Polášek: Americký sochař, „velký a věrný syn našich hor“
| Title in English | Polasek: American sculptor, "a great and faithful son of our mountains" |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Requested lectures |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | In 1901, Albín Polášek, a native of Frenštát, decided to board an ocean liner and emigrate to the United States at the age of twenty-two. He left as a woodcarver trained in Vienna, but it was only in America that he became a successful sculptor. Thanks to his studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, he had the opportunity to spend several years at the American Academy in Rome and later worked for almost 30 years as a teacher at the Art Institute of Chicago. Although Polášek liked to return to his native region and created several public sculptures for Czechoslovakia, his work must be viewed in the context of American sculpture at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, i.e. the environment in which he received his formal art education and in which he built his successful sculptural career. The lecture will show that although Polášek was at heart a native of the Beskydy Mountains, he truly became an American sculptor. |