Geometry of Emotion

At this year’s 58th Venice Biennale, the Czech Republic will be represented by artist Stanislav Kolíbal. He will be exhibiting his latest works, as well as older pieces from the 1960s and 70s, in the Czech and Slovak Pavilion. This year, the title of the prestigious event is May You Live in Interesting Times, taken from an ancient Chinese curse referring to periods of crisis and uncertainty. Kolíbal’s unique creations, which explore such themes as time, transience and ephemerality, provide a suitable counterpoint to the ironic subtext of the saying. Today, when critical thinking has all but disappeared, it resonates even stronger than it may have done a century ago, when first used in a speech by British statesman Sir Austen Chamberlain.

At a Given Moment, 1968, and Labil, 1964

What Used to Be an Edge, 1968

Three Ways, 1968

Walking from the Vyšehrad metro station toward the ancient fortress, you pass a tall, contoured wall, almost entirely covered in crude graffiti. Few passers-by realise that the wall is actually a sculpture by Stanislav Kolíbal. Supporting the Nusle Bridge, this wall was originally supposed to feature a relief depicting a happy family, socialist style. Instead, Kolíbal managed to persuade the authorities to allow him to create a 111-metre-long concrete monolith comprising of two sloping blocks connected by raised concrete elements.

Architecture and space have always been the focus of Kolíbal’s work. He studied applied graphics at the Academy of Applied Arts and stage design at the Academy of Performing Arts, both in Prague. He participated in designing and decorating the Czechoslovak Embassy in Kensington Palace Gardens, London – the abstract reliefs he created on its outer walls seem to lighten the heavy, brutalist structure. In 1971, the new Embassy won a prestigious award from the Royal Institute of British Architects for being the best building designed by a foreign architect.

In 1967, Kolíbal’s works were chosen for the 5th edition of the Sculpture from Twenty Nations exhibition at the Guggenheim in New York. He also exhibited in Toronto, Montreal, Tokyo, and Rome. Sadly, this tour de force of world galleries was cut short by the communist government in 1973, after the tremendous success of his solo exhibition in Milan. Kolíbal was forbidden to show and sell his works abroad until 1980, and from 1970 to 1988 he wasn’t allowed to exhibit any works in Czechoslovakia at all. Over time, Kolíbal shifted his focus to conceptual art and created art installations in his studio using string or thread instead of the drawn line.

In 1988, Kolíbal was awarded a fellowship in West Berlin, which became a springboard for the next phase of his artistic career. There he created the Berlin Cycle, a set of more than 100 pencil and charcoal drawings featuring geometrical designs. Kolíbal continued to develop the concept of blackand-white reliefs in many later sets of drawings, including a 10-metre-long drawing and a wrought-iron object of 5 × 3 metres, which will decorate the entrance to the pavilion in Venice.

“I was born in a mining colony in Orlová. It was a dirty, miserable, rough place. But every morning I woke up staring at the ceiling. It was so white that it stood in stark contrast to everything else in my life. That’s why I am so fond of the colour white. It was as far from my everyday reality as it’s possible to be,” explains Kolíbal. His works have still not received the attention and academic interest they deserve. But perhaps this will change after the publication of an extensive catalogue of his work, which has been produced by curator Dieter Bogner to accompany the exhibition project Former Uncertain Anticipated, organised by the National Gallery Prague for Venice Biennale 2019.

Fall, 1967, and Disappearing Shape, 1967

text: Hana Janišová

photos: Martin Polák

article partner: National Gallery Prague