Zdeněk Pešánek

Born 1896. Died 1965. Sculptor, architect and kinetic artist.

Kinetic artist. Designed "colour piano", which added lighting effects to the music (1000 light bulbs with 238 tones of colour; the light patterns or 'score' corresponded to the perforated rolls of the player-piano and were replaceable), built by Petrof company (1928), exhibited in the Czechoslovak pavilion for the Universal Exhibition in Paris (1937).

Wrote about electronic machines fulfilling miracles in his book Kinetismus (1940). Was able to produce a light-kinetic sculptural painting, where the keys could also trigger the scenic means of the painting and the colour changes within the illuminated embossment work, in dynamic interplay with a mechanical spectrophone (reflector play). Real instrument, technically well executed and managed by Erwin Schulhoff.

Pesanek designed light and kinetic sculptures for architectural settings from department stores to the electricity generating housings in CS in the 1920s and 1930s.

His most widely known and seen work of art is Czechoslovak Spa Fountain (1937) that he displayed at the Czechoslovak pavilion at the World’s Fair in Paris in 1937. In the middle of a pool, Pesanek placed one vertical and one horizontal torso made from fiberglass; a long neon bulb protruding from the upper part of each torso curving towards the lower part of the torso in awkward angles accentuated not only the exterior, but simultaneously illuminating the interior. “In addition to neon pipes in two colors, several sections of colored light bulbs ran through the work alternating with white light bulbs. The changing colored light also enriched the play of light through the water beneath the pool.” And the whole work was coordinated to light in rhythmic synchronization with music. Although the public and French press was undoubtedly captivated by such a creation, critics at home considered his work marginal and an “undignified representation” of his native country. Interestingly, Pesanek himself considered this only a study and was faintly disappointed by its completion. He wanted to include an additional set of illuminated jetting columns of water with search lights, but it was never fulfilled for reasons of space. When it was proposed to rebuild this fountain somewhere in Prague, a site was selected; however, the fateful year of 1938 came and the realization of this piece could never be fulfilled. [1]

Other works

• One Hundred Years of Electricity, for Zenger's transformer station in Prague-Klárov, 1932-36 [2]
• Monument to the Aviators, on which he worked from 1925 through the 1930s
• The Third Five-Year Plan, created for the exhibition Fifteen Years of the Czechoslovak Republik, Moscow, 1960

Articles and books by Pešánek

• Kinetismus. (Kinetika ve vytvarnictvi - barevna hudba), Prague: Ceske graficke umeni 1941 - Octavo, 144pp
• "Bildende Kunst vom Futurismus zur Farben- und Formkinetik (Mit Vorfuehrung eines Farbe-Ton-Klaviers)", in: Georg Anschutz (ed.), Farbe-Ton-Forschungen, Vol. 1, Hamburg: Meissner, 1931, pp. 193-204

Articles about Pešánek

• Jana Matulová, "Barevná hudba. Bakalářská diplomová práce", Brno, 2008 [3]
• Mahulena Nešlehová, "Impulses of Futurism and Czech Art", International futurism in arts and literature; Berlin; New York; Walter de Gruyter, 2000. [4]
• Jiri Zemánek: "Zdenek Pešánek", in: Lanterna magika: New technologies in Czech art of the 20th century, Praha: KANT, 2002. [5]

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