Your name is your destiny.
When Anna Chromy chose in the early years of her artistic career as her artists name the maiden name of her Prague born mother,
she was certainly not aware of the influence this choice would exercise on her life. For the next 20 years as painter,
colour was her daily companion, but this changed dramatically when she turned her interest to sculpture.
At that time the foundries in her artists home in Pietrasanta, Tuscany, followed strictly what they considered as the only
correct canon for the coloration of a bronze cast - “natural green or brown.” In fact this canon only repeated the belief
of the last 500 years that a figurative sculpture had to look like those from ancient greek or roman times as far as the patina is concerned.
But as we all know by now this was a misconception of antiquity caused by the deteorations over the centuries.
In reality all ancient art, whether marble or bronze, was brightly colored, including the Acropolis in Athens.
This new knowledge has liberated modern sculpture from its monochromic, monotonic existence and allows for a new dimension
used by every artist according to his temperament and concept. Many, especially in the United States,
use it as a multi-patina in order to reproduce as closely as possible the naturalistic aspect, others, like Picasso,
Gauguin, Marini, use it as a contemporary dimension to sculpture where free colors are applied expressionistically.
Anna Chromy chooses this later route using the same egg tempera technique as on her canvasses.
In this way she obtains wonderfully soft shades of “Turner” like colours, which, mixed with polished,
translucent surfaces, give her bronzes a totally new dimension, making this type of polychromy the trademark of annachromy.
