Mila Fürstová was born in Pelhřimov, Czechoslovakia in 1975 and moved to England in 1996 to study Fine Art Printmaking at the University of Gloucestershire; since then she has focused on etching. In 2009 she became the youngest member of The Royal West of England Academy and is perhaps best-known for creating the album art for 'Ghost Stories' by the British band, Coldplay (2012–14).
Etcher and printmaker Mila Fürstová was born in Pelhřimov, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) on 6 March 1975. The family moved to Hradec Kralov, a town in East Bohemia, in 1977 where Fürstová attended the Folk School of Arts. Of her childhood and teenage years in 'communist Czechoslovakia', she says 'it gave me the strength to be a dreamer'. In 1994 Fürstová embarked on an MA in Art, English Language and Psychology at Charles University in Prague. Having met and fallen in love with an Englishman in the Czech capital she was determined to study art in Britain and took up a place on a Fine Art Printmaking course at the University of Gloucestershire. In 1996 she immigrated to Britain, arranging to study for both degrees simultaneously, graduating from the University of Gloucestershire in 1999 and from Charles University a year later. In 2001 she completed an MA from the the Royal College of Art in London, and was awarded the Royal College of Art Society Award and the Printmaking Council Award the same year. Returning to the University of Gloucestershire as a lecturer, Fürstová settled in the South West of England. In 2003, was appointed the first Artist in Residence at Cheltenham Ladies' College, where she founded and ran an Etching studio until 2008, meeting Queen Elizabeth II who chose one of her etchings of the college for the Royal Collection. In 2009 she became the youngest member of The Royal West of England Academy, a leading venue for contemporary artists and exhibitions.
Inspired by 'universal and personal mythologies', her work is 'an intimate portrayal of the human soul explored through the medium of etching and expressed in a distinctly female voice', which she describes as, 'urgent, fragile yet strong, gentle yet enquiring'. In the artist's own words 'I cut, fold and overlay my works, often printing on glass or other transparent surfaces such a perspex, thus creating imagery that is multidimensional in terms of both form and meaning. The technique of etching uniquely reflects and informs the spirit of my work. I draw with a needle onto a plate, allowing the image to quietly grow, whilst a fragile silver line emerges from a dark background as if a distant memory was traced from the unconscious'. Many of Fürstová's works are created by scratching her unique designs onto zinc plates covered in brown wax which are then smoked to reveal a black 'alchemical' surface. 'It's a very old fashioned way of doing things', she reflects, 'but I think the process itself contributes to the whole process of thinking in layers'. In 2010 Fürstová authored a series of etchings on perspex using folded paper entitled Memories of London featuring evocations of the city's landscape including major landmarks such as St Paul's Cathedral and the Millennium Bridge over the Thames. She has said of the series, 'before I started, I didn't know it was going to look like this, but it turned into a kind of allegorical view of the city ... It portrays how things are contained in within our memory' (Mila Fürstová, Cotswold Life, 2011).
Fürstová is perhaps best known for creating the album art for Ghost Stories by the British band, Coldplay (2012–14) as well as for her covers for the New York Times number one best-selling book series, Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare. In 2018 an important feature length film about the artist's work, Wings for Coldplay directed by Peter Hirjak previewed at Eames Fine Art in London. In 2019 her work was included in an exhibition at Ben Uri Gallery, Czech Routes to Britain, exploring the contribution of Czech immigrant artists to British visual culture since 1900. Fürstová has said of her experience of living and working in the UK, 'England has always treated me with respect as a female artist who has something to say, and that continues to mean a lot to me'. Mila Fürstová lives and works in Cheltenham with her husband and young family. Her work is represented in UK collections including the Ashmolean Museum, Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum, the Royal Collection and the V&A and is also collected by famous musicians including Elton John, Mick Jagger and Coldplay.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Mila Fürstová]
Publications related to [Mila Fürstová] in the Ben Uri Library