Flip through the most expensive Czech book. Prague will show a rephotographed Epic
The domestic public had the opportunity to get to know in more detail what is probably the most expensive Czech book. The unique publication Epic by photographer Jan Wiliam Drnk, whose price is under three hundred thousand crowns, will be available for browsing for the first time until the end of January, namely in Prague’s Myslbek shopping gallery.
The book presents the legendary work of Alfons Mucha in a perfectly faithful digital form, created with the help of special printing and photography techniques, which – even with a high-quality magnifying glass incorporated in the case – can be viewed in a one-to-one quality of the canvas of the Epic.
The 12-page publication with atypical dimensions (62 by 42 centimeters) and real silk capital was exhibited for the first time at the end of April 2019 in Prague’s Klementin, fresh after its publication. Since then, she has briefly shown herself at the World of Books exhibition in the Lapidary of the Holešovice Výstaviště, as well as in New York and Israel. Until now, however, the public has not been able to view and study it freely.
At the time Epic was launched, was named the most expensive Czech book ever available. According to the available information, this should be the case even now. Of the limited edition of two pieces, approximately half of the shipment should still be on sale.
“From the beginning, we conceived the Epic as a collector’s and investment piece intended for a narrower group of art lovers,” Václav Kadlec told Forbes earlierdirector of the largest domestic publishing house Albatros Media, under whose banner the publication was published.
The high price is decisive above all for the precise processing. A team of more than twenty top experts worked on the book, be it craftsmen, artists or historians, so that the work affects the reader on multiple levels. “The digitization process was extremely demanding, both technically and time-wise,” says author Jan William Drnek, who worked on the book with his colleagues for almost three years.
“Thanks to the scale of the Slavic Epic – 650 square meters of canvas – it is one of the largest projects. At least we are not aware of a comparable project being implemented anywhere, in which such an emphasis would be placed not only on the rendering of detail, but also on color fidelity and reproduction quality,” adds the sixty-two-year-old native of Strakonice, who has been exclusively photographing works of art in recent years and sacred buildings.
For the time being, Jan William Drenko’s most complex work, the development of which required a total of around ten million crowns, has been part of the Timelapse exhibition since Wednesday, which maps the most fundamental series of his work to date. The cultural event in Prague’s Myslbek gallery will be open to visitors until the end of next January.
In addition to the unique publication, it will also offer them a cycle of Talking Glass photographs, depicting glass artist Bořek Šípek creating a didgeridoo musical instrument from glass, or large-format images from expeditions to Africa, India and Bhutan.