Lot 137

Karel Malich (1924 - 2019) EGG

In the late 1960s Karel Malich started to create hanging sculptures, as their three-dimensionality allowed him to better depict courses of flowing energy. His wire oviods represented an extreme position in his work, but they also provided an inner connection to his late 1950s/early 1960s period. Wire, which formed the basis of his work throughout the 1970s, opened Malich’s path to relaxed, dematerialized sculptures that give the impression of being spontaneous drawings in space. Wire objects, usually bound with color thread, hanging or perhaps lying on the ground, frequently refer to the idea of the energy contained in the landscape and natural phenomena.

A world-renowned sculptor, painter and printmaker, Malich studied at the Academy of Fine Art in Prague under Professor Vladimír Silovský and went on to paint landscapes – initially influenced by Cubism and Expressionism, later drawn in pastel. He created reliefs and sculptures, his first sculptures made of Plexiglas, and open metal structures that addressed the dematerialization of sculpture. In his drawings from the late 1970s/early 1980s, recollections of his youth collide with his visions of light, some of which have the character of omens. By analyzing the relationships of the see-er and the seen, he has visions and discovers the inner light penetrating layers in space and the state of existence depicted in the sculptures Inner Light and Crack in Space. In his oeuvre, the past becomes the future and vice versa. In the decades from 1986–1995 he primarily focused on pastels depicting his visions of light. He used figurative and abstract, organic and geometric forms. Malich’s approaches have become essential points in the development of contemporary Czech art. His work has been exhibited at numerous exhibitions around the world and is represented in leading private and public collections.