See works by Czech painter/scenographer at Center for the Visual Arts

March 24, 2009 | Arts
By Angela Riddel



Malina

Malina

A multimedia display of the work of Czech artist Jaroslav Malina, who is well-known for his paintings and designs for the stage, will be on exhibit at the Center for the Visual Arts Gallery on UT’s Toledo Museum of Art Campus Tuesday, March 24, through Wednesday, April 29.

There will be a public opening reception of the exhibit Friday, March 27, from 6 to 9 p.m. in the gallery. Dr. Joseph Brandesky, professor of theatre at Ohio State University at Lima and curator of this traveling exhibit, will host the reception and provide a walking tour of the exhibit.

Malina’s work is touring the United States. Prior to coming to Toledo, the second stop on the tour, it was exhibited in San Antonio. Upcoming stops will include Lima and Columbus in Ohio, and Alfred University in Alfred, N.Y. The exhibit includes 68 works as well as a recorded interview with the artist.

Jaroslav Malina designed this set for a 1985 production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

Jaroslav Malina designed this set for a 1985 production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

His career spans more than 40 years and includes more than 450 set and costume designs for theatre, film and television, as well as 30 one-man exhibitions of his scenography work, paintings, graphics and posters. His non-stage work, or “free work” as he calls it, and his scenic designs are inextricably linked.

“In both fields, one finds Malina expressing his abundant sense of abstraction, eroticism, contradiction, humor,” Brandesky said.

Born in Prague in 1937, Malina studied at Charles University and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He has served as a faculty member at universities in the United States, Japan, Finland and Great Britain, and as the general commissioner of the Prague Quadrennial (International Theatre Design and Architecture Exposition). He has been a member of the board for the commissioner general of the Czech section of EXPO Aichi 2005 in Japan. In recent years, his designs for operas have been staged in Germany and Italy.

Jaroslav Malina's drawing of the set for the 1985 production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

Jaroslav Malina's drawing of the set for the 1985 production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

His work is represented in the collections of Prague’s National Gallery, National Museum, Museum of Decorative Arts, Museum of Czech Music and Theatre Institute. In the United States, his work can be seen at the Theatre Research Institute at Ohio State University, the Performing Arts Library and Museum in San Francisco, and in many U.S. and international public and private collections.

The free, public exhibit can be seen Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

For more information, call the UT Department of Art at 419.530.8300 or go to www.utoledo.edu/as/art.

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