The center of Zlín is adorned with a complete modern sculpture by Karel Nepraš

ZLÍN - The center of Zlín has been adorned since today with a complete modern sculpture by Karel Nepraš (1932 to 2002), which was destroyed by vandals a few years ago. The sculpture titled Dialog VIII was left as just a fragment - the busts of two central figures without heads. The original heads were destroyed. Nepraš then complemented the sculpture with new heads expressing different emotions, which were stolen. However, one of them was found, allowing the artists to repair the sculpture once again.
"According to the original part of the sculpture, I made a plaster model of the head, based on which a ceramic mold was created, and then two copies were cast from fine pressed casting stone," explained academic sculptor Radim Hanke to journalists, who participated in the repair of the sculpture.
Nepraš created the sculpture for the exhibition Prostor Zlín, which took place in the city center in 1994. It was originally located in a park, where a Cultural and University Center will be built. "The company responsible for installing the sculpture at that location did not meet the requirements, and the heads remained removable. The vandals discovered that this made it very easy to destroy the statue," noted gallery director Ludvík Ševeček. He added that Nepraš had even had additional parts of the heads cast during his lifetime so they could be replaced if necessary.
The sculpture is owned by the city of Zlín, which paid several tens of thousands of crowns for the repair. However, the original head will remain stored in the depository of the Zlín Regional Gallery of Fine Arts, which also helped with relocating the sculpture to its new location. The sculpture now decorates the park near the city cultural institute Alternativa.
Artist Karel Nepraš primarily used his own casts and plumbing materials in his creations. In the 1970s and 1980s, he was not allowed to exhibit, so his work was limited. After November 1989, he became a recognized artist again and in 1991 took up a professorship at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts. In 2002, he was posthumously awarded a state honor for outstanding artistic achievements. His last work, realized only in 2005, is the monument to Jaroslav Hašek in Prague's Žižkov district.