The current exhibition of Vladimír Preclík Gallery presents a selection of artist´s artworks from the period 1960–1968 that belonged to the creative highlights this distinctive personality of Czech sculpture scene in the late 20th century. The beginnings of Vladimír Preclík´s artistic work were closely connected with Hradec Králové where he was taught to be a carver. He gained sculptural skills at the Higher Technical School of Sculpture and Stonecutting in Hořice v Podkrkonoší, and at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (Prof. J. Wagner´s studio).
In the 1960s he excelled as a portraitist and presented his works at the first individual and collective exhibitions of Trasa 54, which he was a member. After 1960, there was Preclík´s very intensive artistic period, which was fundamentally and positively influenced by the scholarship in France in 1965. The main common feature that time creation was material.
The artist was enchanted by wood – a traditional sculptural material that allowed him to combine the old carving tradition with the new sculptural tendencies. With this approach the author created a new visual language in which he emphasized the aesthetic quality of sculpture/objects in terms of form and colour processing. In wood he realized a number of key motives which resulted in the creation of sculptural cycles – Vertical Compositions, Treasuries, Concrets, Anti-Machines and Old Provencal Cities.
