Friday, January 10, 2020

Artist of the day, January 10, 2020: Aleš Veselý, a Czech sculptor (#887)

Aleš Veselý (1935 – 2015) was a Czech sculptor. He was born in Cáslav. From 1952 to 1958, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. At the end of 1950, he was part of the art movement known as the Czech Abstraction. More recently, he worked on monumental sculptures, often connected with a specific landscape.
 

Aleš Veselýs style was formed in the generation of artists who sought escape from the stereotypes set by both the ideologically dictated socialist realism and the newly discovered Modernism. They were interested in the scope of work with paint as well as sculptural material and through them, they expressed their emotions and philosophical views. They presented their work at two unofficial exhibitions, Confrontation I and Confrontation II. Being present at the two exhibitions was important for Veselý and from there, his work evolved. He participated in the Paris Biennale (1965), where he won the Critics’ Award for the statue The Chair as a Usurper. He was invited to the International Symposium of Spatial Forms in Ostrava (1967), and this was his first opportunity to work in a large-size format. His legendary statue Kaddish was born there. In connection with it he made seven three-meter-high steel sculptures (Warning Signal, Guard, Spider Tower, Hanging Burden, Executor, Testimony and Memento), some of which are now part of prestigious foreign collections. The Spider Tower was to be a preparatory variant for the statue Tower–Bell, with which Aleš Veselý wanted to enter the competition for the Terezín Memorial (1968). His statue evokes the oppressive atmosphere of the place by contrasting stability and instability, strength and frailty. The materials used, the manner of their application and the background of existential ideas all place the work of Aleš Veselý in the same context as artists of New Realism.

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Aleš Veselý

1960-64, Picture Object
1963, Imprint
1963, Stigmatický objekt X
1967-68, Spider Tower
1967-69, Kaddish
1967-69, Kaddish
1979, Iron report
1980, Ed Spranger School
1982, Prostorový bod
1983, Umělcův ateliér II
1983, Umělcův ateliér III
1983, Umělcův ateliér IV
1983, Základ
1990, Balvan na spirále
1992, Klec
1992, Křehká rovnováha
1992, Nestabilní krychle II
1992, Velká brána
1993, And his Work
1993, Multiklec
1995, Hovering Rock (model)
1997, Chamber of Light
1997, Rock for One
1998, Table
1999, Messenger
2002, The Mountain of Mountains (model)
2005, Kadesh Barnea Monument (model)
2005, Mobile Babel
2008, Holocaust memorial
2008, Holocaust memorial
2009 Touches and Distances
2009, Entrance to the Law
2009, Entrance to the Law
2009, Tohu Vavohu
2015,  Bez začátku, bez konce
2015, Brána nenávratna
2015, Magen David, Terezín
2015, Zákon nezvratnosti



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