A new illustrated book about Bohuslav Martinů is being published

Painter and writer Veronika Bílková is publishing a book entitled Bohuslav Martinů. A Story of Courage and Unbreakable Will with dozens of large-format illustrations that trace the composer's sources of inspiration and his dramatic fate. The book launch will take place on November 17, 2025, at the HAMU building and will be accompanied by an exhibition of the author's paintings.

Martinů, a native of Polička, moved to Paris in 1923, where he quickly modernized his style. Nine months later, he composed Half-time, inspired by football. Vřava pays tribute to Charles Lindbergh and evokes the atmosphere at Le Bourget in Paris after his Atlantic crossing in 1927. Bílková's paintings accompany the reader from Bohemia through France to American exile.

The author spent two years focusing on Martinů as a personality open to new ideas and commissions: he wrote music for a Baťa advertising film and for Albert Einstein, whom he met in America. The book also describes memories of Paris, the escape from occupied France, and the American period from 1941, when he consolidated his international position; among his notable successes was the premiere of the Memorial to Lidice at Carnegie Hall a year after the burning of Lidice.

Bílková studied illustration at FDULS in Pilsen. In her thesis, she combined text and large-format illustrations about L. v. Beethoven, for which the Verzone publishing house received an honorable mention in the Extraordinary Publishing Achievement category at BIB 2020. She followed up on this concept with the book Bedřich Smetana (Verzone, 2022; Zlatá stuha 2023). The new book is being published as part of the Verzone series.

According to Monika Holá, head of the JAMU Faculty of Music, this is a unique achievement: although the author is not a musicologist, she offers a well-founded text linking knowledge of Martinů with the historical and social context. The illustrations, painted in acrylic and oil on canvas, function as independent works.

The exhibition will be open until the end of the year at the HAMU building, Malostranské nám. 13, and there are plans to present it in Czechia and abroad.

Source: https://operaplus.cz/vychazi-nova-ilustrovana-kniha-o-bohuslavu-martinu/

The book can be purchased here: https://www.verzone.cz/pro-deti/bohuslav-martinu/