Milan Grygar

The work of Milan Grygar is characterised by an original perspective on the relationship between picture, sound and space. In 1965 he created the first of his acoustic drawings, in which he linked realisation of the work with the phenomenon of the spaciousness of sound. Over the following decades Grygar developed this specific, original concept of the relationship between image and sound in various, often very disparate relational analogies, to the present day.

Grygar’s interest in the tradition of modern painting and the aims of cubism and abstraction in his early work of the fifties soon focused on the composition and structure of individual coloured surfaces. In 1963 this culminated in the composition of geometric abstraction in the form of coloured constructions of abstracted symbols. At this time Grygar was concentrating on drawing; systematic work with this medium, an emphasis on its procedures and elementary creative gestures, led him take an interest in the phenomenon of sound. He tried to find a form of drawing which would enable him to express the presence of sound in an image. He understood the sonic element of a drawn gesture and concentrated on the possibility of joining up these elements.

He simultaneously recorded on tape the process of creating the first acoustic drawings, in whose realisation he included sound. The newly defined two-dimensional audiovisual form of the drawing was enriched by the dimension of sound – time. The sound recording became the equivalent of the drawing in temporal correspondence to the process of its creation: it became an “audible reading of the drawing”. Synchronicity of perception was no longer a condition, since both components could exist independently of each other. For the drawing Grygar used unconventional materials: a wire comb, a metal box, and other items. He created black and white geometrising structures, always based on the expressive visual contrast of the graphic symbols.

In 1966 in his acoustic drawings Grygar abandoned his own authorial gestures in favour of mechanical instruments – drawing and sounding devices, sometimes children’s clockwork toys. These items, dipped in ink, which Grygar set in motion at various time intervals and in various places on the paper, created their own drawings in the form of the rhythmic tracks of their movement. The mechanical drawings and other visually acoustic projects – tactile drawings – were staged events documented in photos or on film. In his tactile acoustic drawings since 1969, Grygar has combined sound and the gestural actions of the human body in fascinating ways. Drawings came into being without almost any visual control, and were based instead on the correction of touch and hearing. The final act of the drawn gesture, in which “the human body was linked to the surface of paper”, was the breaching of the designated part of the paper by the drawing. By opening up space the drawing acquired new spatial dimensions directed at the continued dematerialisation of the creative act. The element of chance allowed the significance of drawing, sound and gesture to be connected in an integrated moment of creation.

Grygar began with acoustic drawings and based a large series of conceptual scores from the sixties and seventies on the priority accorded the visual graphic recording, which was basically a more or less precise set of instructions for musical performance and offered various interpretative propositions. The works were entitled correspondingly: ground-plan scores, scores-formulae, colour scores and architectural scores, linear scores, sound-plastic drawings. Several were interpreted musically, by Erhard Karkoschka and Jean Yves Bosseur abroad, and by the Agon Orchestra, Jiří Stivín, the MoEns Ensemble, etc. in this country.

At the end of the eighties Grygar returned to painting. He based the first cycle of black paintings with coloured linear elements in complementary colours on the mutual contrast of the monochrome space of the painting and luminescent lines, which materialised light and movement in time. A variation on this was the set of seven black paintings entitled Polemics With a Square. He created a set of white pictures on a similar principle. These were entitled Geometric Scores, and the role of linear elements was taken over by two elementary geometric forms, which carried the acoustic events. As in the case of the black and white pictures they were conceived of as a proposition for possible acoustic interpretation. Since 1996 Milan Grygar has created a substantial and as yet unfinished set of pictures entitled Antiphones, in which the basic requirement of attaining an autonomous multi-dimensional picture reaches a peak. The Antiphone pictures are a visual transcript of an acoustic event making reference to the old musical form of liturgical verse sung at church during Mass. In the first sets of red or white pictures of smaller square format the colour red predominated. From the start their minimal morphology was formed by monochrome geometric figures or lines in combinations of red and white or red and black, which articulated the sound.

The Antiphones of the past few years have accented colour. The coloured geometric constructions of monochrome fields in square formats evoke ideas of different spatial relationships. While in the Antiphones the acoustic event took place within the space of the picture surface with the basic geometrical forms at its heart, these geometrical compositions are part of the spatial events in themselves. Individual conceptions of the visual acoustic form of the work acquire new forms in these compositions.

Hana Larvová

Milan Grygar belongs to the generation of artists who attended art school shortly after the end of the Second World War and at turn of the fifties and sixties lent their weight to European neo-avantgarde trends with a swift move in the direction of abstraction. In his work Grygar inclines toward free expression and controlled chance, and combines an interest in the visual and acoustic side of the artwork in a unique way.

After completing his studies at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague at the studios run by Josef Novák and Emil Filla, a creative caesura lasting several years was followed by a development from geometrically stylised figural compositions (A Boy and the Moon, 1959) to abstract pictures (Contrasts, 1962), with Grygar gradually restricting his palette to one or two basic colours (Black Painting, 1963). His withdrawal from classical painterly approaches and his search for new methods of expression led Grygar to drawing as a medium, which revealed itself to be very flexible and open, especially toward the acoustic elements of the creative process. In the middle of the sixties the author became more and more interested in the procedures of creativity, the rhythmization of drawing, and the layering of simple abstract motifs (Drawing with a Stick, 1966).

In Grygar’s work there is a gradual equalisation of the visual and musical. However, this does not involve analogies between them, but rather a “natural relationship given by the unity of their movement in time”. In the series entitled Acoustic Drawings the final work is the result of a performative process, during which Grygar moves or has moved around the surface of the paper technical instruments and their fragments and mechanical toys (a cogged wheel, a blueberry collection comb, a toy top, etc.). The drawing dematerialises, the colour disappears completely and the role of the artist is limited to supervising partially random processes. As well as the actual visual realisations, the output of Acoustic Drawings usually includes a sound recording and photographic or film documentation. The drawings usually comprise layers of static prints and traces of the movement and self-generated movement of items. The acoustic drawings and other audiovisual events were created during the course of scenic events during which the presence of the public was important to the artist. The acoustic recordings from performances were released on two singles by Suprafon (in 1969 and 1976) as the result of the artist’s collaboration with the sound laboratory of the Institute of Theory and History of Arts of the Academy of Sciences.

During the second half of the 60s Grygar created cycles of scores which were partly intended as genuine instructions for musical performance (Colour Scores, Ground-Plan Scores, Linear Scores, Architectonic Scores). The Architectonic Scores were given repeated performances by the Erharda Karkoschka New Music Group based in Stuttgart (firstly in 1973 at the Theater der Altstadt, Stuttgart), and various sections of the cycle have appeared in the repertoire of many music ensembles, such as the Agon Orchestra and MoEns.

As well as Acoustic Painting, from the end of the sixties Grygar developed another cycle of performances. In the Tactile Drawings he was guided simply by his own imagination and acoustic perception, without his sight guiding the drawing. Using both hands simultaneously or alternating one after the other he drew through holes made in a piece of paper in such a way that he was located behind the surface of the picture. The resulting fan-shaped drawings include four inserts into the space behind the picture. From the seventies to the start of the nineties Grygar concentrated on drawings of systematically disrupted geometrical structures (the series of Sound-Plastic Drawings and Linear Scores). He disrupts the rhythm of the structure by means of errors in the logic of the whole, and creates unsettling hiatuses through subtle interventions in the form of overlays and gaps in the grid. The artist’s intervention in the structure often consists of a slight repositioning or unobtrusive deviation from the integrated colour scheme of the grid or rhythm of the rows. Grygar linked up linear scores with intersecting geometric bodies on the boundary of three-dimensionality in the cycle of Spatial Scores.

During the eighties Milan Grygar returned to painting. As in his previous works so in the cycles Black Pictures, Polemic with a Square or Antiphon music plays an important role. The monochrome surface of Black Pictures is intersected by a line of coloured light. This is not the result of chance. The composition of the pictures is based on precise geometric rules. Some of Antiphon works with a simple composition of monochrome surfaces, often in the form of a diptych. In the Pictures-Scores Grygar borders the canvas on one side with the edge of the frame, evoking the idea of a continuation of the coloured surface to the point where it is enclosed from all four sides.

Jakub Hauser

Movies:

1993

Akustické realizace a hmatová kresba, dir. Alexandre Broniarski, Bruno Laurin,

1983

Hmatová kresba [Haptic Drawing], 16 mm, dir. Dobroslav Zborník

1982

Prstová partitura, 16 mm, dir. Dobroslav Zborník, 1982

1971

Černobílé kontrapunkty, 35 mm, dir. Josef and Jaroslav Kořán, 1971

1968

Akustická kresba [Acoustic Drawing], dir. Ľudovít Vavro, 1968

Sound recordings:

1976

Milan Grygar, Kresba 18 A 17, Supraphon, 1 49 9871

1969

Acoustic Drawing 22 / Adagio, Supraphon, 399861

Milan Grygar. Texty Hana Larvová et al., Praha, Gema Art 2009

V spektru rozmanitosti: 11 + 1. Text Hana Larvová. Praha, Galerie hlavního města Prahy 2009

Prostor a čas. Text Miroslava Hlaváčková. Roudnice nad Labem, Galerie moderního umění 2005

Zdenek Primus, Umění je abstrakce. Česká vizuální kultura 60. let. Praha, Kant 2003

Práce na papíře. Výběr kreseb, grafik a koláží českých umělců ze sbírky Jana a Medy Mládkových. Texty Méda Mládkova, Jiří Machalický. Praha, Museum Kampa, Nadace Jana a Medy Mládkových 2003

Europa - Konkret - Reduktiv / Europe - Concrete - Reductive / Jevropa - konkretno-reduktivnoje iskusstvo. Texty Jürgen Blum, Lech Lechowicz. Hünfeld, Museum Modern Art 2002

The Drawing Center‘s Drawing Papers 20. Performance Drawings. Milan Grygar, Alison Knowles, Erwin Wurm, Chrístopher Taggart, Elena del Hivero. In collaborat/on with Dieu Donne Papermill. A senes of five solo exhibitions of artists who explore the intersections of drawing and performance. Text Elizabeth Finch. New York, The Drawing Center 2001

Konkret. Östliches Mitteleuropa. 12 Positionen. Ed. Ingrid Adler. Nürnberg, Verlag für moderne Kunst 2000

Akce, slovo, pohyb, prostor. Experimenty v umění šedesátých let. Texty Vít Havránek, Karel Srp et al., Praha, Galerie hlavního města Prahy 1999

Umění zrychleného času. Česká výtvarná scéna 1958-1968. Předmluva Alena Potůčková, texty umělců. Praha, České muzeum výtvarných umění 1999

Crossings. Umění pro oko a ucho/Art to hear and to see. Texty Cathrin Pichler et al., Praha, Galerie Rudolfinum 1999

Umění zastaveného času. Česká výtvarná scéna 1969-1985. Předmluva Alena Potůčková. Praha, České muzeum výtvarných umění 1996. 2 sv

Ohniska znovuzrození: České umění 1956-1963. Ed. Marie Judlová. Praha, Galerie hlavní¬ho města Prahy 1994

Nová citlivost. Texty Josef Hlaváček, Jiří Padrta, Jiří Valoch, Vlasta Čiháková-Noshiro. Litoměřice, Galerie výtvarného umění.1994

Europa, Europa. Das Jahrhundert der Avantgarde in Mittel- und Osteuropa. Ed. Ryszard Stanistawski a Christoph Brockhaus. Bonn, Stiftung Kunst und Kultur des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen 1994. 4 sv.

John Cage. Francois Morellet. Milan Grygar. Otevřená forma/Forme ouverte/Open Form. Texty Hana Larvová, Jean-Yves Bosseur, Alexandre Broniarski. Praha, Galerie hlavního města Prahy 1993

Poezie racionality. Konstruktivní tendence v českém výtvarném umění šedesátých let. Texty Josef Hlaváček, Jan Sekera. Praha, České muzeum výtvarných umění 1993

České výtvarné umění 1960-1990. Texty Jan Sekera, Jiří Kohoutek, Alena Potůčková. Praha, Středočeská galerie. Muzeum moderního umění 1992

Situace 92. Text Petr Wittlich. Praha, Unie výtvarných umělců 1992

Accrochage 1991. Kleine Bilder, Objekte, Plastiken. Saarbrücken, Galerie St. Johann 1991. Katalog výstavy otištěn in: Bulletin / Mitteilungen der Galerie St. Johann, Saarbrücken), Ausg. 2, November 1991, s. 11-15

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

Tradition und Avantgarde in Prag. „Versuch, in der Wahrheit zu leben.“Texty Karin Tho¬mas et al., Köln, DuMont Buchverlag 1991

Ve vztahu k prostoru. Blabolilová, Doležal, Grygar, Chatrný, Lindovský, Rudolf, Sedláková, Sikora, Svobodová. Text Hana Larvová. Praha, Galerie hlavního města Prahy 1991

D.i.s.c.o.th.è.q.u.e. ... Expériences sonores ďartistes. Text Pierre Luigi Tazzi. Firenze, Zona Archives a Villeurbanne, Maison du Livre, de l‘image et du Son 1989

Žáci Fillovy školy. Obrazy, grafika, plastiky. Texty Emil Filla (citáty), Josef Hejzlar. Turnov, Okresní muzeum Českého ráje – Jičín, Okresní muzeum a galerie 1987

Vom Klang der Bilder. Die Musik in der Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts. Ed. Karin von Maur. München, Prestel-Verlag 1985

Aktuel/e Kunst aus Osteuropa. Text Jurgen Weichardt. Oldenburg, Oldenburger Kunstverein 1982

Eleven Contemporary Artists from Prague. Texty Meda Mladek, Jindřich Chalupecký. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan 1980

Partitury. Text Jiří Valoch. Brno, Dům umění města Brna 1969

5 Künstler aus der Tschechoslowakei. Stanislav Filko, Milan Grygar, Mira Haberernová, Jozef Jankovič, Jiří John. Text Jürgen Weichardt. Wilhelmshaven, Verein der Kunstfreunde, Düsseldorf, Galerie Ursula Wendtorf 1969

Klub konkrétistů. Texty Laravinca Masini, Arsen Pohribný. Karlovy Vary, Galerie umění 1969

Nová citlivost. Text nepodepsaný [Jiří Padrta] Brno, Dům umění – Praha, Český fond výtvarných umění 1968

Klub konkrétistů. Text Arsen Pohribný. Jihlava, Oblastní galerie Vysočiny 1968

Hudební inspirace. Text Luděk Novák. Praha, Svaz československých výtvarných umělců 1967

Josef Hlaváček, Mlčenlivé obrazy: Milan Grygar, in: Josef Hlaváček, Cvičení z estetiky. Praha, Gallery 2007, s. 69-80.

Petr Ingerle, Milan Grygar. Aspekty času a prostoru, in: 22. mezinárodní bienále grafické¬ho designu Brno 2006. Ed. Marta Sylvestrová. Brno, Moravská galerie 2006, s. [174-177], angl. s. [178-181].

Hana Larvová, Milan Grygar. The picture of the sound and the sound of the picture. Czech Music, 2006, no 3, s. 16-21.

Petr Bakla, Milan Grygar, tvůrce partitur. His VoiceB, 2006, č. 4, červenec-srpen, s. 28-29.

Dušan Brozman, Milan Grygar... A2, 2006, č. 19, 10. 5., s. 27.

Piotr Piotrowski, Awangarda w cieniu Jatty. Sztuka w Europie Šrodkowo-Wschodniej w latách 1945-1989. Poznaň, Dóm Wydawniczy Rebis 2005, s. 271-272.

Dušan Brozman, Milan Grygar, in: České ateliéry/Czech Studios. Praha, Art CZ 2005, s. 56-61.

Polana Bregantová, Osobnosti českého grafického designu - Milan Grygar. Soupis díla. Benešov, Muzeum umění 2003. 54 s.

Petr Kof roň, Jak nevystavit polévku. Grygarovy akustické kresby. Umělec 3, 1999, č. 7, s. 20-21.

Mojmír Grygar, List od bratra. Vrbovka, Hooghalen 24. 4. 76. Listy S. V. U. Mánes 3, 1999, č. 4, s. 10-12.

Jiří Zemánek, Grygarův „zvučící rukopis“ a „absolutní kresba“. Listy S. V. U. Mánes 3, 1999, č. 4, s. 8-10.

Josef Hlaváček, Obrazy v pohybu. Ateliér 12, 1999, č. 23, 18. 11., s. 1.

Radim Kopáč, Nejen obraz a zvuk. Literární noviny 10, 1999, č. 42, 20. 10., s. 12.

Milan Grygar, in: Josef Hlaváček, Umění je to, co dělá život zajímavější než umění (jak praví r. f.). Praha, Art&Fact 1999, s. 116-118.

Jean-Yves Bosseur, Musique et arts plastiques. Interactions au XXe sièc/e. Paris, Minerve 1998, s. 230-236.- Musique ouverte. Série Vocabulaire.

Zdenek Primus, Milan Grygar-Antifony. Praha, Galerie Václava Spály, 2.10.-2.11. Úvodní slovo z vernisáže. Ateliér 10, 1997, č. 23, 6. 11., s. 4.

Mojmír Grygar, Bild - Klang: Raum - Zeit. Zum künstlerischen Werk von Milan Grygar. Kunst Konkret, 1996, Ausg. 2, s. 15-18.

Petr Kofroň - Martin Šmolka, Grafické partitury a koncepty. Agon orchestra. Olomouc, Votobia 1996, s. 27-35.

JiříValoch, Milan Grygar jako malíř. Ateliér 8, 1995, č. 10, 11. 5., s. 4.

Jiří Valoch, Milan Grygar komorně, ale vynikající. Ateliér 1, 1994, č. 22, 27. 10., s. 4.

Lenka Lindaurová, Geometrické partitury. Lidové noviny 7, 1994, č. 217, 15. 9., s. 11.

Dominique a Jean-Yves Bosseur, Révolutions musicales. La musique contemporaine depuis 1945. 4ème édition revue et complétée. Paris, Minerve 1993, s. 204-205. -Musique ouverte.

Jozef Cseres, Od zvuku obrazu k obrazu zvuku. Profil 2, 1992, č. 20-21, s. 24.

Jaroslav Bláha, Mezi viděním a slyšením. Ateliér 5, 1992, č. 14, 9. 7., s. 6-7.

Karel Srp, V dimenzích prázdna. Výtvarné umění, 1992, č. 1, s. 76-78.

Jean-Yves Bosseur, Le sonore et le visuel. Intersection musique/arts plastiques au-jourďhui. Avec la collaboration de Daniel Charles, Alexandre Broniarski. Paris, Dis Voir [1992]. 158, [1]s.

Eva Petrová, Sedm principů v tvorbě Milana Grygara. Ateliér 4, 1991, č. 19, 19. 9., s. 8.

Kaliopi Chamonikola, Aktuální portrét Milana Grygara. Tvorba, 1991, č. 27, 3. 7., s. 16.

JiříValoch, Grygar nejnovější. Ateliér 3, 1990, č. 24, 26. 11., s. 5.

Milan Grygar. Chambres ďamis de Morgen, Příloha De Morgen, 1986, 21. 6., s. V.

Josef Javůrek, Milan Grygara jeho dílo. Typografia 89, 1986, č. 3, s. 97-100.

Igor Zhoř, Milan Grygar. Estetická výchova 25, 1984-1985, č. 9, kveten 1985, s. 284.

Stanislav Ulver, Mezivztahy. (Poznámky k jednomu pořadu Pražského filmového klubu.) Film a doba 29, 1983, č. 8, s. 475-479.

Stanislav Ulver, Výtvarná realizace a pohyb. Film a doba 28, 1982, č. 4, s. 235-239.

Jarmila Doubravová, 17. Opticko-akustické kresby, činnost Milana Grygara, in: Hudba a výtvarné umění. Praha, Academia 1982, s. 75-77. - Studie ČSAV, 1982, č. 3.

va [Jiří Valoch], Akustické kresby a partitury. Opus musicum 13, 1981, č. 2, příloha s. VIII

Jarmila Doubravová, Music and visual art-their relation as a topical problem of contemporary music in Czechoslovakia. Irasm 11, 1980, č. 2, s. 219-228.

Jiří Valoch (ed.), Partitury. Grafická hudba, fónická poezie, akce, parafráze, interpretace. Praha, Jazzová sekce Svazu hudebníků 1980, s. [101-113].

Geneviàve Bénamou, L'Art aujourďhui en Tchécoslovaquie. Goussainville, G. Bénamou 1979, s. 53-54.

Clemente Padin, De la représentation à l'action. Marseille, Nouvelles éditions polaires 1975,s. [40].

Tomáš Vlček, Černobílé kontrapunkty. Sonda do oblastí světa obrazu a zvuku. Film Josefa a Jaroslava Kořánů o tvorbě Milana Grygara. Film a doba 19, 1973, č. 8, s. 445-449.

Frits Weiland, Relationships between sound and image. Electronic Music Reports, 1971, No. 4, September, s. 66-93 (přetištěno pod názvem Geluid en beeld in: Museumjournaal 17, 1972, no. 5, oktober, s. 197-203).

Vladimír Lébl, Milan Grygar. Hudební rozhledy 23, 1970, č. 9, září, s. 385-386.

LGV [Ludmila Vachtová], Milan Grygar. Výtvarník a kniha l. Novinky Odeonu, 1970, č. 5-6, s. 24-25.

Milan Grygar. Pages, 1970, No. 2, s. 14.

Jaromír Paclt, Kresba a zvuk (Akustické kresby a partitury Milana Grygara), in: Prolegomena scénografické encyklopedie, sv. 7. Praha, Scénografický ústav 1971, s. 60-69. Přetištěno z katalogu výstavy Milana Grygara v Alšově síni Umělecké besedy v roce 1969.

Jiří Valoch, Akustická kresba. Host do domu 16, 1969, č. 12, s. 26-27.

Milan Grygar. Film a doba 15, 1969, č. 9, s. 392, obálka s. [3-6] (6 plakátů).

Jaromír Paclt, Akustische Zeichnungen. Die Arbeiten des Tschechen Milan Grygar. Musica23, 1969, H. 4, Juli-August, s. 381.

Jaromír Paclt, Marginálie k reprodukovaným kresbám Milana Grygara. Sešity pro literaturu a diskusi 4, 1969, č. 31, s. 46-47.

Jaromír Paclt, Do tekutého stavu kinetické, konkrétní, fonetické a fonické poezie..., in: Milan Grygar, Akustická kresba 22, Adagio (zvuková realizace). Gramofonová deska 1 399861. Praha, Supraphon 1969, s. [2] obalu.

Jaromír Paclt, Akustische Grafik. HiFi Stereophonie 5, 1966, Nr. 9, s. 610-611.

Milan Grygar. Tvar 17, 1966, č. 8-9, s. 240-241.

J. P. [Jiří Padrta], Milan Grygar... Výtvarná práce 14, 1966, č. 12, 23. 6., s. 5.

Hlč. [Luboš Hlaváček], Milan Grygar. Výtvarná práce l, 1959, č. 19, 24. 10., s. 10.