Palo Macho
Jan Perůtka’s Bookbindings
Jan Perůtka’s initial interest in art was inspired by his family. He was born into a family of the painter and graphic artist Ladislav Perůtka, who was teaching at the Department of Art of the Faculty of Education of today’s Masaryk University. It was therefore logical that he chose to study at the Arts and Crafts School, first in Uherské Hradiště and then in Brno, finishing his secondary education in 1985. After passing the school-leaving exams he held several jobs, trying various techniques and experimenting with them in search for a creative field in which he would work in the future. The defining moment of his work came in 1987, when he met the Brno-based bibliopeger Jindřich Svoboda, at the time a leading figure of Czech bookbinding. Jan Perůtka was instantly struck by bookbinding. He was attracted by the opportunity to combine a variety of techniques and skills that he had acquired and until then developed separately, and a big role was also played by Svoboda's personality, which represented an example and an inspiration to all who met him.
Under the supervision of Jindřich Svoboda, he familiarized himself intensely with the basics of bookbinding and maintained lively contacts with him even during his subsequent military service. In 1989 he returned to Zlín, the town of his childhood, set up a bookbinding workshop here, and since 1992 worked as a freelance bookbinder. He continued to consult his works with Svoboda, as did many bookbinders of the younger generation at that time.
Apart from Jindřich Svoboda, his professional development was influenced by other artists. Besides his father, they included Jiří H. Kocman, who introduced him to the world of original papers and their unconventional use in bookbinding. The meeting with George Hadlač showed him the path to artist’s books and books-objects and taught him how to use found and real objects in bookbinding. In the early 1990s he was also influenced by the Prague bookbinder and restorer Tomáš Vyskočil, who familiarized him with the restoration of especially historical bindings, another relatively significant part of Perůtka‘s activities. Among the sources of his artistic inspiration has for many years been the work of the leading Czech graphic artist and illustrator Adolf Born, with whom Perůtka made first contact in the 1990s and whom he meets once again in this exhibition.
Over the years, Jan Perůtka has become one of the leading Czech bookbinders. In 1989, he first participated in the Bookbinding Triennial, a major competition of Czech bookbinders, and already at the triennial that followed in 1992 he was awarded first prize in the Special Book Form category for his Book of Mexican Treasures, a complicated binding combining a number of materials and techniques. The same prize was awarded to him at the 1998 Triennial for Born's Life of Animals, with Adolf Born contributing graphic designs for the binding. Apart from domestic exhibitions and awards, he has participated and received awards at competitions abroad, e. g...........
For a number of years, Jan Perůtka’s bindings have kept their unmistakable style. His early works are characterized by a kind of sympathetic robustness. The bookbinder always tried protect the book block to a maximum extent, both by the binding and solid cases. He preferred using strong natural materials with bold colours and structure, which he highlighted by maceration or application of oil paints. He favoured combinations of a variety of surfaces and often applied fine wrinkling to leather. An important part of his early works were several artists’s books and books-objects, which he often created as private matters for his own pleasure, or as media for artistic and technical experiments. Under Hadlač‘s influence he laid emphasis not only on the book itself, he devoted the same attention to complicated and challenging book boxes, almost representing sculptural objects in their nature.
In recent years, however, bindings featuring striking plastic applications and transformed real-life objects have given way to simpler solutions. Expressive plasticity of bindings is being replaced by a rather flat colour design featuring stylized or purely abstract elements. Perůtka works ingeniously with typography, which is becoming the dominant decorative feature. Type is applied on the surface of the binding or in simply designed embossed areas, often consisting of only the book title, author’s initials, a facsimile of the manuscript, or a signature. Perůtka carves these types out and covers them with tiny pieces of coloured leather, which are the only decoration of a perfect, but minimalist bookbinding. Hand in hand with this simplification in terms of decoration goes an even more fragile and subtler form of binding. Cases are becoming thinner, the binding becomes lighter, leading to a simple but ingenious solution, illustrated for example by a set of bindings for the poems of Kamil Bednář.
Jan Perůtka’s exhibition at the Václav Chad Gallery in Zlín is a summarizing one, celebrating the bookbinder’s significant jubilee. The work he has created is very consistent and original and belongs to the best in contemporary Czech bookbinding. Czech bookbinding is experiencing difficult times, but even at this time, the bindings leaving the workshop of Jan Perůtka significantly influence the development of the field, introducing a strong personal touch and excellent technical treatment, and become an inspiration for young bookbinders.
Hana Karkanová
Jan Perůtka’s initial interest in art was inspired by his family. He was born into a family of the painter and graphic artist Ladislav Perůtka, who was teaching at the Department of Art of the Faculty of Education of today’s Masaryk University. It was therefore logical that he chose to study at the Arts and Crafts School, first in Uherské Hradiště and then in Brno, finishing his secondary education in 1985. After passing the school-leaving exams he held several jobs, trying various techniques and experimenting with them in search for a creative field in which he would work in the future. The defining moment of his work came in 1987, when he met the Brno-based bibliopeger Jindřich Svoboda, at the time a leading figure of Czech bookbinding. Jan Perůtka was instantly struck by bookbinding. He was attracted by the opportunity to combine a variety of techniques and skills that he had acquired and until then developed separately, and a big role was also played by Svoboda's personality, which represented an example and an inspiration to all who met him.
Under the supervision of Jindřich Svoboda, he familiarized himself intensely with the basics of bookbinding and maintained lively contacts with him even during his subsequent military service. In 1989 he returned to Zlín, the town of his childhood, set up a bookbinding workshop here, and since 1992 worked as a freelance bookbinder. He continued to consult his works with Svoboda, as did many bookbinders of the younger generation at that time.
Apart from Jindřich Svoboda, his professional development was influenced by other artists. Besides his father, they included Jiří H. Kocman, who introduced him to the world of original papers and their unconventional use in bookbinding. The meeting with George Hadlač showed him the path to artist’s books and books-objects and taught him how to use found and real objects in bookbinding. In the early 1990s he was also influenced by the Prague bookbinder and restorer Tomáš Vyskočil, who familiarized him with the restoration of especially historical bindings, another relatively significant part of Perůtka‘s activities. Among the sources of his artistic inspiration has for many years been the work of the leading Czech graphic artist and illustrator Adolf Born, with whom Perůtka made first contact in the 1990s and whom he meets once again in this exhibition.
Over the years, Jan Perůtka has become one of the leading Czech bookbinders. In 1989, he first participated in the Bookbinding Triennial, a major competition of Czech bookbinders, and already at the triennial that followed in 1992 he was awarded first prize in the Special Book Form category for his Book of Mexican Treasures, a complicated binding combining a number of materials and techniques. The same prize was awarded to him at the 1998 Triennial for Born's Life of Animals, with Adolf Born contributing graphic designs for the binding. Apart from domestic exhibitions and awards, he has participated and received awards at competitions abroad, e. g...........
For a number of years, Jan Perůtka’s bindings have kept their unmistakable style. His early works are characterized by a kind of sympathetic robustness. The bookbinder always tried protect the book block to a maximum extent, both by the binding and solid cases. He preferred using strong natural materials with bold colours and structure, which he highlighted by maceration or application of oil paints. He favoured combinations of a variety of surfaces and often applied fine wrinkling to leather. An important part of his early works were several artists’s books and books-objects, which he often created as private matters for his own pleasure, or as media for artistic and technical experiments. Under Hadlač‘s influence he laid emphasis not only on the book itself, he devoted the same attention to complicated and challenging book boxes, almost representing sculptural objects in their nature.
In recent years, however, bindings featuring striking plastic applications and transformed real-life objects have given way to simpler solutions. Expressive plasticity of bindings is being replaced by a rather flat colour design featuring stylized or purely abstract elements. Perůtka works ingeniously with typography, which is becoming the dominant decorative feature. Type is applied on the surface of the binding or in simply designed embossed areas, often consisting of only the book title, author’s initials, a facsimile of the manuscript, or a signature. Perůtka carves these types out and covers them with tiny pieces of coloured leather, which are the only decoration of a perfect, but minimalist bookbinding. Hand in hand with this simplification in terms of decoration goes an even more fragile and subtler form of binding. Cases are becoming thinner, the binding becomes lighter, leading to a simple but ingenious solution, illustrated for example by a set of bindings for the poems of Kamil Bednář.
Jan Perůtka’s exhibition at the Václav Chad Gallery in Zlín is a summarizing one, celebrating the bookbinder’s significant jubilee. The work he has created is very consistent and original and belongs to the best in contemporary Czech bookbinding. Czech bookbinding is experiencing difficult times, but even at this time, the bindings leaving the workshop of Jan Perůtka significantly influence the development of the field, introducing a strong personal touch and excellent technical treatment, and become an inspiration for young bookbinders.
Hana Karkanová
