Luboš Plný

Plný depicts the body, usually human but occasionally animal, in horizontal, vertical, and lateral cross-sections as if looking at it using tomography. He often combines various angles of view in the same picture and creates a precise record of each individual layer: skin, musculature, bones, circulatory system, and organs. Some anatomical details, especially the head and sexual organs, are done with extreme precision, while others are merely sketched or left out entirely. The anatomical cross-sections in Plný's pictures are a montage consisting of drawings made on the basis of 19th-century anatomical guides, X-ray images, photographs of Madonnas, models, or items exhibited at the La Specola anatomical museum in Florence, Italy. He takes images from various eras out of their original context and places them into new relationships with their own personal story. Mostly, he focuses on specific events in his life. He understands his anatomical drawings primarily as a “mental space,” as reconstructions of things we know, rather than representations of what can be seen.

Luboš Plný has been photographed by Jaroslav Brabec, Mario Del Curto (who exhibited a series of portraits as part of the Art Brut Live exhibition at the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague in 2015), Bruno Decharme, Vladimír Štěpanský, František Vaňásek and Martin Watch (as part of the series Unique Individuals). In 2016 this photographic series was among the finalists for the prestigious FEP FETA Award in Amsterdam.

One source of inspiration for Plný was the birth of his son Vincent (2005), which he documented in several of his works. Ever since undergoing surgery to remove a part of his thyroid gland, this organ has been blacked out on his drawings. Sometimes he even includes actual photographs from his operation.

Luboš Plný's first and the most important project that might be called “conceptual” was the six-year period during which he worked as a model at Prague's Academy of Fine Arts with the goal of obtaining the title of “Academic Model.” During this time, which was the average length of study at the Academy, he perfected his posture, studied art history, and collected a broad range of doctor's assessments, recommendations from leading artists, or photographs showing him in famous poses from the history of art (Myron's Discobolus, Rodin's Thinker, Leonardo da Vinci's John the Baptist, Jacques-Louis David's Death of Marat...). The project even received a grant from the Center for Contemporary Art. In 1999 his request was approved by the school's arts council and the following year chancellor Jiří T. Kotalík officially presented him with the title of “Academic Model” at the graduation ceremony at the Monastery of St. Agnes of Bohemia. Since then he signs his works by a stamp with his title: “Academic Model Luboš Plný.”

In 1989 Plný moved to Prague, where he spent the next several years holding down various jobs. He painted tin soldiers and was a janitor at a department store, a sales clerk at an antiquarian bookshop, and a security guard at a gallery. In 2004 he even took a gravedigging course. He began to take a deeper interest in the causes of his insomnia, studied medical literature and anatomical guides, and attended autopsies. His drawings from that time were a form of self-therapy.

Luboš Plný was born in Česká Lípa (then Czechoslovakia). He was an only child of parents, employed at Czechoslovak Railways. He began making drawings in childhood, and was also interested in anatomy, which he studied by dissecting dead animals. He apprenticed as an electrician at a railway vocational school in Nymburk. In 1983, he did his basic military service, but the stressful environment caused him to suffer from depression, sleep disorders, and hallucinations, and he repeatedly had problems with insubordination. He was subsequently diagnosed with schizophrenia simplex and hospitalized. He spent the next six years working for the Czechoslovak Railways in northern Bohemia. In his free time, he taught painting courses and also trained in bodybuilding and powerlifting. At age 27, he was given a disability pension.

In the late 1980s, Plný twice applied unsuccessfully to the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. In 1989, he began to sit as a model for the figure drawing classes with the aim of earning the then-non-existent title of “Academic Model,” which he invented himself and was officially presented with by the school's chancellor, Jiří T. Kotalík, in the year 2000. Plný says, “I realized that I’d rather be the best model than a mediocre artist.” He nevertheless continued to focus on making his own art.

Luboš Plný (born 4 November 1961) is a Czech painter and conceptual artist, usually classified as a creator of art brut. His work can be found in many important collections in the Czech Republic and elsewhere. He is the only Czech artist invited to the 2017 international exhibition Viva Arte Viva! at the 57th Venice Biennale. He lives and works in Prague.