- ZDENĖK BURIAN
ISSUE OF THE COMMEMORATIVE STAMP
At 14 years of age Z. Burian, Czech painter and illustrator of books for young people, became a student of the 2nd class at the Academy in Prague where he was taught by M. vabinský, J. Obrovský and V. Bukovac. Two years later the first book with his illustrations was published and from 1923 he was a painter for the Graphic Union of geographical and ethnographical paintings which became a part of school education. His vivid distinctive drawings full of dynamism and suspense enriched numerous books of adventure (by London, May, Defoe, torch, etc.) and magazines. In 1935 he met J. Augusta, professor of palaeontology at Charles University, which was the beginning of a remarkable cooperation of a scientist and an artist in the creation of scientific reconstructions of primeval life. Despite its inadequacies in some respects due to new excavations and research studies this work is still an unsurpassed highlight of artistic reconstructions of the primeval age. Z. Burian is one of the hardest working Czech painters
