Demartini Hugo 1931–2010

Multiple I, 1968

polished steel, plexiglass, box, 34 × 34 cm, signed on the reverse on the label H. Demartini, 28/50
During the 1950s Hugo Demartini moved from sculpting figurative work towards structural abstraction in a series of red reliefs that were far removed from the expressive or existential form of Czech informel. During the 1960s, Demartini's tendency towards rationalising artistic processes and the search for objective order led him to move towards the constructive and concrete creation of geometrically structured reliefs and objects, using primarily the shape of hemispheres and spheres, first in polychrome plaster and later in chrome-plated metal, arranged in a regular serial structure. The offered Multipl from 1968 is one of the works in which Demartini's interest in a rational composition of the work, close to the circle of the so-called new sensibility, reached its peak. The use of technical and industrial materials, metal and plastic, corresponded to the contemporary interest in contemporary technologies and to the current developments in the international movement of constructive, optical and kinetic objectifying creation. The metallic surface of Demartini's spherical reliefs and objects brought a moment in the regular geometric composition of the objects of mirroring, and thus a reflection of the surrounding environment and viewers. The objects optically interact with their surroundings and their surface is transformed by the movement of the viewers or the transformation of light. Aspects of the kinetic work are supported in the work by Multipl is also the blue graduated plastic frame, which contains four spheres. The intensity of the colour gives a vibrant impression, supporting the impression of movement in an otherwise static work. In the same year, Demartini crossed towards conceptual and land-art realizations in which the element of chance entered the geometric composition and a more complex relationship between technical and natural order. The German gallery Hoffmann in Frankfurt am Main launched its activities in 1967. From the beginning, it created a unique exhibition and editorial concept focused on the field of constructive and concrete art from the interwar Bauhaus to the present day. Gallery has collaborated with artists across Western and Eastern Europe, Japan and America, becoming a key platform for international art movement and a place for artists to meet and collaborate. At the turn of the the 1960s and 1970s, the Czech-German German-German contacts also led to the publication of editions of several important Czech authors - Jan Kubíček, Zdeněk Sýkora and Hugo Demartini. The editions took the form of graphic sheets or smaller sculptural and plastic objects, which were published in a limited edition of fifty pieces and offered for sale. For Czech artists, this collaboration represented a unique opportunity presentation and appreciation of their work in the current international context. Hugo Demartini (1931 - 2010) studied from 1949 to 1954 Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where he later headed the sculpture studio in the 1990s. In the 1960s, he became an important protagonist of the so-called New Sensibility, an artistic current of constructive and geometric work that connected with the progressive international movement. In 1968, Demartini carried out several actions that moved his work into the position of action art and land art, indicating his further direction, in which geometric order is disrupted by the element of chance. Laying chrome balls in a ploughed field, or throwing confetti, cylinders and paper into the air and then fixing the randomly formed compositions, marked a move away from strictly rational and objective creation, and a shift towards more processual and conceptual manifestations, which he realised in parallel with similar international developments. In the 1980s, Demartini realized a series of plaster sculptures in which he explored the theme of space, conceived as fragments of architectural sites, incomplete cubes and floor plans.