Lot 120

Josef Vinecký (1882 - 1949) SNEAKING CAT

The important work The Creeping Cat by the avant-garde sculptor and designer Josef Vinecký comes from a series of chamber sculptures depicting the theme of the cat, which belongs to the artist's Wiesbaden period. Although he depicts the cat as a beast in typical action, the concept tends towards a higher degree of abstraction with an emphasis on the overall composition of the sculptural object charged with dynamism and sensuality emphasised by its almost aerodynamic shape. The material variant in glazed baked clay was realised by the artist with a time lag in the mid-1940s. After the First World War in 1918, Josef Vinecký settled in Wiesbaden, where he made friends with the avant-garde artists of the Die blaue Vier group and became acquainted with the Bauhaus artists' circle. Among other things, his work focused on industrial design, especially furniture, in which he initially used bent metal tubes and wood veneer, later experimenting with synthetic materials (Plexiglas, polyester, trolon). His work culminated in the exhibition of the German Werkbund WUWA in 1929. After Adolf Hitler came to power, he was dismissed from the state service as a "degenerate artist" and remained a freelance artist in Berlin until 1936. He then returned to Czechoslovakia. Published:  KAVČÁKOVÁ, Alena. Josef Vinecký (1882-1949). Memoria artis. Olomouc: Palacký University in Olomouc, 2009. no. cat. 36. p. 104.