Dana Zámečníková Explained

Dana Zámečníková
Birth Date:24 March 1945
Birth Place:Prague, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
Education:Faculty of Architecture, Czech Technical University in Prague, Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague
Known For:glass artist, painter, graphic designer, architect, teacher
Spouse:Marian Karel

Dana Zámečníková' (born 24 March 1945) is a Czech glass artist, painter, graphic artist, architect and teacher. She is one of the most important glass artists of the post-war generation that graduated in the 1960s.[1]

Life

Dana Zámečníková was born on 24 March 1945 in Prague. She comes from a family of an architect and inherited her love for painting from her grandfather, who was an amateur landscape painter. From childhood she was a lover of circuses and animals, animal tamers, fairground rides, magicians, and later theatre and cinema.[2] After graduating from high school in Prague, she studied at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in 1962–1968.

After graduating from the Technical University in the summer of 1968, she went to West Germany and worked for a year at the Gottfried Böhm Architecture Department (Lehrstuhl für Werklehre, Die RWTH) in Aachen. After returning to Prague, she studied architecture and scenography at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (1969–1972) under professor Josef Svoboda and until 1971 she worked simultaneously in the "School" - architectural studio of Karel Hubáček of the Association of Engineers and Architects in Liberec (SIAL).

Since 1980 she has been working as a freelance artist,[3] where she found the necessary freedom. The feminine approach, evident in her works, is emancipated, spontaneous to the point of instinctive and animalistic, but it has nothing to do with feminism.[4]

She began working with glass in the 1970s, but her original approach soon brought her attention abroad and she enjoyed a steep career in the 1980s.[5] [6] Her works have been purchased by major international collections in the US, Europe, Japan and Australia, and in 1993 she was one of seven artists worldwide invited to create a monumental Theatrum mundi in a 10 × 10 × 10 m space for one of the atriums of the new glass museum building in Corning, New York.[7] [8] [9] [10]

She has worked as a guest lecturer at universities and glass schools abroad since the 1980s[11] - Summer glass courses at Pilchuck School[12] in Washington State, 1983, 1984, 1989, 1996, Philadelphia and Kent State University in Ohio, 1987, 1993, San Francisco State University, 1992, British Artists in Glass, Bag, England, 1986, Sydney, 1991, Mexico City, 1992, Japan: Miasa, 1988, Nlijima Glass Center, 1992, Toyama, 1998, Auckland, New Zealand, 1998, Tampa, Jacksonville University, USA, 1999, Glass art and Science, Lisbon, 1999.[13] [14] In 1985 she was appointed associate professor of Glass at the Pilchuck Summer School in the USA.[15]

Dana Zámečníková is the wife of Marian Karel. She is a member of Umělecká beseda. Since 1997 she has been one of the donors whose works are auctioned in the annual auction for Konto Bariéry,[16] (Charter 77 Foundation). She lives in Prague, in a house whose minimalist interior she designed herself. It includes a studio with its own furnace and a hall that serves as a summer workshop and a joint depository for both spouses.[17]

Awards

Work

Dana Zámečníková worked briefly as a set designer (Amphitryon, National Theatre, 1972–1973),[21] designed painted furniture, children's toys, information signs, interiors and exhibition concepts. She is the author of a television cartoon for children.[22] The essence of her thinking is working with space - first as a game inside the object, then inside and outside the object, and finally integrating the object into the space.[23] As an architect, she is primarily interested in the space created by human activity and the objects that contribute to its character. It is not about the order and hierarchy of space oriented towards function, but rather the involvement of every detail that co-creates the atmosphere. Detail is not a peripheral element in her work, but one that changes the situation, character and meaning of the whole.[24]

Until the mid-1980s, she made mostly small spatial paintings enclosed in boxes, with intricately coded scenes of model stories (Theatre, 1980, Mechanical Man, 1981, Two Cats, 1984, Levitation, 1985).[25] She creates the illusion of spatial depth by drawing on several panes of glass in a succession. Her painting is characterized by simplicity to the point of being sign-like, offering an idea of the landscape rather than an image of it. With her humour, she introduces the principle of human spontaneity, exuberance and fantasy into a limited order. Her intimate works were at first poetic puns - a kind of personal kaleidoscope, created for the pleasure of the eye and soul (With a Cheetah, 1987, With a Bustle, 1987).

Later, she gradually enlarged the formats of her drawings, which were given socially critical meanings, letting them move freely from framing into space and often supplementing them with real objects, which leave it up to the observer to determine where reality begins and ends. The resulting image was first created by composing drawings on glass arranged in a row, but she gradually created more spatially complicated sculptures by joining the glass at different angles and by drawing the surrounding space into play through diagonal deployment.[26] The artist uses computer scans to process photographs, paintings, prints or reproductions of works to create illusory to surreal assemblages. Her works often depict existential situations (The Scream, 1990) and mix memories with visual fantasy.

Dana Zámečníková's dominant artistic technique is cut flat and laid glass or plexiglass,[27] cold decorated with painting,[28] enamels, silkscreen, sandblasting or etching,[29] [30] which she combines in multi-layered spatial plans and installations. Thanks to her studies in stage design, she has brought narrative elements of "wild painting" to glass, with roots in the legacy of Pop art.[31] The uniqueness of her work among glass artists is based on imaginative figuration.[32] Some of the things Dana Zámečníková evokes in her work are reminiscent of circuses, fairy tales, theatre, diaries, infinity, magic,[33] or, as in Venice, of overseas voyages, glitz, misery, the swarming of human beings, luxury and poverty. Her drawings depict colourful, defiant courtesans in high boots, Jews with yellow caps, woven pillows, strange tassels and, proverbially, the smell of canals.Zámečníková is interested in the meaning and spatial context of the stories she depicts or re-creates (White Bride, Black Madonna, 1998).[34] Her installations consist of glass panes of unequal shape, size and inclination arranged in space, on which colourful drawings and paintings are recorded as fragments of experiences, ideas and impressions.[35] In addition to expressive painting, her works are influenced by the rhythm of movements, interpenetration, overlapping, mirroring and the appearance and disappearance of details when changing the point of view. In her spatial installations, she uses the optical properties of glass and the reflection of the surrounding space, which mix with the painted image and contribute to the final effect.[36]

Representation in collections

For an overview see[45] [46] [47]

Realisations

Exhibitions

Authors (selection)

Collective (selection)

Sources

Monographs

Author catalogues

Selected publications

Encyclopedias

Articles (selection)

External links

Notes and References

  1. Helmut Ricke ed., 2005, p. 9
  2. MN, Skleněné příběhy, Domov 3, 1987, pp. 37–39
  3. Joachim Kruse, 1985, p. 411
  4. https://www.lidovky.cz/orientace/kultura/sklo-sklenene-objekty-benatky-dana-zamecnikova-giudecca-crea.A230918_102732_ln_kultura_ape Michaela Šetlíková, Objekty, jimiž lze vejít do magického světa. Výstava v Benátkách představí české sklářské umělce / Objects that can be used to enter the magical world. Exhibition in Venice will present Czech glass artists, Lidovky 7.11.2023
  5. Sylva Petrová, in: Contemporary Glass, Nakama Gallery 1991
  6. http://www.happymaterials. com/en/dana-zamecnikova-4x-storm/ Dana Zámečníková: 4 x Storm, Galerie Kuzebauch
  7. Who is Who in Contemporary Glass Art, 1993, p. 623
  8. Sylva Petrová, České sklo / Czech Glass, 2001, pp. 96–97
  9. Alena Adlerová: Dana Zámečníková, in: Horová N (ed.), NEČVU, 1995, p. 946
  10. Eva Hejdová, Čas vrstveného snu / Time of the Layered Dream, Domov 12, 1994, s. 46–47
  11. Alena Adlerová, in: Horová N (ed.), NEČVU, 1995, pp. 945-946
  12. Sylva Petrová, 2001, pp. 225
  13. Light Transfigured - Contemporary Czech Glass Sculpture, 2000, p. 153
  14. Jiří Šetlík et al., in: Prostor, světlo, sklo / Space, Light, Glass, 1995
  15. Zbyšek Malý (ed.), 2010, p. 160
  16. https://www.kontobariery.cz/ Konto Bariéry
  17. Machalický J, 2005, p. 171
  18. Alena Adlerová, 1988, pp. 54–55
  19. Sylva Petrová, 2001, p. 254
  20. https://www.pragmoon.cz/clanky/dana-zamecnikova-zeme-v-oblacich Dana Zámečníková: Země v oblacích / Land in the Clouds, Prag Moon, 2022
  21. Jiří Machalický, in: Dana Zámečníková, 2005
  22. Artists for Children, SČVU 1979
  23. Sylva Petrová, 2001, pp. 162-163
  24. Kristian Suda: Dana Zámečníková - Objekty, Divadlo v Nerudovce / Objects, Theatre in Nerudovka, Prague 1980
  25. Expressions en verre, 2000, p. 44
  26. Eva Heyd, Viděni jako herci na jevišti současnosti / Seen as Actors on the Contemporary Stage, Ateliér 3, 1995, p. 12
  27. Pavla Rossini, in: Crossing Borders, 2009, unpaginated
  28. Langhamer A, 1999, p. 265
  29. Susanne Frantz, 1987
  30. Milan Hlaveš (ed.), 2015, p. 103
  31. Josef Hlaváček, in: Space, Light, Glass, 1995
  32. Jan Sekera, in: Glass and Space, 1998, unpaginated
  33. Karen S. Chambers: Artist and Magician, Glass 24, 1985
  34. Light Transfigured - Contemporary Czech Glass Sculpture, 2000, pp. 118–119
  35. Yuso Takezawa, in: Light Transfigured – Contemporary Czech Glass Sculpture, 2000, p. 30
  36. Čiháková-Noshiro, V: O skutečnosti za zrcadlem / About the Reality Behind the Mirror, Ateliér 1, 1995
  37. https://corningmuseum.photosandpictures.net/main.php/v/Dana+Zamecnikova_s+The+Little+Circus+at+Corning+Museum+of+Glass.jpg.html Dana Zámečníková, The Little Circus
  38. https://collections.mfa.org/objects/556145/endangered-family?ctx=4eee451c-1aba-4de5-bee9-d8ecb5368f48&idx=0 MFA Boston: Dana Zámečníková, Endangered Family
  39. https://www.upm.cz/gabriel-urbanek-glass-in-photograpgy/ Gabriel Urbánek: Dana Zámečníková
  40. https://sbirky.moravska-galerie.cz/katalog?author=Z%C3%A1me%C4%8Dn%C3%ADkov%C3%A1%2C+Dana Moravian Gallery in Brno: Dana Zámečníková
  41. http://www.gallery.cz/cgi-bin/hynekol/aps.sh?VSS_SERV=gobraz&galpre=1545&language=cz Dana Zámečníková: The Divided World (1990)
  42. https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O9486/panel-zamecnikova-dana/ Dana Zámečníková: Old Woman (1990)
  43. http://www.gallery.cz/cgi-bin/hynekol/aps.sh?VSS_SERV=gobraz&galpre=1554&language=cz Dana Zámečníková: Falling Deeper and Deeper II (1990)
  44. https://www.toledomuseum.org/about/news/sept-25-art-minute-dana-z%C3%A1me%C4%8Dn%C3%ADkov%C3%A1-theatre Dana Zámečníková: Theatre
  45. One Hundred Years of Bohemian Glass, Takasaki Museum of Art 2005, p. 132
  46. Light Transfigured - Contemporary Czech Glass Sculpture, 2000, p. 154
  47. Who is Who in Contemporary Glass Art, 1993, p. 624
  48. Alena Adlerová, Contemporary Czechoslovak Glass in Architecture, 1985, unpaginated
  49. Viktor Vondra, Exposition in the USA, Glass review 12, 1987, p. 23
  50. https://www.materialtimes.com/ptame-se/zeme-v-oblacich.html Material Times: Země v oblacích, MSB Jablonec
  51. https://ct24.ceskatelevize.cz/clanek/regiony/umelkyne-dana-zamecnikova-vytvorila-expozici-na-miru-muzeu-bizuterie-24026 The artist Dana Zámečníková created an exhibition tailored to the costume jewelry museum, Czech TV 2022
  52. https://maomai.cz/2023/09/06/czech-glass-fragile/ Czech Glass|Fragile, Venice Glass Week
  53. https://www.umprum.cz/cs/web/ateliery/uzite-umeni/sklo/czech-glass-fragile UMPRUM: Czech Glass - Fragile, Venice 2023