Karel Malich:
14 Pastels from 2000 to 2016

Many admirers of Malich’s pastels were surprised by the way they radically changed in 2000. That year marked the end of the pure pastels he had started making in 1983, in which he achieved the effects of painting, and the start of a new creative period consisting of the masterful interconnection of painting and drawing, which was his lifelong love. The works he conceived using this technique preceded the final period of his oeuvre: in 2008, his artwork “erupted” into hanging and wall sculptures. These metamorphoses in form were yet another way the artist fulfilled his desire to always search and discover, which he used to captivate us his entire life. In 2016, there was a definitive end to Karel Malich’s creative work and he quietly stepped into seclusion. Famous and internationally respected, he passed away on 24 October 2019.

Zdeněk Sklenář, 13 April 2021