Pop Up!
Despite the Internet and augmented reality, pop-up books have
lost nothing of their appeal. Painstakingly
designed storybooks, modern pop-up cards and intricate architectural models with complicated pop-up mechanisms still fire our imagination and transport us into wonderful 3D worlds that appear surprisingly real and lifelike.
Vojtěch Kubašta // The Pop-up Pioneer from Prague
The Czech book artist and illustrator was one of the world's most inventive and influential pop-up artists. His imaginative works still set standards in their field.
Vojtěch Kubašta (1914-1992) was a real giant in the small world of 3D books. It is thanks to his inventiveness that the tradition of pop-up book art, which dates back over 800 years, has survived right up to the present day.
When Kubašta offered his first pop-up book to the Prague-based publisher ARTI A in 1956, 3D books were mainly popular in the United States. In Europe, on the other hand, such books had largely disappeared after the Second World War. Kubašta's first major series of books for ARTI A reproduced the fairytales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. They were highly successful and Kubašta quickly gained a reputation as a master of the pop-up. With elaborate folding techniques and colorful illustrations, he conjured up 3D scenes between the covers of his books that still astound today. His works gave new life to the art of animated books - which had been largely forgotten in Europe - and were unprecedented in terms of both quality and quantity. For over three decades, Kubašta worked on storybooks, large panascopic formats, film adaptations and books for younger readers. The "White" series in 1974 was to be his final work. Kubašta's books were translated into 37 languages and licensed worldwide in the millions.
designed storybooks, modern pop-up cards and intricate architectural models with complicated pop-up mechanisms still fire our imagination and transport us into wonderful 3D worlds that appear surprisingly real and lifelike.
Vojtěch Kubašta // The Pop-up Pioneer from Prague
The Czech book artist and illustrator was one of the world's most inventive and influential pop-up artists. His imaginative works still set standards in their field.
Vojtěch Kubašta (1914-1992) was a real giant in the small world of 3D books. It is thanks to his inventiveness that the tradition of pop-up book art, which dates back over 800 years, has survived right up to the present day.
When Kubašta offered his first pop-up book to the Prague-based publisher ARTI A in 1956, 3D books were mainly popular in the United States. In Europe, on the other hand, such books had largely disappeared after the Second World War. Kubašta's first major series of books for ARTI A reproduced the fairytales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. They were highly successful and Kubašta quickly gained a reputation as a master of the pop-up. With elaborate folding techniques and colorful illustrations, he conjured up 3D scenes between the covers of his books that still astound today. His works gave new life to the art of animated books - which had been largely forgotten in Europe - and were unprecedented in terms of both quality and quantity. For over three decades, Kubašta worked on storybooks, large panascopic formats, film adaptations and books for younger readers. The "White" series in 1974 was to be his final work. Kubašta's books were translated into 37 languages and licensed worldwide in the millions.
