Jan Svankmajer

Jan Svankmajer is a Czech artist known for his unique surreal animations. He attended the College of applied Arts in Prague as well as the Department of Puppetry at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts. The study of puppetry greatly influenced his animation works; especially with the use of stop motion. Svankmajers animations are amazing examples of the stop motion technique and often include live action. He experiments with speeding up and slowing down certain objects as well as exaggerating their sounds. Svankmajers imagery is eery with a nightmarish quality yet at the same time the films are playful and fun. He often uses food as a subject matter as well as a medium. A great example of this can be seen in Meat Love (1989). In the early 1970s communist government temporarily banned Svankmajer from making films. Later in his career he started working with claymation creating some interesting works such as Darkness/Light/Darkness. Svankmajer did not gain much recognition in America until the 1980s. Today he is a well respected animator greatly influencing other artists such as Tim Burton





Meat Love is a great example of his use of food as well as exaggeration of sounds

--callie