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Died 12 August 1996, Prague, Czech Republic | ||
Bohumil Zemanek (10 October 1942 in Brno - 12 August 1996 in Prague) was a Czech sculptor and restorer.
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Biography
Born in Brno, the second son of three children from a professional soldier Bohumír Zemánek and his wife Anna Zemánková, who later became famous as an important Czech art brut artist. From 1964 - 1970 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague under Prof. Karel Hladík and later Dr. Jiří Bradáček. There he also met his future wife, sculptor and restorer Margaret Paur. His work was not in accordance with cultural politics and therefore before 1989 he exhibited only sporadically. Together with the sculptor Michael Bilek, he devoted himself intensively to the restoration of stone sculptural monuments mainly in northern Bohemia. He was a member of the Mánes Union of Fine Arts .
Works
He was influenced by American Pop art; in the Czech milieu he is considered together with Karel Nepraš, Jiří Sopko, or Jiří Načeradský as an outstanding personality of the New figuration (do not confuse with Figuration Libre) and larger wave of grotesque. Already at the time of his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts he had formulated a unique artistic signature.
From the beginning he focused on realistic figurative sculpture, mostly life-sized and processed in a cast, but especially in burnt umber, raw or glazed ceramic clay. His work is characterized by animal modeling, antiqued print drapery and frequently awarded after a gap of plaster molds. His conception of stylized human figure into "folk archetypes" is ironic.
With a humorous approach denouncing bourgeois stereotypes (Before maid Katy brings fish soup to the table ... 1968) and hedonism (Wife Julie - Dawn 1988 to 1989, Chess 1986-1987), he banalized the ideal of the working man (Bohouš 1978-79) .
A frequent motif of his sculpture was water, which was for him a symbol of freedom, nature and the physical bliss of existence. It is applied in the wet drapery clinging to the body of his buxom wife Julie, in statues and water games (Water polo - with Jiří Sopko - 1970, Swimming hole, 1968, Bath - Karel Zavadil - 1967) and a series of figures called Sea ( 1981-1985 ). He is the author of several installations in public spaces (including the fountain in the park Folimanka in Prague).