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The First Woman Graphic Novelist: Helena Bochorakova-Dittrichova:
Helena Bochorakova-Dittrichova (1894-1980) was a Czech graphic artist who 1929 novel Z Meho Detstvi (From My Childhood) is widely acknowledged to be the first wordless novel created by a woman. Wordless novels were an important precursor to the development of the modern graphic novel.
Bochorakova-Dittrichova was born to a middle-class family in Vyskove, Moravia, in what is now the Czech Republic. She grew up in the nearby town of Hana, moving with her family to the city of Brno in 1913. In 1919 she began commuting from home to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague where she studied painting and drawing. In 1923, a year after graduating, she received a Ministry of Education Scholarship to study modern printmaking in Paris. It was there that she discovered the woodcut novels of pioneering Belgian artist from Frans Masereel, who greatly influenced her future work.
In the years 1924-30, Bochorakova-Dittrichova exhibited regularly at the Salon in Paris as well as having exhibitions in Antwerp (1925), Philadelphia (1926), Zurich (1927), Buenos Aires (1928), and Vienna (1934). She traveled extensively throughout Europe until the outbreak of the Second World War. She died in Brno at age 86, she remains well known in the Czech Republic as a leading printmaker and an important part of their history. Her art is featured in many collections in the Czech Republic including the Moravian Gallery. Museum Vyskovska, the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, and the Brno City Museum.
This exhibition showcases five of her published novels as well as her unpublished book Malirka Na Cestach (The Artist on Her Journey), which contains 52 original woodcuts about a young woman artist studying abroad inspired by Bochorakova-Dittrichova's life-changing trip to Paris. |