Lot 119

Břetislav Benda (1897 - 1983) THINKING

Benda's period between 1919 and 1930 is associated with the absorption of currents from his two teachers, Josef Václav Myslbek and Jan Stursa. The focus of his interest shifts to frequent variations of female nudes with a touch of lyricism. Benda himself adds: "I do not know a more beautiful motif than the woman in all her variations; she is an inexhaustible subject for a sculptor. With my sculptures I want to express the infinite beauty of the human body, but also other feelings." Jiří Kotalík writes the following about the offered sculpture, which he has placed on the cover of a publication about Břetislav Benda: A perfect combination of both creative principles of lyrical and epic vision became the sculpture Přemýšlející, which, together with Toaleta III, is one of the most important creative achievements of Czech sculpture of this period. The motif of the seated girl's nude is expressed in a balanced and closed composition, which juxtaposes the young body of solid forms in a distinctive gesture of meditation with the forms of Thonet's bentwood chair; the result is a sculpturally perfect treatise on the relationship between man and thing. One unwittingly anticipates something of the struggle for the renewal of figuration in sculpture as waged by Giacomo Manzú in Italian modern sculpture after the Second World War. The sculpture comes from Benda's estate, and the work is accompanied by a certificate from the artist's heirs. It is a version with a splint. Exhibited at the Paris Exhibition in 1925 and at the Venice Art Exhibition in 1926. Published: Kotalík Jiří. Břetislav Benda, Prague, 1982. p. 35. Czech World, issue 1, volume XXIII, 1926.