Background
Polasek, Albin was born on February 14, 1879 in Frenstate, Moravia. Son of Josef and Petronila (Knezek) Polasek.
Polasek, Albin was born on February 14, 1879 in Frenstate, Moravia. Son of Josef and Petronila (Knezek) Polasek.
Born as Albín Polášek in Frenštát, Moravia, part of the Austria-Hungary (now in the Czechoslovakian Republic), Polasek apprenticed as a wood carver in Vienna.
He created more than four hundred works during his career, two hundred of which are now displayed in the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens in Winter Park, Florida. At the age of 22 he emigrated to the United States and began formal art training at age 25 under Charles Grafly at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. As a student, he first produced Manitoba Carving His Own Destiny (1907) and Eternal Moment (1909).
At age 37, after periods of residence in Rome and New York City, he was invited to head the sculpture department at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he remained for nearly thirty years.
While there he created the original Forest Idyll. "Victorious Christ" for Saint Cecelia"s Cathedral in Omaha, Nebraska.
Kenilworth Memorial relief, Kenilworth, Illinois. "The Spirit of Music" in Grant Park in Chicago.
The "Woodrow Wilson Memorial in Prague, Czechoslovakian Republic.
Governor Richard Yates sculpture, capital grounds, Springfield, Illinois. And many other works. The Grell Family archive collection contains letters by Grell discussing Polasek"s move to Florida and becoming ill shortly after.
In 1950, Polasek retired at age 70 to Winter Park, Florida.
Within months he suffered a stroke that left his left side paralyzed. He subsequently completed eighteen major works with his right hand only, including "Victory of Moral Law," the artist"s comment on the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
In 1961, Polasek married Emily Muska Kubat. Emily M. K. Polasek died in 1988.
Like many other sculptors of his era, Polasek created several cemetery memorials.
Pictures of all three are featured in both biographies listed in the sources section.
Fellowship of America Academy in Rome. Appointed; member Board Art Advisers, State of Illinois, 1929. Club: Cliff Dwellers.
Home-Studio: 9 East. Ontario Saint, Chicago 60611.