Have you ever noticed the several massive limestone blocks when you arrive at CAMP? And did you know that they’re part of a sculpture by Miloslav Chlupáč? They form the gateway to our grounds. The advantage of sculptures in public spaces is that they’re accessible to everyone; they aren’t confined to galleries, where you have to go out to see them and where they’ve often lost their original context. The catch, however, is that few people know who created the sculpture they encounter on the street every day. That’s why we’ve decided to introduce you to Miloslav Chlupáč.
He was born 100 years ago in Benešov. At age 18, he decided he wanted to be a doctor. So he first began studying medicine, but after the universities closed, he went to train as a stone sculptor at a stone-cutting plant in Kralupy nad Vltavou and at Otakar Velínský’s stone sculpture workshop in Prague. “I stumbled into stonework by chance,” Miloslav Chlupáč himself said. He discovered that he enjoyed working with stone, so he eventually decided to devote himself to art. After the war, he graduated from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design (VŠUP) under Josef Wagner. In addition to sculpture, he also focused on theory and painting. He regularly collaborated with architects, was invited abroad, and attended art symposia. With the onset of normalization, most of his work on prestigious architectural projects and the metro was interrupted or even shelved.
When he was unable to exhibit, he worked as a stoker; in the late 1970s, he was allowed to earn a living as a restorer. He was a member of the art groups Máj 57 and later UB12. His works are most often inspired by the human figure. He focused primarily on the volume that constitutes the figure. He sought to break it down and simplify it into basic shapes. In this way, his artistic expression is close to Cubism. Miloslav Chlupáč said that art is like a dream of a world that we ourselves choose and create. We do not have to submit to nature or any other power—we determine its order ourselves.
He created the sculpture in front of the Association of Design Studios building—now known as CAMP—in 1972 in collaboration with architect Karel Prager. He named the seven stones, carved from Zbuzany limestone, Plastic Elements (Plastické články) and placed them at varying distances from one another. A car could easily drive between some of them, but in other places you can barely squeeze through. For many years, unfortunately, a lockable fence was anchored to our sculpture. That is now a thing of the past; we are striving to open up the grounds of the Emmaus Abbey so that they are accessible to everyone and you can, for example, take a shortcut here to Palackého Square. Exactly one year ago, we had the gate removed as part of the opening of the CITYBLOK exhibition and the Plastic Elements were gradually restored.
Miloslav Chlupáč’s monumental works are scattered throughout the world. However, they can also be found in many private collections as well as in Czech galleries and museums. The Museum of Arts and Design in his hometown of Benešov is also closely associated with him; there, for example, you’ll find the sculpture Reclining (Ležící).