Jiří Kačer

The peak of Jiří Kačer’s output is the distinctive synthesis of two important and yet opposing viewpoints which appeared in post-war sculpture. The first of these is the phenomenon of the International Sculpture Symposia, which were created in 1959 by the Austrian sculptor Karl Prantl (here we would remind ourselves that Kačer also established and for several years organised the important symposium entitled Sculptural Encounters, based in Přední Kopanina), which fundamentally contributed to the rehabilitation of stone as a modern sculptural material. Prantl thought up not only his own form of symposium as a working meeting, but also promoted a certain type of symposium sculpture. Such sculpture was to be of an abstract character after the example of the cultic prototypes of the menhir, throne and commemorative stela. The sculptor should continue to work with the natural qualities of the stone, be these aesthetic, physical (since he realised the sculpture himself in accordance with the principle of taille directe) or content-related in the hieratical sense of the word.

The second source of Kačer’s inspiration is the figurative tradition. On the one hand this was Italian, specifically the classically rooted sculpture of Giacomo Manzu, an exhibition of whose work in Prague in 1973 had a powerful effect on Kačer, and on the other pop art, especially the work of the American sculptor Georges Segal, also seen from a Czech perspective as being related to the arrival of new figuration. Above all Jan Hendrych was important to Kačer, whom he had already assisted during his studies in Hořice while the former was chiselling his sculptures. However, he soon abandoned the full-volume sculpture of Segal-inspired character (Marcela, 1981, Back 1983) and moved over to relief, which became his main means of expression. Even his completely three-dimensional sculptures are based on the effect of relief-structured surfaces. The first stone reliefs still evoke body imprints (Back, 1983, Imprint, 1985), which was again an important theme in Czech new figuration (Eva Kmentová). In other sculptures the physicality disappears and the structure of the imprint begins to be reminiscent of architectural fragments or more often enlarged fossils of prehistoric anthropods. This represents the perfect intersection of two basic natural principles: the organic (animals, irregular forms) and anorganic (stone, the skeletons of animals, geometric structure), and thus the contradiction in terms of a “fingerprint in stone” is directly given voice. These sculptures are often intended to lean against something and the artist installs them using the same method by which renaissance tombs are presented in a lapidarium.

Magdalena Juříková, text katalogu výstavy Jiří Kačer, Nová síň, Praha, 1993

Peter Paszkiewicz a kol., text katalogu k sochařskému sympoziu Cotangens, Donau, Linz, 1994, s. 27–26

Peter Paszkiewicz a kol., text katalogu k sympoziu Serpentin – Steinbildhauer – Symposium,

Prägraten am Grossvenediger, 1999, s. 12–15.

Magdalena Juříková, text katalogu výstavy Česká kamenná skulptura 90. let,

exteriéry Pražského hradu, Praha, 2000

Peter Paszkiewicz a kol., text katalogu k sochařskému sympoziu Schüttkasten Klement 2000,

Klement, 2000, s. 18–21

Magdalena Juříková, Sochař a kámen. Kámen, 2001, č. III, 7. ročník

Jaroslav Vanča, text katalogu výstavy Jiné kameny Jiřího Kačera – Fragmentární tvary a ucelené myšlenky

Jiřího Kačera, Městské muzeum Hořice v Podkrkonoší, 2001

Magdalena Juříková, text katalogu výstavy Jiné kameny Jiřího Kačera,

Městské muzeum Hořice v Podkrkonoší, 2001

Ivan Neumann, Svědkové trvání, sochařská tvorba Jiřího Kačera. Prostor, Zlín, 2003, č. 2, 10. ročník, s. 18–21

Kateřina Vozárová, Sochařské setkání Při zdi 2003 – Uherský Brod. Prostor Zlín, 2003, č. 2, 10. ročník, s. 22–23

Magdalena Juříková, text katalogu akce Kameny a hvězdy, astronomický ústav AVČR, Praha, 2004

Pavlína Pyšná, Sochařské setkání Při zdi 2005 – Sochařské setkání v Uherském Brodě.

Prostor Zlín, 2006, č. 1, 13. ročník, s. 21–23