There are artists who compose colour. There are artists who compose form. There are artists who compose movement, - I am one of those who combines all three.
|
Essentially, three regions of Europe influence Anna's imagination: Central
Europe, where she grew up (born 18th July 1940 in Cesky Krumlov), Paris and
the Côte d'Azur, and finally Tuscany, particularly Pietrasanta and the
Riviera Versiliese.
The legacy of her youth between Salzburg and Vienna is
primarily the influence of music, Mozart in particular. Only in 1989 was Anna
allowed
to see Prague again, when she put on
her first exhibition of paintings on Czech soil. Since then she has been welcomed
with open arms, notably for the great retrospective
of her sculptures held in 2000 as part of the official programme put on by
the city of Prague, cultural capital of
Europe, then with her Fountain
of Musicians and finally the Commendatore in
front of the theatre where Mozart's
Don Giovanni had its première
in 1789.
In Paris Anna receives her artistic and cultural training. Having arrived
at the end of 1968 after another student rebellion, Anna devotes herself
to her studies to the Academy of Fine Arts, at the l'Académie de la
Grande Chaumière and at the Sorbonne. What continues to make an impression
on her is the artistic trends of the Left Bank as well as the philosophers,
writers and singers of the time, Jacques Brel, Georges Brassens and Léo
Ferré. Albert Camus, whose Myth
of Sisyphus she was to later reinterpret,
opens up to her a new world, full of light, which is to be the essential
inspiration for the second part of her life: the Mediterranean.
After the Côte d'Azur first of all, where numerous monuments between
Nice and Menton bear witness to her activity as a sculptress, she settles
in Tuscany in 1990 in her studio in Pietrasanta on the Riviera Versiliesa.
This region of Michelangelo, which has seen the passage of the greatest sculptors
of our time, of Henry Moore at Botero, has become Anna Chromy's third artistic
home after Prague and Paris. Endowed with great studios of marble and renowned
foundries of art, the Tuscans are crazy about sculpture and know better than
anyone else how to recognize and appreciate true artists. Their admiration
for masterpieces is both vast and touching. They knew how to shower Anna
with honours, including such things as the Groupe
l’Odyssée à Forte
dei Marmi, and by erecting the statue entitled "Sisyphe
2004" in
the Scuola Superiore di Sant'Anna in Pisa, the most prestigious university
in the whole of Italy.
In 2005, the bicentenary of Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz,
Anna Chromy with her works steeped in the European civilisation mounted
a peaceful assault
on the Place Vendôme, one of the most beautiful locations on the continent.
The discovery of the chinese market at the end of 2005 inaugurated a new phase in Anna’s artistic life and the Coat of Peace and other ArchiSculpture projects in 2006 added another dimension to her creations.
|