NEFERTITI Sculpture

Jiří Mašek calls himself a sculptor - clerk. His hands work on the stories that are written on people's faces. For this, he chooses the faces that appeal to him and whose stories are simply exhilarating... He comes from Písek, where he studied at the Secondary Industrial School, majoring in Artistic Metal Processing. Of the artistic fields, he was always attracted by sculpture, he also tried various materials, but he was most interested in lead. Lead casting contains a certain artistic randomness, the resulting work is rough, yet full of random fine details. "The heads were first created from clay according to a series of photographs. After molding, I cast either with plaster or lead. Lead usually destroys the mold, so only a few pieces can be cast, sometimes just one. I paint lead castings with lead paints or acetic acid with blue scale. When they are heated and painted, they have different shades. Then I put it on the stone, which I work and polish." The heads are not only a reflection, a rendering of photographs of well-known personalities, but mainly a confession, capturing a moment of connection on a personal level, linked to the personality of Jiří Mašek. As he himself says: "...I wouldn't put so much work into the head of someone I don't respect...personalities cast in lead, moreover, last forever." Thanks to their processing and structure, each of the faces offers the visitor the opportunity to reflect the stories that we all experience and everyone is a little different. The sensitive grasp of detail, the strength of the material and the roughness of its execution reflect their life story, speaking through the sculptor's hands. The immediate proximity, the opportunity to look into the eyes of a personality that we would otherwise never meet face to face, becomes a moment for dialogue, personal confession, or self-reflection.