Artist Karel Malich has died, he was 95 years old

Prague – At the age of 95, sculptor, painter, graphic artist, and author of typical wire sculptures Karel Malich passed away today, one of the most respected domestic artists of the second half of the 20th century. Nikola Bukajová from the Zdeněk Sklenář Gallery, which represented Malich for a long time, told ČTK this news. The artist is primarily known for his colorful pastels and wire objects. In these sculptures, he developed the recording of energetic events in the early 70s, which he engaged with for most of his creative life.

In Malich's work, inner experiences approaching mystical experiences of oneself intertwine, as the artist mentions the vision of inner light. At the same time, he was interested in physics and read works by leading physicists of modern times, who significantly transformed fundamental concepts of the form and function of the universe.

Karel Malich was born on October 18, 1924, in Holice in Eastern Bohemia, and the local landscape and places had a lifelong influence on him. He studied at the Faculty of Education at Charles University and later at the Academy of Fine Arts. When he was 90 years old, he said in an interview with ČTK that there was no decision to be a painter at the beginning of his artistic career, but a spontaneous inspiration from nature and its manifestations. When asked what moment in his life he considers the most important, he said: "When I was born." "Everyone has it in their own way, and I think I was a happy person, at least that's how I perceived it - that I liked it. And I didn't need anything," Malich said five years ago.

By then, he had been living for years in his house in Prague Uhříněves, where he had hundreds of his works in his studio, and several of his unique wire sculptures hung in the space. Even in his 90s, he had papers and piles of pastels on his table and reportedly drew every day. "I like pastel. In pastel, there is drawing, color, and mainly light; I saw that light in the darkness, I was looking into the hall, there the sun was rising from the morning, it started to shine there, then it faded away... I could observe all of that," he described his childhood in Holice. His entire life, he sought to materialize the invisible, capture light and the flow of energy, and find harmony and balance.

Malich began with landscape painting in the 50s, and in the 60s, he transitioned to abstraction. Graphics, collages, and drawings from this period reflect Malich's relationship with the landscape and his way of perceiving the micro-world that surrounded him in his youth. They stem from the experience of his personal interaction with nature in his birthplace in Holice and primarily the local Kamenecký hill, transformed into a composition of geometric elements and lines.

The outline of the hill, which appeared in graphics, temperas, and gouaches as early as the beginning of the 50s, became a symbol in his further work. Since 1982, the ovoid shape began to appear in his drawings, connecting Malich's often very complicated and seemingly chaotic visions. The second aspect consisted of drawings that focused on capturing light events in their shape transformations.