Three Figures

In 1933 Ladislav Zívr enthusiastically embraced Surrealism. He created Surrealist sculptures, devised his own technique which he called moulage that involved dipping found objects and naturalia into liquid plaster. This resulted in compositions consisting of undefined, overflowing or sprawling shapes that are reflected in his Surrealist relief Three Figures. The work depicts a horrific spectre of disintegrating human bodies impaled on a rod, whose anthropomorphic form is preserved only in the head area, whereas the bottom part metamorphoses into a shapeless, runny substance. The relief made on the basis of an imaginary experience evoked for the artist the tragic events in Spain, the reason why he added to it a text alluding to the ongoing Civil War: Hanged men on a stake / impaled with a wooden dagger / in the death of Spanish democracy.