Anna Zemánková
It was in the early 1960s that this Moravian woman began producing a body of work for which her humble background had not prepared her and which responded strikingly to injunctions from the innermost depths. Thus, at a time when the demons of the night were still competing with the seminal iridescence of dawn, she would gather strange flowers in her mind before drawing them forth on paper. ‘‘I grow flowers that don’t grow anywhere else,’’ she used to say. Anna Zemánková is already an established figure in the art brut, so much so that in 2013 she was honored at the 55th Venice Biennale before an important group of her works joined the collections of the Centre Pompidou and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 2020.
Born in 1908 in Olomouc, Moravia, Anna showed a keen interest in drawing from an early age, but her father did not understand her: she became a dental assistant.
In 1933, she married an officer, stopped working, and devoted herself fully to her home. The couple had three sons—the first of whom died at the age of 4—and, later, a daughter. Her role as a loving mother keeps her fully occupied. After the Second World War, the family moved to Prague, in 1950, after which, Anna fell into depression and, because of her diabetes, had both her legs amputated. At over 50—perhaps rekindling her childhood dream—Anna began to produce daily spontaneous drawings of vegetal inspiration between 4 am and 7 am, a moment she feels she captures magnetic forces.
At the beginning of the artwork, she is unaware of its final form: “Everything works by itself,” “[…] no need to think.” This vegetation without roots or humus, these blooms sometimes mental, sometimes organic, from which abyssal herbarium do they spring forth? To which realm do they belong? Yet, akin to the works of Séraphine de Senlis, are they still flowers? Are they not already fruits? Fleshy with the haunting juices, gorged with the impulse of a woman who, giving herself over to an unresolved mystery, simply says, “I live.”
These strikingly detailed works, driven by a singular rhythm of spirals, arabesques, and geometric shapes, have made Anna a major figure in the art brut movement. Her work is represented in the most prestigious collections, culminating in the international pavilion at the 2013 Venice Biennale.
Texts : Terezie Zemánková and Manuel Anceau
Foreword : Christian Berst
Catalog published to mark the exhibition Anna Zemánková : hortus deliciarum #2, from June, 17 to July 18, 2021.