scientific illustration where his masterly oil paintings stand out…with no exaggeration we can say that this modest unassuming man awoke in himself the collective memory of mankind…

Burian’s dinosaurs in motion dominate blockbusters, whether the Czech movie Cesta do Pravěku (A Journey to the Beginning of Time), directed by Karel Zeman, or the American movie Jurrasic Park by Stephen Spielberg…

Despite unfavourable official Communist art criticism, there have been over forty (rather over sixty by today) Burian’s exhibitions organised and books with his illustrations, published in millions, having been translated into 22 languages.

Zdeněk Burian’s originals are now scattered around the world, not only in the Czech Republic and Slovakia but especially in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the USA…
Most paleoartists creating already in the 21st century (and mostly with the help of computers), more than thirty years after Burian’s death, still refer to their guru - Zdeněk Burian - who went beyond the boundaries of the permissible and possible from his little studio behind the iron curtain…

Burian’s legacy per aspera ad astra (through hardship to the stars) and dramatic peripetia and rigmaroles of his life and times are still awaiting a film adaptation…

Jiří Hochman, May 2015