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Velen Fanderlík. Czech Scout leader, soldier, and artist. Somewhere in England 1940.
FANDERLÍK, Velen. Somewhere in England 1940.
4to (ca. 28 × 22 cm). Original printed wrapper title. Portfolio containing 6 original linocuts, each signed in pencil by Velen Fanderlík, loose as issued. Black-and-white relief prints depicting scenes from a Czechoslovak military camp in wartime England, including tents, barracks, landscape views, and a soldier figure.
A scarce wartime artistic production by Velen Fanderlík (1907–1985), lawyer, artist, soldier, and one of the leading figures of Czech Scouting. Before the war he was active in the Junák movement, organized leadership training courses, published scouting manuals, and became the only Czech graduate of the advanced Scout leader training at Gilwell Park in England. During the Second World War he served with the Czechoslovak forces in exile in Britain, where he also helped organize Czech Scout activities among refugees and servicemen. After the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1948, Fanderlík escaped into the West with his wife and became a central figure in the Czech exile community. Following periods in Germany and London, where he organized Czech Scouts in exile, he settled in Trail, British Columbia, in 1953. Thereafter he served for decades as leader of the Czechoslovak Scout movement in exile, edited the journal Stopa, worked as a painter and graphic artist, lectured on sociology and art history, contributed to Radio Free Europe broadcasts, and remained one of the most influential figures in postwar Czech Scouting. These bold, expressionistic linocuts, produced in exile in England in 1940, offer a rare visual record of wartime camp life by a soldier who was also one of the foremost leaders of the international Czech Scout movement.
Inv. BF1
4to (ca. 28 × 22 cm). Original printed wrapper title. Portfolio containing 6 original linocuts, each signed in pencil by Velen Fanderlík, loose as issued. Black-and-white relief prints depicting scenes from a Czechoslovak military camp in wartime England, including tents, barracks, landscape views, and a soldier figure.
A scarce wartime artistic production by Velen Fanderlík (1907–1985), lawyer, artist, soldier, and one of the leading figures of Czech Scouting. Before the war he was active in the Junák movement, organized leadership training courses, published scouting manuals, and became the only Czech graduate of the advanced Scout leader training at Gilwell Park in England. During the Second World War he served with the Czechoslovak forces in exile in Britain, where he also helped organize Czech Scout activities among refugees and servicemen. After the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1948, Fanderlík escaped into the West with his wife and became a central figure in the Czech exile community. Following periods in Germany and London, where he organized Czech Scouts in exile, he settled in Trail, British Columbia, in 1953. Thereafter he served for decades as leader of the Czechoslovak Scout movement in exile, edited the journal Stopa, worked as a painter and graphic artist, lectured on sociology and art history, contributed to Radio Free Europe broadcasts, and remained one of the most influential figures in postwar Czech Scouting. These bold, expressionistic linocuts, produced in exile in England in 1940, offer a rare visual record of wartime camp life by a soldier who was also one of the foremost leaders of the international Czech Scout movement.
Inv. BF1