The Tradition of Czech stamp design: Oldřich Kulhánek (1940-2013)

Issue of the commemorative postage stamp

THE TRADITION OF CZECH STAMP DESIGN: OLDŘICH KULHÁNEK (1940-2013)

On the 20th January,  2015 the Ministry of  Industry and Trade  of the Czech Republic will issue a  commemorative  postage stamp in the denomination of 13 CZK The Tradition of the Czech Postage Stamp Design commemorating this year another significant author of postage stamps – the academic painter and graphic artist Oldřich Kulhánek. The stamp shows a portrait of  Oldřich Kulhánek based on the same imaging principle as the one used by Kulhánek. This means that attention is paid also to details that do not compliment but emphasize the image of a “tired philosopher”.
Oldřich Kulhánek is a world famous artist. He was born on the 26th February, 1940 and died on the 28th January, 2013. He started to study arts at the Art School in Prague and since 1958 he continued his studies at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague in the class of Professor Karel Svolinský. The years spent with this teacher laid down the basic foundation for Kulhánek’s career as an artist.
Kulhánek mostly concentrated on graphic art and drawings. He also designed the new Czech banknotes and many Czech postage stamps.
In 1971, he was arrested by Czech secret police and charged with disparaging representatives of Communist countries (a reference to the portrayal of Stalin in some of Kulhánek’s graphic sheets).
This led to a total ban on exhibiting his works, co-operating with any publishers or using any publicity in the 1970s. In spite of the ban, he used numerous friends in the United States, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria and France to stay in touch with Europe’s art scene. The situation changed after the 1989 fall of the Communist regime in the then Czechoslovakia, later in the Czech Republic. During his first visit to the United States in 1990, Kulhánek attended the Litographic Workshop in Los Angeles. A number of visits to the United States followed. He led the drawing workshop in the Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrne Beach in the summer of 1991. In 1995, he stayed at the University of Houston, Clear Lake, Texas. He chaired the Stamp Design Board of Česká pošta, s.p.
The author of the design of the issue is the academic painter and graphic artist Jan Kavan, the author of engravings is the graphic artist and engraver Miloš Ondráček.
The stamp, sized 40 x 23 mm and the coupon sized 19 x 23 mm has been printed by the Post  Printing House in Prague by rotary recess print in black combined with photogravure in red and azure-blue in printing sheets of 30 pcs.  Besides the stamps in sheet arrangement, also philatelic booklets of 8 stamps and 4 coupons are issued. The coupon relates to the motif of the stamp with a deformed image of Stalin, which refers to the 1968 graphic design that led to Kulhánek’s persecution. The other motif comes from his sarcastic lithographic “Funny Money” series. The final part of the composition is a drawing of intertwined hands often used by Kulhánek to express various symbolic meanings. The slogan “Theatrum Mundi” (Latin for the theatre or rule of the world) was used by theorist Eva Petrová to refer to Kulhánek’s metaphoric description of the condition of today’s world.
There  will be 1 First Day Cover incl. commemorative cancellation. The picture part of the cover features the motif of a hand ready to draw. The three segments of a circle try to cover the immense extent of Kulhánek’s art including the challenging work on official government’s jobs and the free-lance work on his kaleidoscopic visions of “new figuration” up to the synthetic compositions of naked bodies symbolising human determination. The cover has been  printed by recess print from flat plates in  black. The handstamp shows a side face of Oldřich Kulhánek wearing a laurel wreath as a badge of honour and the text: Praha, 20.1.2015.
The stamp is valid  from 20th  January, 2015.  
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Issue of the commemorative postage stamp
THE TRADITION OF CZECH STAMP DESIGN: OLDŘICH KULHÁNEK (1940-2013)
Date of issue: 20th January, 2015
Graphic arrangement: Jan Kavan
Engraver: Miloš Ondráček
Picture size: 40 x 23 mm
Face value: 13 CZK
Method of the printing of the stamp: Rotary recess print in black combined with photogravure in red and azure-blue 
Method of the printing of the FDC: recess print from flat plates in black
Number of stamp in the printing sheet: 30 pcs
Number of the FDCs: 1 pc
Subject of the  stamp:a portrait of Oldřich Kulhánek based on the same imaging principle as the one used by Kulhánek. This means that attention is paid also to details that do not compliment but emphasize the image of a “tired philosopher”.
Subject of coupons: The coupon relates to the motif of the stamp with a deformed image of Stalin, which refers to the 1968 graphic design that led to Kulhánek’s persecution. The other motif comes from his sarcastic lithographic “Funny Money” series. The final part of the composition is a drawing of intertwined hands often used by Kulhánek to express various symbolic meanings. The slogan “Theatrum Mundi” (Latin for the theatre or rule of the world) was used by theorist Eva Petrová to refer to Kulhánek’s metaphoric description of the condition of today’s world.
Subject of the FDC: the motif of a hand ready to draw
Editor: Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic
Producer: Post Printing House, Ortenovo nám. 16, CZ-170 04 Praha 7
Supplier: PostFila, Export Department, Ortenovo nám. 16, CZ-170 24 Praha 7