Jan Sobota
{{Short description|Czech-Swiss bookbinder (1939–2012)}}
File:The Hound of the Baskervilles conclusion and retrospection (Jan and Jarmila Sobota, 2006).jpg
Jan Bohuslav Sobota (1 March 1939 – 2 May 2012) was a Czech-Swiss fine bookbinder. He is known for his often playful sculptural bindings that transform the book into a three-dimensional work of art.
Career
Sobota was born on 1 March in Hromnice, Czechoslovakia.{{cite web|url=https://encyklopedie.plzen.eu/home-mup/?acc=profil_osobnosti&load=2023|title=Jan Bohuslav Sobota|work=Encyklopedie Plzeň|publisher=City of Plzeň|language=cs|access-date=2023-10-05}} He is known for books of all sizes, including a significant output of miniature books. The son of a book collector,{{Cite web|url=http://ladislavhanka.com/Ladislav_Hanka_Etchings/Welcome_2.html|title=Remembering Jan Bohuslav Sobota: Stories, Speculations, Pronouncements, Acknowledgements & Thoughts on a Life in the Book arts.|last=Hanka|first=Ladislav|date=2012|access-date=16 April 2018}} Sobota trained in Czechoslovakia as an apprentice in the Plzeň workshop of Karel Šilinger and graduated from the Academy of Applied Arts, Prague, in 1957.{{Cite book|title=Jan Sobota: Design Binding|last=Režný|first=Pavel|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art|year=1988|location=New York|pages=[2]|translator-last=Hanka|translator-first=Ladislav}} He completed his master's degree at the same institution in 1969, and in 1979, was declared "Meister der Einbandkunst" in Germany. The same year, he submitted the first ever sculptural book to the Czech triennale. Sobota organized the first international exhibition of book sculpture in 1982, "The Book as Artistic Object in an Interior," staged in Františkovy Lázně.
In 1982, Sobota and his family defected to Switzerland, where he worked privately and demonstrated bookbinding in [https://www.baslerpapiermuehle.ch/ Basler Papier Muhle]. In 1984 the Sobota family moved to the US, sponsored by the Rowfant Club of Cleveland, a prestigious book collectors' club in Cleveland. Members of the international book community also sought to assist him.{{Cite web |last=Philip |first=Smith |date=March 1983 |title=The Jan Sobota Appeal |url=http://cool.conservation-us.org/byorg/abbey/an/an07/an07-1/an07-107.html |access-date=2018-04-16 |website=cool.conservation-us.org}} Extensive Czech training in book conservation prepared him for positions as a book conservator at Case Western Reserve University and at the Bridwell Library at Southern Methodist University.{{Cite news|url=http://nobs.nobsweb.org/obituary-jan-sobota-book-conservator-and-fine-binder/|title=Obituary: Jan Sobota, book conservator and fine binder|date=2012-05-11|work=NOBS|access-date=2018-04-16}} With his wife Jarmila Sobota he established the Saturday's Book Arts Gallery, which moved with the couple. In 1997, the Sobotas moved back to the now Czech Republic, where they opened a gallery in Loket. Sobota died on 2 May 2012 in Loket, at the age of 73.
Legacy
Between 1969 and 2012, Sobota's work was displayed in thirty-five individual shows and 160 group exhibitions.{{Cite web |title=Jan Sobota – SMU |url=https://www.smu.edu/Bridwell/SpecialCollectionsandArchives/Exhibitions/DeGolyerPastExhibitions/2012Competitors/Sobota |access-date=2018-04-16 |website=smu.edu}} He was posthumously awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Guild of Bookworkers in 2012.
References
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Category:People from Plzeň-North District