Zdeněk Dvořák 1897–1943, sculptor, abstractionist

Sculptor Zdeněk Dvořák was an exceptional figure in Czech fine art of the 1920s and 1930s. Yet, for decades, knowledge of his work was confined to just a handful of abstract reliefs preserved in public institutions, and a question mark remained over the details of his life. The impulse for this, the first monograph devoted to the work of Zdeněk Dvořák, was the discovery of his papers in the Museum of Czech literature. Author Hana Rousová shows how Dvořák was one of the few figures in his country to methodically devote himself to sculpture and in some cases geometric abstraction. His subject matter and ingenuity rendered him an unparalleled figure in Czech abstract art of the first half of the 20th century, the only other comparable artists being František Kupka and František Foltýn. Were one to characterise the broader sphere that Dvořák’s work fits in, it would encompass Gutfreund’s sculptural works, based on the entwining of concave and convex surfaces, and, in relation to the pure abstract reliefs of the 1930s, the abstract work of František Foltýn and sculptural compositions of Hans Arp. Dvořák was also remarkable for his civic views. After the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia he joined the resistance movement as a member of the illegal National Revolutionary Committee of the Intelligentsia. He was arrested and sent to Auschwitz, where he died. The monograph puts a focus on these aspects of his life and provides a detailed reconstruction of his biography. The book also contains an inventory of his work documented by accompanying illustrations.