Kresby medijní [Mediumistic drawings] by Sezemský, Karel, editor - 1907

[First Czech Book on Mediumistic Art - Czech Occult Circles]

Nová Paka: Nákladem "Spiritické knihovny" (Knihtiskárna Josef Glos), [1907]. Octavo (22.8 × 15.3 cm). Original decorative wrappers; 15, [1] pp. including thirteen full-page black-and-white reproductions. About very good. First publication in Czech on mediumistic art, associated with the spiritualist group in North Bohemia. The brochure reproduces thirteen mediumistic drawings by Karel Lissa, Jan Tonn, Josef Kovář, František Tůma, and Josef Kubíček.

With a short preface dwelling on the new forms of mediumistic art, which notes that approximately twenty mediumistic artists were active in Bohemia and Moravia at the time of publication, most of which remained unknown. Sezemský also mentions a number of public exhibitions of mediumistic art held in Kiev, Přerov, Brno, Moravská Ostrava, and other towns, where up to 1500 works at a time were shown, often not by trained artists, but by simple artisans, workers, and housewives. Jan Tonn, for instance, was a railway conductor and used his daytime work to share his interest in spiritism. 76 of his works, along with many other works by spiritistic artists of the region, which were hidden for ideological reasons during the communist era and became part of a permanent exhibition in 1997.

See also: Miloslav Bařina, "Nová Paka se pyšní unikátní expozicí tzv. medijních kreseb" (https://www.mistnikultura.cz/nova-paka-se-pysni-unikatni-expozici-tzv-medijnich-kreseb).

We know of only one other copy in a private collection. Evidently, only about fifty copies of the book were sold, and due to low interest no further issues were printed.

As of July 2021, not in KVK, OCLC. Not held by the Czech National Library.