Karel Malich

Despite a wide range of expressive and creative means, the work of painter, drawer, sculptor and graphic artist Karel Malich is internally very cohesive. An extreme sensitivity to the events of external and internal reality runs through them, as does a unique symbolism drawing on Malich's relationship to nature and on intense internal experiences. The first signs of abstraction in Malich’s work are evident in the paintings from the end of the 1950s: In White Landscape (1960) his work frees itself of direct reference to external reality that he transforms to a linearly structured abstract surface. A series of collages and assemblages at the start of the next decade foreshadowed later objects. In this series the artist glued rocks, sand, cork, Styrofoam, thread and rope into simple geometrical systems. In simplifying and freeing himself from a personal manuscript Malich at that time moved to radical monochrome reliefs (Landscape (White Relief), 1963; Black Relief, 1963), that turned completely away from the hitherto traditions of Czech art. Their surface consisting of corrugated cardboard was a unique reflection on the landscape viewed from above and as with the artist’s other monochromes they represented a “sensorial field”, not resigning themselves to content of an emotional and psychic nature.

Following the mid 1960s a number of reliefs and corridors in which Malich examined the possibilities of depicting spatial intersections, passages and areas for the movement of energy. The objects approached in their expression the constructive trends of the day (Black-and-white Sculpture, 1964-65; Yellow Corridor, 1968; Blue and Silver Corridor, 1967-68), but his work differed in that it was not created based on a rational concept, but, on the contrary, there is always a clear link to the artist’s internal experiences and often also to a landscape image, the artist's lifelong most important source of inspiration. At this time Malich began to work with sculptures hung freely in a space that led to his wire objects, forming the bulk of his work throughout the 1970s. Working with wire opened Malich’s way to unrestricted and immaterialized sculptures in the spirit of spontaneous spatial drawings. The wire objects, most of which are held together by coloured thread, hanging and lying on the ground, refer most frequently to the idea of a landscape’s energy and to natural events (Light-air (Cosmic Eggs), 1973-74; Energy, 1974; Landscape, 1974-75).

His exploration of the field of vision (The Border of Vision, 1976) culminated with the breakthrough object Another Beer? (1976). In this work Malich show his diversion from abstraction and all styles that were connected to it at that time and radically presents a new concept of art – and de-aestheticised and precise capturing of his own field of vision on the single moment of a seemingly banal reality. The gradual awareness of his own situated state in a time and space continued through intense internal experiences and states of sudden enlightenment that became the main theme of his work over the next decade. Another pivotal moment in Malich's work came in 1977 with the experience of discovering an inner light; just as unexpectedly and suddenly in later years follows the vision of his own soul, of eternity and of a crack in space. To depict his vision Malich turns increasingly to a more remote past (I Saw How I Was Conceived, 1980), and in the late 1980s writes the autobiographical prose work From That Time to That Time Now (1979-1980, in book for 1994), a remarkable text returning to the landscape around his native Holic. The nearby rocky hill that Malich referred to his whole life as if it occupied a central position in his personal mythology also figures in his most elaborate and complicated work, the ovoid sculpture Landscape with Eternity created over the course of the first half of the 1980s. After completing another large sculpture Human-Cosmic Intercourse (1984-1988) Malich continued mainly with works on paper. Most of his work from the 1980s consists of pastels and drawings derived from the artist’s inner visions and from the archetypal pictorial tradition (Harmonic Breathing with the Universe, 1981; Landscape with a Crack in Space, 1981).

Kujelová, D.: Karel Malich & utopické projekty, Brno 2021 Srp, K.: Karel Malich, Praha 2006 Ševčík, J. – Buchar, R. – Kulhánek, D.: Karel Malich. Wires / dráty, Praha 2005 Srp, K.: Karel Malich (kat. výstavy), Louny 2004 Dostál, M.: Karel Malich (kat. výstavy), Pardubice 2004 Kroutvor, J.: Dráty Karla Malicha, in: týž: Suterény. Vybrané kritické texty 1963-2000, Jinočany 2001, s. 206-213 Šetlík, J.: Vesmír Karla Malicha, in: týž: Cesty po ateliérech, Praha 1996, s. 125-133 Srp, K.: Karel Malich 1976 – 1985 (kat. výstavy), Praha 1994 Hlaváček, J. – Sekera, J.: Poezie racionality. Konstruktivní tendence v českém výtvarném umění šedesátých let (kat. výstavy), Praha 1993 Srp, K.: Karel Malich. Pastelle (kat. výstavy), Berlin 1992 Enrici, M.: Karel Malich. Pastels (kat. výstavy), Dijon 1992 Corcos, P. – Srp, K.: Karel Malich (kat. výstavy), Paris 1991 Hlaváček, J.: Konstruktivní tendence šedesátých let (kat. výstavy), Litoměřice 1990 Srp, K. – Vlček, T.: Karel Malich (kat. výstavy), Karlovy Vary 1988 Srp, K.: Před četbou záznamů Karla Malicha, in: Někdo něco 9, 1988 Srp, K. (ed.): Dech kosmu: Práh věčna, in: Někdo něco 7, 1987 Pánková M. – Malich, K.: Karel Malich (kat. výstavy), Praha 1986 Tetiva, V.: Karel Malich. Kresby (kat. výstavy), České Budějovice 1985 Valoch, J.: Malich (kat. výstavy), Brno 1984 Srp, K.: Karel Malich. Vědomí a kosmické energie, Praha 1982 Sekera, J.: Karel Malich. Plastiky, projekty (kat. výstavy), Louny 1972 Pohribný, A.: Klub konkretistů (kat. výstavy), Jihlava 1969 Padrta, J.: Nová citlivost (kat. výstavy), Brno 1968 Riese, H.-P. – Padrta, J. – Felix, Z.: Konstruktive Tendenzen aus der Tschechoslowakei (kat. výstavy), Frankfurt am Main 1967 Padrta, J.: Konstruktivní tendence (kat. výstavy), Louny 1966 Padrta, J.: Karel Malich (kat. výstavy), Praha 1966 Padrta, J.: Křižovatka (kat. výstavy), Praha 1964

Wittlich, P.: Malichova summa, in: Art & antiques, březen 2007, s. 62-63

Hlaváček, J.: Platonismus: Karel Malich, in: Ateliér 2004, č. 23, s. 16

Valoch, J.: O veliké křehkosti Karla Malicha, in: Ateliér 1999, č. 6, s. 6

Topinka, M.: Přibližné okruhy – záchytné body pro „povídání“ s Karlem Malichem, in: Souvislosti 1998, č. 1, s. 235-244

Srp, K.: Texty Karla Malicha..., in: Umění 43, 1995, č. 5, s. 295

Vlček, T.: V prostoru něžných dotyků a tejemných vizí, in: Literární noviny 1992, č. 46, s. 8

Hlaváček, J.: Malichův kosmos, in: Výtvarné umění 1990, č. 4, s. 24-31

Srp, K.: Ideální projekty Karla Malicha, in: Architekt 36, 1990, č. 17, s. 8

Lahoda, V.: Karel Malich a proměny smyslovosti, in: Umění 37, 1989, č. 5, s. 415-426

Padrta, J.: Pracovat v souladu s kosmem a živly. K současné tvorbě Karla Malicha, in: Výtvarné umění 19, 1969, č. 1, s. 2-10

Ze skicáků Karla Malicha (ed. Miloslav Topinka), in: Souvislosti 1998, č. 1 (35), s. 257-267

Záznam ze skicáku (1973) (ed. Karel Srp), in: Umění 43, 1995, č. 4, s. 291-295

Karel Malich: Od tenkrát do teď tenkrát, Praha 1994

Karel Malich: Skicáky 1964-1980 (úvod Karel Srp), Praha 1994

Texty Karla Malicha, in: Karel Malich. 1976-1985 (texty Karel Srp, Karel Malich), Praha 1994, s. 14-17

Záznamy Karla Malicha, in: Výtvarné umění 1990, č. 4, s. 22-23