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Sharif Bey
Slovakia
May 2004
View previous submission by Sharif Bay.
1980s Visual Culture in Czechoslovakia
As I continue my project, my recent interviews have been with artists closer to my own age. I am talking with Slovak men between the ages of 30 and 35, who grew up in the city of Bratislava, about their interests as nine and ten year old boys. My interest is in comparing the impact of Slovak visual culture under socialism with the visual influences in America during the early eighties.
As a former exchange student at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, I have many friends in the city. It was pleasurable and informative to catch up with old friends and talk with them about their artistic influences as children. The dialogue is comfortable and open, and unlike older artists and professors who can be reserved and evasive, these men do not hesitate to share their past experiences and current political views. They often speak very passionately about the hardship they endured growing up under Communism. Had I not had the opportunity to study here as an art student 10 years ago, I am sure I would have difficulty collecting such poignant data.
What these men read, which television programs they watched and what toys they played with are all relevant to my study. Pop culture as we know it did not exist in the former Czechoslovakia; therefore, it did not have the impact on children's drawings here as it did where I grew up, in inner-city Pittsburgh.
I recall break-dancing, Michael Jackson, Prince, Mr. T., David Bowie, comics and video games having a huge impact on the subject matter I chose to draw. Surely many American boys came to study art by way of emulating characters from Stan Lee's Marvel comic books. One could always draw a crowd by showing up to school with new drawings of Spider-Man or the Incredible Hulk. My passion for learning to draw was certainly reinforced by my art teachers, but it was also a way for me to distinguish myself and earn the favor of my peers. For my classmates it was as much about what one drew as it was how well one drew.
Slovak boys grew up in a different visual atmosphere. Many of them describe their strongest influences being stories they were told or books they read. Classic authors like Mark Twain, as well as science fiction and books about the Wild West, were popular among most of the men I spoke with. Many mentioned "Indians" and weaponry as their strongest influences.
Judging from the drawings I’ve seen and the interviews I’ve conducted, Slovak boys seemed inclined to sympathize with the “Indians.” They were the heroes, while the cowboys were the villains. In all of the children's drawings I saw the "Indians" were winning the battle. Perhaps growing up in Czechoslovakia, following the invasion of the Warsaw Pact and Soviet troops in 1968, in occupied territory, helped Slovak children identify with what it meant to have ones land taken away.
For example, a few weeks ago, a friend invited me to his home for dinner, and his mother began to boast about what a gifted and intense little boy he was. She talked about his obsession with drawing "Indians," which began well before he was old enough to read.
His older sister would read to him from books by Karl May, a German author who wrote a series of books about the Wild West that was popular with Slovak boys. The books were not illustrated, and my friend would draw pictures from his imagination. At age four he attempted to author his own illustrated book about the “Wild West,” although he was unable to write.
My friend continued to read about the American West and draw “Cowboys and Indians” throughout his childhood. His mother showed me a series of his earliest drawings, and I was amazed by the expressiveness in these action scenes. He very effectively captured pain and speed.
After looking through a small stack of his drawings, preserved in a plastic sleeve, I came across what looked to be an old notebook from his elementary school. The cover of the notebook was filled with various kinds of weapons. The level of detail for each weapon was unbelievable.
I asked where a nine year old boy would learn how to draw weapons with such detail, and my friend began to describe a publication that circulated in the 1980s called Czechoslovakian Soldier, a magazine that depicted the adventures of young soldiers. When he was young, he and his friends loved to look through the photos of tanks, missiles, and firearms. Until May of this year, two years of military service still was compulsory in the Slovak Republic, and young boys naturally equated serving in the army with manhood, seeing it as a rite of passage.
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