Antonín Kašpar

Antonín Kašpar (b. 4 March 1954 in Prague) is an academic sculptor, painter and conceptual and visual artist. From 1969 to 1971 he studied at the Secondary School of Applied Arts in Turnov (artistic blacksmithing and metalwork), from 1971 to 1974 at the Secondary School of Applied Arts in Prague (carving, sculpture), where he matriculated in 1974, and from 1976 to 1982 at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, graduating in 1982. He is a sculptor, carver, blacksmith and restorer. He lives and works on his farm in Čisovice on the edge of Prague.

He works chiefly with large-format sculptures in iron and steel, usually 3 to 5 metres tall; he also makes smaller works in bronze, stone and plaster and paints. A frequent motif in his work is the cross as the intersection of opposites (yin–yang, I–the other).

Works (selection): “Throne” (2016) — a monumental four-legged steel form of an armchair with a symbolic cross (Olomouc, Sculpture Line); “Homage to J. B.” (2016) — ten open grand pianos in rows, shown on náměstí Přemysla Otakara II in České Budějovice as part of Art in the City; “Pyramid for Mooring Three Airships” (Museum of Art and Design Benešov, removed in 2017); an installation at Golf Park Slapy (around 2011).

Exhibitions: over 50 group exhibitions at home and abroad (USA, Japan, Germany, Belgium, Indonesia) and more than 13 solo exhibitions since 1986. Represented in numerous public and private collections in the Czech Republic and abroad (USA, Russia, Japan, Germany, Finland, England, Denmark, the Netherlands), among them the National Gallery Prague, the Moravian Gallery in Brno and museums in Benešov, Jihlava and Pardubice.