Luboš Plný
Renowned figure of contemporary art brut this Czech artist is fascinated by medical iconography. An expert in the mysteries of the anatomy he indulges - when he is not drawing - in all sort of performative experiences reminiscent of the Viennese Actionism. By testing the limits of the physical existence, he conjures death, sublimating life in its most organic form. His detailed works crafted with Indian Ink and acrylic entered the collection of the Centre Pompidou in 2013 and were displayed several times at la Maison rouge and in 2017 at Venice Biennal.
Since childhood, Luboš Plný has devoted himself to his two passions: drawing and anatomy. His fascination for the body led him to carry out all kinds of experiments on himself, made him an expert in the mysteries of anatomy, in the circulation of fluids and secretions. Drawing one of his organs would lead him to a form of meditation on the limits of his physical existence, a way of conjuring death, of sublimating life.
“His organic drawings, both precise and anatomically whimsical, show an almost worrying taste for decomposition and dissection,” wrote Roxana Azimi in 2012. Luboš Plný is the first art brut artist to have been acquired by the National Museum of Modern Art in 2013. In his works in India ink reworked using acrylic and often decorated with organic materials, Plný – who is convinced that drawing one of his organs would lead him to a form of meditation on the limits of his physical existence – delivers in a conjuratorial protocol his anatomical studies codified to the extreme.
The only son of a possessive mother, Luboš Plný devoted himself from childhood to his two passions: drawing and anatomy. He loves dissecting animals. This taste will never leave him. Transferred to a psychiatric hospital during his military service, he began to study the medical and psychiatric literature very seriously. Fascinated by decomposing bodies, he graduates as a gravedigger but is mainly employed as a model at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Hence the stamp with which he “signs” all his works: “Luboš Plný, academic model”. He also notes on his drawings the days and hours spent working there.
A major discovery of art brut, Luboš Plný was exhibited in Japan in 2012 at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art and the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art in Kobe. He has been shown twice at the Maison rouge in the exhibitions: Le Mur, works from Antoine de Galbert’s collection and art brut, abcd/Bruno Decharme collection.
