[PRAGUE SPRING ARTS AND CULTURE SERIAL] Sešity pro literaturu a diskusi [Journals for literature and debate], nos. 1-21, 23-33 (of 34 published; lacking only nos. 22 and 34)

Nearly complete run of this important Czech Prague Spring periodical about avant-garde literature, performance, and visual arts, very scarce complete, as numerous individual issues were prosecuted by the censors. Thirty-three regular issues were published; issue no. 34 was issued in a blind wrapper, without number, in only 120 copies, before the journal was forced to shutter. A reprint of selected contents was published in 2009 to great acclaim. Each issue features numerous reproductions and photo-documentation of nearly all spheres of the arts, with contributions by Jiří Kolář, Ladislav Novák, J. Šíma, J. Vyleťal, M. Grygar, "computer" graphics and concrete poetry, lettrism, etc. With striking graphic and typographic design throughout by Milan Grygar. Sešity was the only substantial Czech source on action art, happenings, and performance issued before the Velvet Revolution. Issue 33, for instance, documents Zorka Ságlová's famous happening "Throwing balls into the pond," Milan Knižák's "Ceremony" in New York (also printed is his letter from New York), Eugen Brikcius' article "In Praise of the Happening," photographs of Günther Uecker's "Framing the Landscape," and Jindřich Chalupecký's essay "Happening and Co." Also contains reviews and photos of recent work by Joseph Beuys. Because "Normalization"-era censorship would banish any references to "unofficial" art such as happenings, this journal was the last non-samizdat publication on the topic until the early 1990s. For more on action art in 1960s Czechoslovakia see the catalog Fluxus East (2007).

While KVK and OCLC show many partial holdings, we cannot trace a single complete run as of April 2024, and no holdings for the final issue. Nearly complete run of this important Czech Prague Spring periodical about avant-garde literature, performance, and visual arts, very scarce complete, as numerous individual issues were prosecuted by the censors. Thirty-three regular issues were published; issue no. 34 was issued in a blind wrapper, without number, in only 120 copies, before the journal was forced to shutter. A reprint of selected contents was published in 2009 to great acclaim. Each issue features numerous reproductions and photo-documentation of nearly all spheres of the arts, with contributions by Jiří Kolář, Ladislav Novák, J. Šíma, J. Vyleťal, M. Grygar, "computer" graphics and concrete poetry, lettrism, etc. With striking graphic and typographic design throughout by Milan Grygar. Sešity was the only substantial Czech source on action art, happenings, and performance issued before the Velvet Revolution. Issue 33, for instance, documents Zorka Ságlová's famous happening "Throwing balls into the pond," Milan Knižák's "Ceremony" in New York (also printed is his letter from New York), Eugen Brikcius' article "In Praise of the Happening," photographs of Günther Uecker's "Framing the Landscape," and Jindřich Chalupecký's essay "Happening and Co." Also contains reviews and photos of recent work by Joseph Beuys. Because "Normalization"-era censorship would banish any references to "unofficial" art such as happenings, this journal was the last non-samizdat publication on the topic until the early 1990s. For more on action art in 1960s Czechoslovakia see the catalog Fluxus East (2007).

While KVK and OCLC show many partial holdings, we cannot trace a single complete run as of April 2024, and no holdings for the final issue.