Stanislav Kolíbal was born in Orlová in 1925. The Second World War delayed the beginning of his artistic training. Although he was accepted in 1944 at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague to study graphic design, he was only able to begin his training the following year. He studied there from 1945 to 1951 under Antonín Strnadel, and then went on to study stage design at the Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU) in Prague from 1951 to 1954, under František Tröster. After graduating, he taught there until 1959. A second teaching experience saw him lead the sculpture-installation studio at Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts.
A career fraught with hurdles has seen Kolíbal’s beginnings as a painter, illustrator, typographer and set designer slowly transition towards mural objects and hybrid spatial installations, for which he is best known today. In the 1960s, he co-founded and ran the artist group UB 12, before being forbidden from showing work in his native Czechoslovakia for the following decade (specifically from 1973 to 1980). Despite these trials, the artist has developed a unique sensibility that renegotiates the vocabulary of minimal art and Arte Povera.
As a result of these periods of hindrance, Kolíbal has not exhibited as much as he could have done, but has still marked national and international scenes with his work throughout his career, including: Sculpture from 20 Nations, Guggenheim, New York (1967); Between Man and Matter, Metropolitan Art Gallery, Tokyo (1970); Konstrukcja w procesie, Museum of Art, Łodż (1981); Transforming Chronologies, MoMA, New York (2006); and Other Primary Structures, Jewish Museum, New York (2014). He has also held solo exhibitions at the Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan (1983), the National Gallery Prague (1997, 2015) and Labil – Stabil, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (2000).
Kolíbal’s home country eventually re-embraced his artistic legacy. He was awarded the State Medal of Merit by President Václav Klaus in 2005, and was honoured with major retrospectives at Prague’s National Gallery in 1997 and at the Prague Castle Riding Hall in 2012. Internationally, the impact of his work is best illustrated by his participation in Other Primary Structures, a survey of art from the 1960s held at the Jewish Museum in New York.
Kolíbal lives and works in Prague.
