High-resolultion photograph(s) Download

Stainless steel wire, thread; colored white, red and black. 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 ovoids 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 gave the impression of being spontaneous drawings in space. Wire objects, usually bound with color thread, hanging or perhaps lying on the ground, frequently referred 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 Arts 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 had the character of omens. By analyzing the relationships of the see-er and the seen, he advanced to visions and discoveries of the inner light and to intersections of layers in space and states of existence as 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. PROVENANCE / Vera Munro Gallery, Hamburg; Rudolf Zwirner Collection, Cologne/Berlin; Jiří Švestka Gallery, Prague; Private Collection, Prague. LITERATURE / Karel Malich. Wires | Dráty. Prague: Academic Research Centre of the Academy of Fine Arts, 2005, p. 203. EXHIBITED AT / Vera Munro Gallery, Hamburg (1993); Peter Pakesch Gallery, Vienna (1993).