Born in Prague in 1932, Štěpán Zavřel is perhaps the figure who, more than any other, has left his mark on the recent history of the town of Sarmede. Indeed, both the foundation bearing his name and the associated International Exhibition of Children’s Illustration are dedicated to him, and it was in Sàrmede – where he died in 1999 – that his personal and artistic journey, woven with hope, suffering and rebirth, came to an end.

In Prague, the young Zavřel attended the Faculty of Film Arts, specialising in animated films. In 1959, he left the country and, after a daring escape, arrived in Italy, where he was taken in at the refugee camp in Trieste. After studying at the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, Zavřel moved first to Germany, where he continued his studies in set design and theatrical costume at the Kunstakademie in Munich, and then to London, where from 1965 to 1968 he headed the animated film department at Richard Williams’ studio.

It was in 1968 that he finally settled in Rugolo di Sàrmede, where he purchased an abandoned farmhouse (now a private residence, featuring frescoes painted by the artist and his students) and made it his permanent home. His presence acted as a catalyst for a creative network of artists from across Central Europe and beyond. Over the years, Zavřel exhibited in galleries and museums around the world: Norway, Switzerland, South Africa, Germany, the United States, Central America and Spain. In 1982, the Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York) hosted an exhibition of his works on the theme ‘Venice Tomorrow’.

In 1983, at his instigation, the International Exhibition of Children’s Illustration (now known as ‘Images of the Imagination’) was established. In 1988, the International School of Illustration was added to the exhibition. Štěpán Zavřel transformed this village of three thousand people in the Treviso hills into a ‘fairy-tale village’, adorned with almost seventy frescoes (by himself and the many internationally renowned artists who have passed through here) on public and private buildings in the area. The Zavřel Museum also houses a collection of around eighty of his most significant works.