Milan Grygar

Milan Grygar was born on 24 October 1926 in Zvolen, Slovakia. After graduating from the College of Applied Arts, Prague (where he studied under Professor Emil Filla) he concentrated on still lifes which evolved into colour compositions devoid of subject matter. In 1964 the artist produced a series of 64 black-and-white drawings on the principle of a linear sequence. Working in a fast rhythm, the artist could "hear" the drawing he was creating. From there, it was only a step to a discovery that was to define his future artistic career and bring him renown. Grygar made a tape of a precise acoustic recording of the drawing's origin. In 1965, the artist started to pursue the relationship between drawing and sound, and in 1966 exhibited his first acoustic drawings with accompanying tape recordings. These New Drawings led him to the direction known as the New Music, and were followed by large drawings and paintings recording hand movements. The next stage concerned mechanic-acoustic drawings in which the artist employed resounding mechanisms as drawing tools. A new comprehensive series entitled Ground-plan Scores started to take shape in 1967. In the series, drawings are composed as projections of "spread" sounds. In 1970, Grygar held a performance called Audiovisual Relations in the Ales Hall, Prague, in the course of which he executed an acoustic drawing as well as a unique haptic drawing, which the artist entered as a material being producing a drawing with his fingers, without the supervision of sight.
Similar performances took place in Brno (1968; 1973, including Homage to Magic), Lodz (1974), Prague (1985), and at a festival in Gent (1986). The artist renders all his drawings and paintings as scores based on different principles (e.g. colour scores in which he sets a precise list of musicians and sound sources, architectural, 12 horizons etc.). Another spur for a sound interpretation was provided by sound-relief drawings which Grygar explored from 1972. In 1976, this system of a rhythmical square grid gave way to the linear principle in drawings which can be also interpreted acoustically. Large-format drawings referred to as spatial scores are offset by White Images (1980).
In 1986 Milan Grygar participated in the Chambres d'Amis international event in Gent. The last phase of his work is associated with Black Images on the principle of black planes and colour lines in which the key part is played by fixed light. Milan Grygar's acoustic drawings were published by Supraphon on two LP's in 1969 and 1976.