1929
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(*1929, Přerov)
is an internationally acknowledged kinetic artist who continues to develop the program of dynamic constructivism (this is how it was named and formulated by the artist himself in 1988) in Slovakia based on the synthesis of form, light and motion. He was the first to introduce the issues of optic and visual – kinetic art to the Slovak art community. In the first half of the 1960s, along with other artists around the world, he began to explore the rationally impersonal language of object: from op-art easels (based on playing with optical illusion on the surface) he moved on to three-dimensional light-kinetic work. Through his ingenious use of the phenomena of reflection, reflexes and light refraction, fictitious – illusive and real motion, transparency and color intensity of surfaces and three-dimensional forms he promoted his objects to open luminodynamic and spatial structures and poetic metaphors of our technological era. He has implemented his works in the U.S., Japan, Argentina, Uruguay, Germany and in Slovakia. During his trip to North America and South America he implemented a light-kinetic program for the American Wind Symphony Orchestra (1971). He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava (1951 – 1956 under professors Ladislav Čemický and Dezider Milly). His complete works were exhibited at the Slovak National Gallery in 1995. He lives in Bratislava, where the private Milan Dobeš Museum was founded in 2001, and where his works and the works of similar constructivist artists are on display. Among other publications, Dobeš’s works are mentioned Frank Popper’s Origins and Development of Kinetic Art (London, 1968), and in one of the most significant overviews of new “media” sculpture, Udo Kultermann’s The New Sculpture / Environments and Assemblages (London, 1968). Selected international exhibitions: Kunst-Licht-Kunst,Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (1966), Konstruktive Tendenzen, Altstadtmuseum Fembohause, Nuremberg; Cinétisme. Spectacle. Environnement, Maison de la culture, Grenoble (1968); Documenta 4., Kassel (1968), X. bienal de São Paulo; ARS ´69, Ateneumin Taidemuseo, Helsinki; Tampereen Taidemuseo, Tampere (1969), EXPO ´70, Osaka (1970); Dynamo. Un siècle de lumière et de movement dans l´art. 1913 – 2013, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris (2013.) etc. Representation in collections: Hudson River Museum, New York; Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires; Museum Folkwang, Essen; Múzeum Milana Dobeša, Bratislava; Národní galerie v Praze, Prague; Slovenská národná galéria Bratislava, Galéria mesta Bratislavy, Bratislava; Galéria Nedbalka, Bratislava; Galerie Benedikta Rejta, Louny.
