Lot 144

Ladislav Zívr (1909 - 1980) NUDE SEATED IN AN ARMCHAIR

From the time he was a boy Ladislav Zívr spent his free time in his father’s pottery workshop, and thus it should come as no surprise that fired clay went on to become his favorite medium. Suddenly arising from the dream-like world of his Surrealist period are specific figures and sculpted portraits that do not at all fit in with Surrealism. The figures do not form an unsettling drama; they merely are themselves. Such is the case for the nude seated in an armchair. She does not at all conceal her exposed female curves and looks straight ahead, an air of condescension on her face. This is not a stylized nude perfected by the artist with a glimmer of pathos, but rather a common city woman who is more concerned about everyday problems. Nevertheless, there is something in her gaze that is not present, something that she does not reveal. This blend of direct declared presence and a sort of mysterious non-presence is a common feature in Zívr’s realistic sculptures. The 1930s brought a temporary departure from his dreamlike Surrealistic experimental poetry towards permanence and continuity. In 1927–1928 Ladislav Zívr attended the State Technical School of Ceramics in Bechyně and the School of Applied Arts in Prague in 1928–1931. He brought sculpture to the family tradition of pottery, and he worked with clay with focus and forethought. He was strongly influenced by the work of Otto Gutfreund, which left imprints of Social Civilism and Cubism in his work. In his expression be believed in simple, full forms; before the mid-1930s Zívr was a member of the youngest generation of Prague Surrealists and he himself called his work “poetry making”. He started to apply the Surrealist aesthetic of random encounters in his work, combining materials and inventing the experimental art technique of moulage. He was a member of Group 42 in 1942–1948.  Publ.: Jaromír Typlt: Ladislav Zívr, 2013, cat. 43.