Rudolf Uher — A Girl

Rudolf Uher was a unique artist of the Slovak sculpting scene of the 20th century – a nonconformist solitaire. He is considered one of the founding figures of a new Slovak sculpting tradition. He worked on both subtle and monumental projects that could be classified as a combination of figurative and abstract tendencies. He is known for using combinations and synthesis, whether it is the case of massive materials and delicate lyricism or local themes and archetypal symbolism. His early works typically use figurative motives that he started leaving behind in the early 1960s when his focus switched to non-figurative, reduced and geometric shapes. Most of his work was based on the relationship of nature (Earth), its forms and materials (he mostly used stone, wood, clay and sometimes metal) and human.

The wooden sculpture titled simply A Girl is a part of the Nitra Gallery’s collection. It dates to the artist’s period of depicting bodily forms – these often included heads, torsos or full female figures. The realistic, anatomically perfect young girl’s figure stands on a pedestal made of the same piece of wood. Her arms are lifted with her right one bent in the elbow and behind her head while the head is resting on the left one. Her left leg is in a light contraposition – it is positioned opposite to the right one which seems to be bearing most of the weight as it is slightly bent. This posture adds vigour and dynamics to the overall composition. Uher’s approach combines classical human posture guidelines with modernist modelling and detail reduction. The polished surface of the statue has an interesting effect as it does not resemble wood at first sight. Its colour and structure rather seem to correspond to bronze. Even though the statue is not one of the artist’s best works, its simple and natural graciousness and fragility    attest to his return (even though a temporary one) to his creative beginnings.