Jan Ambrůz

Jan Ambrůz graduated from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in 1984. He gained a name for himself at Confrontation VII in Svárov in 1987, where he exhibited a geometrical construction made of dry plant stalks and cords on the surface of a local village pond. His interest in geometry took over from that in figural sculpture, which had marked the beginnings of his creative work.

A tendency toward constructive solutions minimised into basic geometrical forms has characterised his sculptures since that time. Since the 1980s, Ambrůz’s work has developed in two directions: one is focused on delicate constructions and installations made of sheets of glass, the other on work with wood. In both of these lines the artists reshapes in an innovative way the legacy of geometrical art and minimalism, as well as land art in certain works, since the placing of a work within a natural landscape plays an important role in Ambrůz’s work.

Many objects are created purely for a given place and time. After an installation comes to an end such a work subsequently only exists in the form of photographic documentation. Since 1988, Ambrůz has created a large series of glass constructions, large objects made of sheets of glass, laid on the ground or on an unstable wooden base, or hung feely in space using string (Infinity, 1987, Below One Another, 1987, Trio, 1987). The composition using sheets of glass gives rise to geometric grids in which one geometric motif is repeated. Basically, this involves the principle of multiplication as we know it from minimalism. However, Ambrůz adds an emotional charge by monitoring the relationship of the material (glass), light and air. These delicate, ephemeral and subtle, while at the same time monumental glass constructions levitate in space and force us to ask whether and if so how apparent instability can hold its own in the face of the laws of gravity. These sculptures accentuate the relationship between instability and stability and between mass and the denial thereof.

Along with glass sculptures Ambrůz began creating monumental wooden sculptures-constructions, from the start placed directly in the landscape (in specifically recommended places) and later in interiors (Cross, 1989, There, 1990, Vault, 1991). These are simple, geometrically shaped objects constructed from wooden beams processed using a chainsaw. Their lapidary, “uncultivated” character, almost like that of an unprocessed raw material, in combination with the landscape, distances them from cold geometry and they take on an almost ritualistic significance. It is as if they refer to totemic symbols, signs and figures, a kind of resuscitation of prehistory and its archetypes within today’s technical world.

In the 1990s, Amrůz discovered a new material, iron. He created a series of installations in which he placed iron plates in various shapes on the ground. In several of these works he used maximally reduced geometric forms. He restricted the language of geometry to its basic elements: circle, square, and rectangle. In these works he was closest to the tradition of classical geometrical art (Circles, Squares, 1995), though in certain installations he again deliberately violated the geometric precision: the edges of the iron plates are ragged or bent (Untitled, 1995).

Marble has featured in the artist’s work since the 1990s. Again, these are “floor” sculptures, in which the artist achieves special light effects through the different ways of polishing the surface of the marble or by placing individual parts against each other. However, Ambrůz did not completely give up working with glass in the following years. For instance On Cones I and II (2009), in which sheets of glass are spread out in a forest, demonstrates his love of landscape projects.

A characteristic feature of Ambrůz’s work is a special poetics which arises from the dialogue of object and environment, in which when the surrounding space becomes part of the installations. The language of geometry pervades the artist’s work, though this is a different language from that which we are used to from previous geometric and minimalist art. Strict successions, cold technical processing and a clear construction are always violated and “softened” in Ambrůz’s work, at one moment by the instability of the glass installations, at another by the primitivism of the surface of wooden or iron objects. An unsettling tension thus creeps into the artist’s sculptures, testimony to the transience and temporariness of things and to the paradox of life itself.

Art in architecture and public spaces:

2006-07 Kytice (Bouquet), object on the TGM Square, Třinec

2005-06 TGM Monument, Hustopeče near Brno

1995 Brána borců (The Gate of Athletes), completion of the Masaryk University faculty, Brno

Tina Oldknow: 25 years of New Glass Review, The Corning Museum of Glass, New York 2005

Alena Potůčková: Folklorismy, České muzeum výtvarných umění, Praha 2004

Finfrlová Petra: Ornament, Galerie moderního umění, Hradec Králové 2003

Valoch Jiří: Čtvero ročních období, Dům umění, Opava 2001

Netopil Pavel: Kov, sklo, kámen, prostor, GVUO Ostrava 1999

Ševeček Ludvík: Nový zlínský salón 1999, Dům umění, Zlín

Wim van der Beek: Kunst op de Helling, Stichting dag Lochem 1999

Ruler Tomáš: FaVU - současná tvorba, FaVU Brno 1999

Valoch Jiří: Pohyb kolem středu, DU Brno 1998

Boháčová Yvonna: 10 sochařů UB, Muzeum Hranice 1998

Koleček Michal: Sympozium železné plastiky 1998, Veletržní palác, NG Praha 1998

Beskyd Ladislav: Laboratorium 98, Vyšné Ružbachy

Valoch Jiří: Sklo, Galerie Sýpka 1997

Raimanová Ivona: FINEART 96, Valdštejnská jízdárna, Praha 1996

Krkošková Alena: Ticho pro dvanáct hlasů, MG Brno 1996

Valoch Jiří: Jan Ambrůz 1986-1996, Dům umění, Brno 1997

Halířová Marie: Zpřítomnění-Přírustky galerie z let1987-1996, GalerieKlatovy

Lang Čestmír: Jan Ambrůz, Galerie Sokolská 26, Ostrava 1995

Zemánek Jiří: Fungus 1145-1996, Nadace Hermit, Plasy 1995, str. 49

Rusinová Zora: Pars pro toto, Slovenská národná galéria, Bratislava 1995

Potůčková Alena: Jan Ambrůz, České muzeum výtvarných umění, Praha 1995

Geržová Jana: Umenie aury I, Synagoga-centrum súčasného umenia, Trnava 1995

Zemánek Jiří: Jan Ambrůz a Petr Kvíčala, Galerie Na bidýlku, Brno 1995

Sedláček Ivo: Ze současné tvorby - 90. léta, DU Zlín 1995

Záznam nejrozmanitějších faktorů, Jízdárna Pražského hradu, Praha, 1994

Museum Duisburg 1993 (s. 7 Ch. Brockhaus)

Šedá cihla 34/93, Galerie Klatovy - Klenová, 1993

Mandýsová Hana: Pardubické valy 93, Východočeská galerie, Pardubice, 1993

Vojtěchovský Miloš: J. Ambrůz, Gemeente Voorburg 1992

Wittlich Petr: Situace 92, Mánes, Praha 1992

Nedoma Petr: Duch a světlo, 1992

Leinz Gotlieb: Skulpturenprojekt Gotha 1992, str. 105

Lang Čestmír: Wilhelm-Lehmsbruck Sttipendianten 1991-93

Nešlehová Mahulena: Laureáti Ceny Jindřicha Chalupeckého, Galerie V. Špály, Praha 1991

Ševčíkovi Jana a Jiří: Ohne Distanz, Akademie der bildende Kunste, Wiena 1991

Ševeček Ludvík: Prostor 91, Dům umění, Zlín 1991

Hlaváček Josef: Jiná geometrie, Mánes, Praha 1991

Nedoma Petr: Hořící keř, Emauzský klášter, Praha 1991

Vlček Tomáš: V dimenzích prázdna, Galerie výtvarného umění, Roudnice nad Labem, 1991

Valoch Jiří: AN 90, Ausbesserungswerke DB, Koln-Nippes 1990

Valoch Jiří: J. Ambrůz, Galerie mladých, Brno 1989,

Boháčová Yvonna: OL 13-89, Muzeum, Prostějov 1989

Boháčová Yvonna: Jan Ambrůz - Objekty, Galerie pod podloubím, Olomouc 1988

Valoch Jiří: Výstava sochařského atelieru Jana Ambrůze, Atelier 14/2006

Ondračka Pavel: Folklorismy, Výtvarná výchova, 4/2004

Weber Milan: Kov, sklo, kámen a prostor Jana Ambrůze, Atelier 8/1999

Netopil Pavel: Program Galerie výtvarného umění v Ostravě (leden-březen 1999)

Valoch Jiří: Koncepty Jana Ambrůze a Václava Krůčka, Ateliér 19/1999

Potůčková Alena: Ostravská galerie mění tvář, Ateliér 22/1999

Pospěch Tomáš: Den a noc, Atelier 21/1998

Surůvka Jiří: Laboratorium 98 Vyšné Ružbachy, Umělěc 9/1998

Kosková Petra: Mimo rozměr, Domov 11/1998

Valoch Jiří: Ambrůz v několika médiích, Atelier 22/1997

Valoch Jiří: V Aspektu třikrát reduktivně, Atelier 22/1997

Freisleben Zdeněk: Nový Výstavní prostor, Atelier 15/1996

Daněk Ladislav: Olomoucký okruh, Výtvarné umění 1-2/1996 s. 208-209

Šálková Jana: Ambrůz a Kvíčala, Ateliér 6/1995 s. 6

Zemánek Jiří: Jan Ambrůz a Petr Kvíčala, Atelier 9/1995

Mojžíš Juraj: Meno, miesto, priestor a čas, Atelier 9/1995

Rusinová Zora: Hladanie aury, Galéria 1/1995

Pachmanová Martina: Mezi černou a bílou, Literární noviny 45/1995

Netopil Pavel: O počátcích Ambrůzovy tvorby, Bulletin Moravské galerie 1994

Geržová Jana: Fungus v Plasoch, Profil 8-10/1994 s. 52

Valoch Jiří: Ambrůz v Aspektu, Atelier 20/1993

Valoch Jiří: Jan Ambrůz, Atelier 4/1991

Boháčová Yvonna: K tvorbě Jana Ambrůze, Výtvarné umění 4/1990

Hůla Jiří: Jan Ambrůz, Gramorevue 9/1989

Boháčová Yvonna: Hledání kontinuity, Architekt 8/1988