Jan Čaka (1929-2018)

Jan Čáka, an important personality not only in the artistic life of Příbram, died at the beginning of September 2018. A great lover and connoisseur of the Brda region, he made a major contribution to shaping the view of the people of Příbram and the Podbrdsko region.

Jan Čáka was born on 12 June 1929 in Prague, where his parents, both from Příbram, lived at the time. All his identifiable ancestors also came from Příbram and Březové Hory. The Čák family returned to Příbram in 1941. After graduating from the town school, their son Jan became a student at the Public Business School. However, he graduated only the first year because the school was closed down and its pupils were totally deployed. After the war, he finished school and briefly became a clerk of the Plzeň Commercial Cooperative.

However, the clerical job did not bring Čák the proper satisfaction - he increasingly longed to paint. After a year and a half, he left the Commercial Cooperative and in June 1948 successfully passed the entrance examination for the second year of the State Graphic School in Prague, majoring in applied graphics and book illustration. He studied under professors Jaroslav Vodrážka and Petr Dillinger.

After graduation and subsequent compulsory military service, he returned permanently to Příbram in 1953. He worked as a cartographer at the Jáchymov (later Uranium) mines, but he devoted all his free time to art work. In 1967 he was admitted to the Union (later Union) of Czechoslovak Artists. Membership only allowed him to go freelance in the strict conditions of the time.

In the 1960s, Jan Čáka created countless postcards and commemorative prints. Gradually he added literary work to his artistic work. This stemmed from his great love for the Czech landscape, which he walked with a backpack on his back. As he said himself, just looking was not enough, he always wanted to learn more about the places he explored. That is why his travels led him to archives, museums, and also to memorials. Throughout the following life, he remained true to his credo that he could only publish what he had seen for himself.

His first book, On Foot in Brdy, was published in 1969 and is still a source of information for lovers of Brdy between Zbraslav and Příbram. The narrative about the southern part of Brda is then devoted to the Brda wandering. Two years later, a travelogue about a group of boys who decided to cross Bohemia from Šumava to the Krkonoše Mountains, The Journey to the Northeast, followed. The book recalls another of the artist's lifelong loves, for which he was persecuted and monitored by the State Security during the normalisation years. Jan Čáka had been a member of Junák since 1945, so in 1968 he was happy to collaborate with the magazine Scouting, intended for the leaders of the renewed Scout movement. The issue dated September 1970 with Čaka's illustration was smashed by order of the "party and government" and the Czechoslovak Scout movement was again violently suppressed. Also the author's heraldic Junácká symbolism ended up in the stampede after its publication. A new edition was published only in 1990.

A sad fate also befell the Příbram Folk Songs, Pop Songs and Rhymes, a publication published by the Příbram Museum in 1971. Before it could be sold, the entire print run was taken away from the museum and destroyed by order of the Příbram Communist Party's Central Committee for so-called ideological defectiveness and the use of religious motifs. Only a small number of hidden copies survived. A set of postcards of Karlovy Vary was also withdrawn from sale on the grounds that none of the works depicted the spa visitor Karel Marx.

As a result of these facts, the 1970s were very difficult for Jan Čaka and his family. Nevertheless, he remained faithful to his principles: not to betray his views on life, his convictions, which were incompatible with the totalitarian ideology, and to do a perfectly professional job.

During these years, the author had only his book The Wanderer Mácha published, and other literary works were waiting for publication for many years. Thanks to the courage and helpfulness of the Mining Committee of Příbram in Science and Technology, Jan Čáka was nevertheless able to devote himself to artistic work. From 1977 he worked on a ten-volume unique set of 120 graphic sheets Civitates montanarum in Republica Bohemoslovenica and prepared other publications for printing, such as Poetry of the Depths, a committee of beautiful literature with seventy illustrations on Příbram's miners and Twelve Months in the Mining Landscape, among others.

Studies in archives and museum collections led the author to his interest in the villages and towns lining the Brda Mountains. Thus, a book about the historical changes of important places, From Town to Town, was written, accompanied by a wealth of pictorial material and illustrations.

In the relaxed 1990s, several of Čák's titles were reissued. At that time, the author devoted all his time to his most extensive work. The Vanished Vltava returns to the reader the image of the most beautiful Czech river and the surrounding landscape before the construction of dams. It is prepared with the author's traditional respect for historical facts, supplemented by a wealth of old photographs and the invaluable memories of witnesses. Another book from the 1990s is also dedicated to the beloved landscape. Pictures from Podbrdsko is followed by a book about the highest, most interesting and for many years inaccessible places.

Charming illustrations of disappeared Příbram places and old mining traditions come to life in the book, accompanied by personal memories I walk through old Příbram. The author's illustrations are replaced by his own photographs in the subsequently published book Disappeared Příbram by the old flexaretto. In both publications, the author confesses his relationship to his beloved town, whose appearance irrevocably disappeared during the boom of the uranium industry.

A set of graphic sheets entitled Příbramská zákoutí (Příbram Corners) is devoted to the same theme. The publication The Příbram Year deals with local customs of discovery.

In the list, one cannot forget the legendary Pictures from Podbrdsko and the book Paths, Landscapes, People, which is the author's look back at the post-war scout movement and the memory of personalities who influenced it for life.

Heraldic work is based on the artist's deep interest in the study of history. In addition to the aforementioned extensive series devoted to mining towns, he also designed 14 emblems and flags of Central Bohemian municipalities, which were approved by the Parliament of the Czech Republic. The publication Rožmitál pod Třemšínem, a history written by heraldry, also belongs to this theme. Looking back at the breadth of Čák's artistic work, one cannot omit the designs of more than two dozen medals dedicated to mining themes, important personalities and anniversaries of the region, published by the Příbram branch of the Czech Numismatic Society or the Příbram Betlemáři association.

For many years Jan Čáka cooperated with the Příbram Museum, preparing a number of artwork for it, including artistically prepared maps. He worked with the director of the museum, historian Josef Velfl, on his publications Monuments of Příbram in Pictures, Příbram in the course of the centuries, Legionnaires from Příbram and others. He also prepared the graphic design for the book Tours of Příbramsko, co-authored by archivist Daniel Doležal. He cooperated with the Prokop Society, of which he was an honorary member, the Guild of Příbram Miners and Metallurgists and Svata Hora. Čák's mural was painted in the building of the Příbram Town Hall, and another in two private buildings.

Čák's free output includes a number of works created both by the lesser-known scratching technique and by traditional graphic techniques such as woodcut, etching, drypoint and copperplate. The Mácha Variations series includes charcoal and pastel drawings, the 12 Months in Příbramsko series and the After Příbram series, as well as some acrylic and pastel drawings. Other cycles, mainly devoted to memories of disappeared Příbram corners, are pen drawings. A separate chapter consists of dozens of New Year's cards prepared by the author since the 1960s for his closest friends. They aptly symbolize the time in which they were written and Čák's views. With additional commentary, they were published in print in 2007.

The life journey of the Brda pilgrim and patriot of Pribram, Jan Čaka, came to a close on 2 September 2018. The family is left with memories of their devoted father, and friends with fond encounters with a man of pure character and firm, always clearly defined opinions. To his co-workers, memories of a distinctive and hard-working artist who, with unusual modesty, refused any public honours, even though they were deserved.

The author's extensive artistic and literary work, comprehensible and close to all readers, recognized by historians and ethnographers as a source of reliable information, remains permanent. He devoted his entire working life with great love and devotion to the landscape of Podbrdsko and the town of Příbram. His wish remains a message for future generations: 'I would like my work to arouse in people for whom this region is a true home an interest in a deeper knowledge of its past. This knowledge should deepen their love for the places where they live and perhaps even sow the seeds of new activity."

Hana Ročňáková