Images(2)

sculpture

Object NameSculpture

Artist Vladimír Kopecký (Czech, b. 1931)

Made FromNon-Lead Sheet Glass, Paint, Wood, Sheet Metal, Found Objects, Adhesive

Date1992

Place MadeCzechoslovakia, Prague

TechniquePainted, assembled

SizeDimensions variable; Overall H: 270.1 cm

Accession Number94.3.154

Curatorial Area(s)

Postwar and Contemporary

Exhibitions

Czech Sculpture from the Permanent Collection

Czech Glass Now: Contemporary Sculpture, 1970-2004

Umelecka Beseda

Not On View

Interpretive Notes

Web Text

The sculptures on display in this enclosure are about the material of glass, and how artists may choose to experiment with it. Vladimír Kopecký’s work is abstract, highly expressive, and enigmatic. Drepung is purposely ambiguous in meaning, and the viewer is encouraged not to feel safe, but to question and challenge what the artist presents. Kopecký creates a questionable structure built on imbalance (such as the chair and the teetering plate glass it supports) and covers most of it with opaque paint. His presentation of materials—glass, paint, and wood—does not tell a story but instead explores qualities such as light, shadow, texture, volume, reflection, opacity, fragility, and stability. Understanding this composition as a painting, rather than a sculpture, reveals its true nature: it is an abstract painting that has been constructed in three-dimensional form.

Physical DescriptionSculpture, "Drepung". Colorless glass, polychrome paint, non-lead sheet glass, wood, sheet metal, paint, mixed-media, found objects, silicone adhesive; painted, assembled. Base formed of 2 angled rectangular sections; shorter base section of square piece of sheet metal with reflective finish, centered and butted up against 1 side of low square white platform with glass top, on top of platform is smaller centered square platform painted deep red with 2 inset layered square panes of sheet glass reverse-painted with yellow-green leaves, on top and centered of glass sits a paint can with congealed fuchsia and yellow paint with inserted paint brush and stick; almost parallel, but angling away from platform is second base section of 3 adjoining squares of sheet metal with reflective surfaces, one rectangular edge section painted bright yellow next to a shorter rectangle painted white, at end is a large patch of loosely brushed fuchsia, a large rectangle of wood is positioned with long side at border of yellow and white on base, wood tilts upright, leans against 2 metal isosceles triangles, between wood and triangles is smaller rectangle of 2 bonded pieces of sheet glass with 2 edges painted yellow, end of wood and glass rectangles also rest against a wooden chair painted white and fuchsia, on seat of chair is a large yellow patch topped by a large framed letter "E" filled with congealed white material with fuchsia and yellow brushwork; at end of metal base is an upright wooden open rectangular frame painted black, top edge of frame forms a slot, one side of slot is inserted with a tall narrow vertical plank formed of 2 layered sheets glass of equal length almost completely covered with fuchsia, paint of one plank extends further towards the top, a second plank of glass also almost completely covered in fuchsia rests on top of framework box then over corner of tilted wooden sheet and rests on top of chair back; scattered spatters of yellow, fuchsia, and white paint.
Provenance

Source Vladimír Kopecký (Czech, b. 1931) - 1992-1994-05-24