Vladislav Merhaut (b. 1938) was one of Vladimír Boudník's (1924-1968) most loyal friends, one of those who, after the artist's tragic end, organised exhibitions of his graphic work and helped him to gain worldwide fame. Since the 1960s, Merhaut also devoted himself to archiving and cataloguing Boudník's work and the literature about him. He was also heavily involved in the realization of the samizdat publications issued during the 1970s by the Friends of Vladimír Boudník, which was founded spontaneously out of love for "The Master" and was never officially registered. Merhaut kept his notes on Boudník from 1960 until the artist's death - these diary entries are very valuable, especially for their factual nature and the unedited, unstylized authenticity of the testimony. Merhaut recorded the details of the artist's life and creative activities with manic detail and care, and so the reader can now learn a great deal about the last decade of Boudník's life, which was so tragic for him.
Czech edition