The Stubborn
A meeting with the Tvrdohlaví group of artists, their curious arrangements, ornamentation and tongue-in-cheek play with symbols proved to have a strong impact on Najbrt’s work. The concatenation of references and the linking of the Tvrdohlaví with the inter-war Tvrdošíjní (The Obstinate)
group are best captured by Najbrt’s poster for their second exhibition paraphrasing a poster for the avant-gardists by Václav Špála (1918). In 1989 it was a comics-style grimace dedicated to the communist regime, which was on its last legs, but also new inspiration for Najbrt after the exhaustion of the language of calligraphy. He studied at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in the Studio of Book Design and Type (1982–1988), and experimented with bold calligraphic letters on canvas. After many debates with Róna, he abandoned the loose strokes and turned towards robust graphics with sharp edges fanned by a postmodern mixture of high and low, Czech cubism, expressionism and influences from western pop culture – Neville Brody, Malcolm Garrett and less obviously Peter Saville.
1989 Aleš Najbrt
Production estimated up to 14 days, the possibility of printing sizes S to XL
price 400 CZK