Milan Dobeš, the pioneer of kinetic op-art, has his birthday today

29 Jul 2025

Portrait of thirty-three-year-old Milan Dobes with his work Target, which is also part of the exhibition at the Olomouc Museum of Art. Photo: Roman Bunčák

Milan Dobeš, a respected figure of kinetic and constructivist art, whose work shaped the Czech and Slovak art scene in the second half of the 20th century, turns 96 today. A tribute to this artist is a large retrospective exhibition of his works at the Olomouc Museum of Art, which can be visited until 7 September 2025.

The path of today’s birthday boy to internationally renowned artist was not at all easy for the native of Přerov, who lived most of his life in Slovakia. At the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava (1951-1956) he faced problems because of his “capitalist background”. A crucial moment and turning point in his career was a three-month stay in France, where he was able to go thanks to a fake marriage application. He came into contact with modern art, making a living painting street scenes.

In 1966 he was offered an exhibition at the House of Czechoslovak-Soviet Friendship in Prague, a bastion of socialist realism art, which ironically marked his breakthrough into the art world. The exhibition of light and kinetic objects in an attractive space on Wenceslas Square, which was originally planned as a “truc event”, attracted 56,000 visitors. It also attracted the attention of world-renowned theorists, including Frank Popper and Udo Kultermann, who ranked Dobeš among the key figures of kinetic art and op-art. Frank Popper subsequently invited Dobes to participate in the Kunst-Licht-Kunst exhibition in Eindhoven, the first post-war exhibition of its kind in the world.

Dobeš’s works then travelled to prestigious world exhibitions – Documenta 4 in Kassel (1968), EXPO ’70 in Osaka and the Montevideo Biennale in 1969, where he won the First Prize for Kinetic Sculpture. Alongside Victor Vasarely, Andy Warhol, Edward Kienholz and Martial Rayss, he was invited to Helsinki for the Ars 69 exhibition, where sixty of the world’s best artists exhibited. “How I got there, I don’t know, but I was there. And Kolář was there with me,” Milan Dobeš recalled almost half a century later for a film documentary by the Museum of Art. His position among the key representatives of world constructivism was confirmed in 2013 by his participation in the prestigious exhibition “Dynamo. A Century of Light and Motion in Art 1913-2013” at the Grand Palais in Paris, which recapitulated a century of kinetic art. From the former Czechoslovakia, only František Kupka and Milan Dobeš were selected for the exhibition.

An equilibrist working with light and movement, Milan Dobeš is the creator of precise op art prints and large-scale spatial kinetic objects. A refined illusionist and colourful minimalist working rationally, yet achieving surprisingly emotive works. His work alters the reality of space, immersing the viewer in his vibrant works and transporting them to other worlds.

More about the exhibition