When we recorded this interview with Kája Saudek, it was a cool, sunny Tuesday, April 11, 2006. In the morning at 9 a.m. in the villa district of Strahov, he opened the door for me and Dr. Richard Knot (chairman of the Independent Initiative (NEI), through whom I met Kája Saudek), and surprisingly, he was in a good, productive mood. None of us knew that this would be our last meeting, and that Kája would never read this interview again. Three days later, he was in a coma in the hospital (he died ten years later in June 2015). It was a shock for us. I had known him for three years, and we had three joint exhibitions in Prague. I did photographic art, and Kája did paintings and drawings (watercolor and oil). We both admired the beauty of women, we both loved art, and we simply understood each other on a human level. We even organized a very successful and large exhibition for Kája. We didn't publish this interview afterwards. It seemed unethical to us towards Kája. And that's why you are reading this exclusive interview with this Czech comic book king, and you are also seeing the last photographs in his interesting and eventful life. He was direct, natural, a bit of a showman, he had a sense of humanity, and I really liked him. Here is at least the most interesting part of our interview from that time.

Kája, you have your birthday in a few days (70 years), how are you enjoying your mature age?

My advanced age has some advantages. When I slipped on some recent ice, a very young, beautiful girl helped me and offered to guide me. That wouldn't have happened when I was 20.

It is known that you are a very hardworking person. Now you are working more slowly, or have you not changed your pace and are working at full speed?

I have sped up because I suffer from insomnia, so I work, as they say, day and night.

You had a so-called "gray period" in your paintings for many years. Now you are painting white backgrounds. What led you to that?

Yes, I am now painting white backgrounds, there is nothing more beautiful. No, I realized that there is more interest in color images, which is also true in editorial offices, where they pay more for color images. Also, black and white is more difficult because you can't color the sky blue, so you have to somehow shade it to show that there are white clouds. So, this "white period," as you call it, has been going on for about 5 years, and it's going well. No, it's not about that. I've been painting women since I was 12 years old, when I knew absolutely nothing about female anatomy. When I became an adult, someone in the security services learned that I was painting women, so they conducted a house search, and you won't believe it, they sent me to prison for 18 months for that. Please listen, for endangering public morality. At the time, I hadn't published anything, and it wasn't even going to be published. That was in 1964. Now, 40 years later, with the help of friends and friendly publishing houses, I managed to publish, or it was printed, an erotic classic that my father, born in the previous century, quoted. He didn't speak Czech, but he took passages from it. It's "The Knight Smil." For which I was rewarded financially, not as a criminal.

How did this experience affect you in your life and in your work?

I was only there for a very short time because it was a crime for which amnesty applied. Yes, so I reported to Pankrác on May 5th, and I received amnesty on May 9th. Life is like that, because in the past, they mainly punished those who embezzled state property and those who didn't pay child support. There were a lot of them. Now, I think there are real criminals there, but back then, the charge of "indecent exposure" seemed to imply that I might have been, say, lowering my pants in front of a girls' school. No! It was because, back then, the security services could only access this kind of information in this way, and they could even get promoted for it. The court where they tried me and my brother, whose photos, or rather, his "works," became a worldwide sensation, I took the blame for the crime he was accused of, because he already had a family, and he's lost it three times since then. So, they only sentenced him conditionally. And I ended up only serving four days.

You exclusively paint women, but are there certain types you prefer, like blondes or brunettes?

Well, personally, I prefer women with darker hair. You can't really see much of the "blonde" look, it all blends together. But back in my day, women were wonderfully hairy. They had no idea about things like shaving their pubic hair, let alone under their arms. Those were beautiful times. My young friend, David Neff, the son of Ondřej Neff, said that he knows a guy his age who is young and doesn't know that women can be hairy, because he's only ever seen shaved women. So, he's afraid of encountering hairiness if he ever does. And I'm afraid that I won't encounter it anymore.

When you start painting, do you start with the eyes, the face, the hair, the overall composition, or the outline of the body, or is it different each time, or do you always start with the same thing?

It's the same, but I don't think it really matters. I sketch it out beforehand, like many of my famous colleagues, with a pencil. And if I like it, then I render it in color.

Tell us about your first love?

My first love, please, I've talked about her many times before. It was Helenka Růžičková. We were 14 years old, and we went to school together. I wish she were still alive, and I wish I were too.

How many times can a person experience true love?

I almost said many times, but now I'm writing an article for MF Dnes, and I'm trying to impress my beloved wife by saying that I've only fallen in love four times in my life, and each time it was with her. Of course, that's not true.

What do you think your muse looks like?

The muse, of course, is a woman. A woman who, no matter what angle you look at her from, and no matter what position she's in, even if she's sitting on the toilet, is always incredibly desirable, interesting, and attractive, you know? I didn't come up with that. It was Dr. Bohumil Hrabal, who described a "vision" in his novel "I Served the English King," where a girl was shown to some older gentlemen, who were older than Mladá Boleslav. And no matter what angle they looked at her from, there was always something to see. A woman is truly never boring.

How do you maintain such good health? Do you exercise, eat rationally, or do you regularly engage in sexual activity (RPA), like Dr. Knot or your brother Jan Saudek?

That's a good question. I can't really talk about the regularity of my walks, but if I'm staying active, it's usually by walking. For example, sometimes at night I go down to Vrchlické Street twice to buy a case of wine from the store, so that's about 4 km each time, which means I walk about 8 km at night. During the day, I also walk if I'm feeling up to it.

We know you mostly work at night. When you look at a painting you've been working on or have finished in daylight, do you see it differently?

As you know, my dear friend, I'm known for being a heavy drinker. It's interesting that I often create paintings while in a state of intoxication, and when I look at them later, when I'm sober, they still seem the same. Yes, it's a routine. It's like an opera singer who, even if they've had 12 beers, can still sing beautifully. Basically, the work flows easily for me, and drinking doesn't really hinder me. That's all.

You've influenced an entire generation of artists. Who influenced you?

You guys weren't even born yet! That's ancient history. Back then, we had a maid, a beautiful young woman. I couldn't afford that now. We were together in 1939, at the now-defunct cinema "Revoluce," although it wasn't called that yet, before the war, at the Czech premiere of Walt Disney's animated film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." It's been over 70 years since that studio created that groundbreaking film. And because we were young children, we didn't believe it was animated; we thought it was real. Well, at least we thought so. We watched the film, and it wasn't until 60 years later that I learned that even Snow White herself was a real actress who was just traced by the animators at that studio.

They photographed and filmed her, and as she came and performed, they simply traced her and created a drawing from her. But that drawing is alive, and that's what W. Disney created, something that no computer can do today. It's the fact that those people are drawn, yet they are alive. That influenced us so much that my little brother once made a beautiful comment when the beautiful queen transformed into a witch. He stood up and said, "Okay, let's go home now." That became a tradition in our family for many years. Well, everyone's gone now, except for me and my beloved brother. Everyone else has passed away.

Do you have a favorite painting or motif?

I like the paintings that sell well. And you can paint anything. Today, my daughter, who is probably too young to be awake right now, helps me make copies of those paintings. I'm happy to give her the money she earns from it, because she charges prices that are somewhat different from what I would charge, but I'm still living in the past. So I give her the money, but she's also a good painter; she does her own things. We don't go to her because she's always unprepared, but she knows how to paint, unlike me, and she also makes copies of my drawings. She enlarges them, and that's what the buyers are looking for.

Do you still listen to music when you paint?

I listen to old Baroque music because everything else annoys me or I don't want to hear it. Old Baroque music, which has been tested over centuries. I recently had the opportunity to paint a poster for a music company from Liberec, depicting Mozart. They gave me a very clever assignment because, as you know, Mozart's appearance wasn't preserved, and his portraits are all imagined. So they asked me to draw the actor who played him in Forman's film, a kind of non-committal, cheerful face. So I drew him with the white wig, and they said it was a success. They even paid me for it.

You've had very successful exhibitions recently in Hranice and Vsetín. What did you think of Moravia?

It was amazing that so much was sold in Hranice and Vsetín. I may never see those paintings again, nor the money, but it's gratifying because you yourself told me that even local, well-known artists don't sell as much. Despite my creaking knees, I've finally become known. I think my little brother is to thank, he's the one doing the advertising (it's not great, but even bad advertising is still advertising).

What did the Moravian girls and women think of the exhibitions in Hranice and Vsetín? They were apparently completely crazy about you and almost stung you?

They weren't crazy about me, I was more crazy about them. But I realized a long time ago that the most beautiful girls are in Moravia. It's not that Czech girls can't take care of themselves, but the best girls I've met are from Moravia.

Jan Vojtěch - Editor-in-Chief of General News