Lot 207

Marius Kotrba (1959 - 2011) UNTITLED (A HUG)

The Czech sculptor Marius Kotrba studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague from 1981 to 1987, where he graduated from the sculpture studio of professors Stanislav Hanzík and Miloš Axman. Already in his first works from the late 1980s, the motif of the cube appears. Initially, these were figures in expressive stylization, whose elongated limbs defined the shape of the cube. A little later, larger or smaller clusters of tiny figures in various positions, wrestling with the cube, trying to move it or holding it firmly in the position on their backs. The historian Marcel Fišer writes: "It is the motif of clutching, of tightly embracing with all four limbs, that makes the cube here not a mere burden, but in a way merges with the figure as a fatal burden." The artist's work, which has been the subject of several exhibitions, can often be found in public spaces; a well-known realisation is, for example, the large bronze statue of St. Christopher. The offered sculpture was probably created in the artist's studio as a preparation for a larger format.