German painter, graphic designer and marionettist. Ivo Puhonný founded in 1911 the Baden-Badener Künstler-Marionettentheater (Marionette Theatre Artists of Baden-Baden). The ambitious literary repertoire of the theatre allowed Puhonný and its director Ernst Ehlert (1881-1965) to gain an international reputation. The theatre performed pieces from German Romantic literature (Count Franz von Pocci, August Mahlmann), but also from the modern “Grotesken”, the repertoire of the grotesque (Frank Wedekind, Christian Morgenstern) as well as a number of original variety shows for solo marionettists.

Ivo Puhonný’s masterfully created string puppets were staged in a very detailed choreography of language and movement. He asserted the marionette theatre’s right to be considered the artistic equal of the actors’ theatre. Most of Puhonný’s three hundred puppets are now kept at the Puppentheatermuseum im Münchner Stadtmuseum (Puppet Theatre Museum in the Munich City Museum).

(See Germany.)