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bjbj This is a sculpture by the Czech artist Marian Karel. A student of Stanislav Libensk
, Marion Karel also uses geometric forms for his sculptures. What you are looking at is
a large black cube, but it is not just a cube. What about this sculpture is different? If
you look closely, you will see that each of the sides of the sculpture, the top, and even
the bottom are slightly bulging; they are bowing outward. The sculpture does not sit
flat on the platform, but rather is raised. Karel does this purposely, and what he wants
us to imagine is that there is something inside of the cube, some sort of energy that is pushing
the walls of the cube outward. This sculpture illustrates a principle that Stanislav Libensky
taught to his students. He said, Abstraction in art is like an egg: you can have a very
clean, minimal shape on the outside, but it has to be enlivened by something warm and
mysterious inside of it. What he meant by this, is that abstract art must be enlivened
by an internal energy. If you look at the label for this sculpture, you will see a small
drawing, and that is Karel s theoretical idea for the energy inside of the cube. This energy,
or internal dynamo, is made up of interlocking geometric shapes. In this sculpture, and in
many of the other sculptures in this gallery, you can see how the artist explores the contradictory
nature of glass. Contemporary artists work with materials for a reason; they choose glass
for a reason, and so some of the things they investigate in using glass as a material are
its unique properties. Glass is transparent, and glass is also opaque. Glass is fragile,
yet it is also strong. Glass absorbs light, and it also reflects light. Glass has optical
properties, which you can see in this cube in the distortion of your reflection in the
surface. h:.m h:.m h:.m gd:.m :p:.m This is a sculpture by the Czech artist Marian Karel
WrightDC Normal.dot WrightDC Microsoft Word 10.0 The Corning Museum of Glass This is a
sculpture by the Czech artist Marian Karel Title Microsoft Word Document MSWordDoc Word.Document.8