Free time for free work. Jaromir 99, he said at the opening of his exhibition “Off Season” in the Czech Center in Munich, had never had that in recent years. He is too successful as a comic artist and illustrator for that.
In Germany he is best known for the comic “Alois Nebel” created with Jaroslav Rudiš. Then Corona came. And like many other artists, Jaromir 99, who was born Jaromír Švejdík in Jeseník in 1963, suddenly had nothing to do. He fled with his family from Prague, where he lives, into nature, to the Jeseniky Mountains around Jeseník. There he created numerous landscape paintings, of which he Czech center (Prinzregentenstrasse 7) will present a selection by July 14th.
But you shouldn’t imagine that he was sitting in nature with an easel. Instead, he walked his dog a lot. In some pictures you can see the two like Caspar David Friedrich figures in the landscape. But the pictures were then created on the computer, where his comics are also created digitally. And that explains the graphics, the clean lines and colors. You see trees, rivers, mountains, houses. there are hardly any people. Instead, the seasons come into focus. There are day and night pictures, in addition to real ones there are also dream landscapes to see. And some things may seem a bit too dreamy and beautiful, but never in such a way that it slips into the kitschy.
The exhibition came about, at the opening of which Jaromir 99 also performed as a musician with his “Kafka Band” colleague Dušan Neuwerth, as part of the comic festival that has just ended. Its head, Heiner Lünstedt, met Jaromir in Prague two years ago. That was the impetus for the country focus on the Czech Republic, which also includes the ongoing exhibitions “The displaced children” in the Sudeten German House and “In the Gutter” at Café Kosmos. “The Expelled Children” is a documentary comic about the experiences of Sudeten German children in the Second World War that is well worth reading.
In their new comic, Jaromir 99 and Jan Novak tell the story of gymnast Věra Čáslavská.
(Photo: Salleck Publications)
Jaromir99 is also available with “Čáslavska” a new, documentary comic, which appeared in German these days through the mediation of Heiner Lünstedt. In it, Jaromir 99 and Jan Novak tell the story of artistic gymnast Věra Čáslavská, who won seven gold and four silver medals at the Olympic Games. Jaromir 99 has only used the colors of the Olympic rings, which gives the graphic novel a very unique, pop-like look.By the way, he’s currently working on another documentary work: about the filmmaker Miloš Forman.And with his “Kafka Band”, that’s how it was experienced, he presented the new program “The Process” on January 17 in Munich.