„They asked me whom I meet in Prague,, why do I meet them and why did I sign that. I told them the truth about all this so they did not have any reason to ask me to cancel my signature because there’s nothing wrong about it.”
“Did they inquire about your work?”
“They had an art theorist there, he had education in the field, and he was discussing something with me, he maybe asked whether I was following the Western art. I replied that only as far as our art periodicals mention it as there is no other way how to follow it.”
“And then you left [the interrogation].”
“Proudly.”
“Did the secret polife follow you, were you aware of it?”
“They told me about it later, that there are their guards at the door and that they look at everyone who rings the bell there and why they want to visit me. It was utterly useless, I didn’t collaborate for [sic] the Charter, I lived in České Budějovice, not in Prague where the Charter was [the word of the day]. Their effort brought no fruit. The guard was called off and they said they had nothing on me.
“Did they tap your telephone?”
“Yes, that’s what they told me, that my line is tapped. I did not mind it, I just said ‘Fine enough.’”
“Did they threaten you?”
“They were threating that they take my children away. I knew it was not possible because they wouldn’t have anywhere to place them. So I just did not care. Also, why would they take them away when I was not doing anything. They had no witnesses, no facts.”
"The chairman of the Union [of Visual Artists] was a painter of landscapes, his name was Peterka, it could have been that Peterka. He was such a friendly pub type, with beer gut this large, stupendously enthused beer lover. I had no bad feelings about it. He told me: 'But, Comrade, you cannot paint like this, nobody does it this way.' I replied: 'That's the point, this is why I am doing it right because it's unique.'"
"We all were terribly afraid. I remember that I listened to the radio, they told about the [armies] advancing and how cargo airplanes were landing at the Ruzyně airport and how tanks were riding from them. I heard all this on the radio. And then the radio was stopped and there was silence. There were no more news. Only fear was left. Then another radio station sounded. There were different announcers and they talked about different matters. They talked about brotherly help."
Dana Puchnarová was born on the 22nd of January in 1938 in Prague. She recalls growing up during the WWII in Dejvice, her fear of marching soldiers, and hiding in the raid shelters. In 1964, she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts. During the 1960’s, her works were shown in numerous exhibitions in Czechoslovakia as well as in the West. Since she was a student, she had been meeting the dissidents and underground artists and she participated in home lectures. Her abstract works did not fit in the official art scene and the possibilities to exhibit her works became few and far between. In 1969, she moved to České Budějovice where she taught children to paint. In 1977, she privately expressed her support for the Charter 77. For about six months, the State Security kept harassing her. At the same time, limitations in visual arts became stricters and she was banned from exhibiting her works, and from teaching. In 1990, she started teaching at the Palacký University in Olomouc where she remained for twelve years. In 2020, Dana Puchnarová was living in Dobřichovice near Prague and she was still painting.
