Comics and animated film are very closely related genres, like two brothers. Often, an illustrator will first make a static drawing, which is then given life by an animator. With Pavel Koutský, it was the other way around. Pavel was an animator by nature, someone for whom movement was the primary, most important thing. Drawing was of secondary importance.

When he was a young man, the only university where one could study animation was the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design. His graduation film Visit Prague was like a bomb thrown into the tranquil waters of animation – Czech or otherwise. With this satire on tourism in Prague, the concept of ‘total animation’ entered the world of Czech animated film.

There followed a period of great success during which each of Pavel’s films was truly an event in the world of animation, when his films earned one award after another from some of the most renowned festivals in the world. Over the years, he made 220 films and won 33 awards, some of which sit modestly on a cabinet in Pavel’s studio.

Besides the concept of ‘total animation’, Pavel Koutský also introduced Czech culture to the genre of ‘animated journalism’ – in his series of short animated sketches on Czech Television, No Comment, he responded to current events in society and politics.

And therein lies a direct link to the exhibition Lines and Viewpoints. Czech Television is not interested in animated satire, and so Pavel Koutský the amateur political commentator and citizen with his finger on the pulse of the times, uses comics and caricature to comment on events that interest and inspire him. The exhibition divides his recent work into twelve categories reflecting their subject matter. No matter what theme he addresses – Manipulation, History, Good and Evil, Truth and Lies, Technology, Relativity, Women, or The Course of Life – he always does so with his characteristic satirical insight, distinctive humour and strong sense of civic values such as law, justice and general common sense.