Ivan Theimer: renowned Czech-born sculptor celebrates 80th birthday
This week marks the 80th birthday of Ivan Theimer, one of the most prominent contemporary Czech sculptors, who is based in France and Italy. His monumental bronze artworks, which draw inspiration from the works of old masters, can be found all over Europe, including the Elysée Palace in Paris.
Ivan Theimer was born on 18 September, 1944 in Olomouc into an art-loving family. He studied at a school of decorative arts in Uherské Hradiště, but due to his family background he wasn’t admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague.
Following the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact armies in August 1968, he decided to move to France. This is how he described his escape from communist Czechoslovakia for the Memory of the Nations project:
“I was lucky. Three months before I got permission from the artists' union in Olomouc to get a passport. I wanted to go to the Matisse exhibition in Paris and Nice and they organized a trip with artists from Olomouc. Then the occupation happened, but I already had the passport. So I took the train to Prague to visit the French embassy. I was given a stamp and I went on to Munich.”
Starting out in Paris wasn’t easy, but he eventually received a scholarship enabling him to study at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-arts. After graduation, he started work in a studio run by an elderly Italian refugee called Colomarini:
“He had an old studio where they produced classical works. And inside there were two tents made of jute sacks and behind them there were two Russians who used axes to cut statues. It was an incredible atmosphere, seeing that each of us refugees was completely different."
One of the people who helped him organize his first exhibitions was a gallery owner, editor and a key intellectual figure in Paris, Marcel Zerbib.
“Zerbib had the first surrealist gallery after WW II., located on the Saint-Germain Boulevard by Diderot's statue. His brother Armand Zerbib organized my first exhibition in 1971. All of the exhibitions I had at his gallery turned out well. This is how it started. Certain collectors were interested, and I gradually established links to Lyon, Geneva and to Italy."
By the 1980s Theimer had done a number of successful public installations in several European countries, including a group of three obelisks for the Elysée Palace and the Monument of Human Rights in Paris. He has presented his works at international exhibitions, such as the 1978 Paris Biennale and the 1982 Venice Biennale.
The artist, who divides his time between France and Tuscany, has never lost touch with his homeland. In June 2016 he received the Friends of Czech Art Award from the Minister of Culture for spreading the good name of Czech culture abroad.
He also created several artworks for his native country, including the Arion’s fountain in Olomouc inspired by Greek mythology or the memorial to Comenius in Uherský Brod.
