Lubo Kristek (born 8 May 1943) is a sculptor, painter and performance artist of Czech origin, who lived in West Germany from 1968 until the 1990s. He specializes in critical assemblages and happenings, in which he incorporates multiple forms of media. He created sculptures for public space. He is the author of a three-state sculptural pilgrims' way. During his more than half-century long work in the field of performance art, he formulated his theory of "holographic perception".
Life
In the 1960s, Kristek lived in a former soap factory, in Hustopeče, where he organised events incorporating music, visual art, poetry, theatre and improvisation. Testing of borders, experiments, and crossing the conventional frame is typical for his work. He follows the idea of a total work of art – Gesamtkunstwerk. At that time, he also experimented with using fire as a means of expression. He deliberately suppressed or sometimes annulled his artistic handwriting.
In 1968, Kristek emigrated to West Germany. He settled in Landsberg am Lech and lived there for almost three decades. That was also where he started the tradition of Kristek's Night Vernissages, from which his happenings evolved. From Landsberg, Kristek travelled to other places in Europe (Belgium, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, Republic of San Marino, Switzerland, Austria) to study and create.
Kristek was influenced by Arno Lehmann who lived in Salzburg, where Kristek used to go to meet him. In 1973, after Lehmann's death, Kristek created the sculpture Soul shaped by flame. A sphere dominates the top as a symbol of artistic heritage that Kristek adopted from Lehmann.
He was also influenced by the Austrian ethologist Eberhard Trumler (1923–1991), especially by the mechanisms of survival of the species. Kristek's existencial assemblage Expecting (1969) was created under this influence.
In 1977, Kristek travelled through the west coast of the United States and Canada with his exhibition tour American Cycle 77.
In 1989, after the Velvet Revolution, he returned to the Czech Republic. He settled in Podhradí nad Dyjí in a house where there is a gallery of his works today (Lubo Chateau). On the apex of the house, he located the sculpture Divine Ephemerality of Tone – a piano balancing on one leg. Writer Jaromír Tomeček unveiled the sculpture in 1994 and, on the basis of the artwork's title, he called the entire neighbouring area of the Thaya Kristek Valley of the Divine Ephemerality of Tone. Václav Jehlička wrote in this context in his foreword for the publication issued by the Neues Stadtmuseum, Landsberg am Lech in 2008:
Sculpture
Kristek made sculptures in several techniques, such as bronze casting, repoussé and chasing, welding and combined techniques using materials like stone, wood, metal, ceramic and found objects. His sculptures can be found as public artworks mainly in Germany and the Czech Republic.
His 1978 ceramic sculpture Birth and Simultaneously Damnation of the Sphere, is today located, as a public work of art, in a chapel at the John's Castle near Podivin, Czech Republic.
Kristek's 16-metre-high sculpture Tree of Knowledge (1981) that he made for the Ignaz-Kögler-Gymnasium (high school) in Landsberg am Lech rises up through three floors of the building. The Munich magazine Steinmetz + Bildhauer noted:
In 1988, Kristek created the bronze fountain The Drinking for the Theresianbad Greifenberg, Germany.
Kristek's metal sculpture Monument to the Five Senses (1991) is part of the collection of the Neues Stadtmuseum, Landsberg am Lech. It is located in front of the museum since 1992.
In 1992, he made a kinetic sculpture called Tree of the Wind Harp. This wind propelled musical artwork is located at the Pohansko Chateau, Czech Republic.
In 2006, Kristek created bronze sculpture The Seekers that was located on the confluence of the rivers Thaya and March. The sculpture was stolen in 2009; only a fragment left. Using the fragment, Kristek created a new metal sculpture for the place and called it The Seekers – Organic Forms. The sculpture was inaugurated in 2015.
The Czech art historian Barbora Putova wrote: