Leo Schimanszky

Art Brokerage: Leo Schimanszky Canadian Artist: B. 1943. In 1966 a Viennese-born artist, 23 years of age, emigrated to Canada and made his home in Montreal. A quarter of a century later, in 1991, sculptor Leo Schimanszky returned to Europe to continue his career here. He has not, though, entirely forsaken his adoptive country, nor his lavish residence in Hudson near Montreal. It's small park was laid out as a setting for outdoor sculptures; it's trout pond is fed by a stream as turbulent and vigorous as the man who designed it. Leo Schimanszky brings this stream to mind; or perhaps a torrent swollen by an uneasing springtime of inspiration, by the abundance of plans which crowd his mind, their natural energy released in a stream of work. It was a far cry from the small, impromptu sculpture garden which the teenager created at the family's inn in Vienna to the monumental fountain which the fully-fledged artist was to fashion fifteen or sixteen years later, in 1975, for a shopping mall in the Montreal area. He continues to evolve as an artist, though retaining the same passion in his evocation of the forces and mysteries of Nature and of man in palpable form.Inevitably, some of Schimanszky's sculptures evince the influence of Henry Moore or Hans Arp, his "masters" who had such a fruitful impact on his own work and who themselves derived their inspiration from their more or less ancient antecedents. yet who can justly claim to have originated modern sculpture, or the theme of the mother and child, or bronze patina? It is the individual contribution which every artist makes that counts. For a quarter of a century now Schimanszky has been evolving an energy and inspiration in his work, which been shown in countless exhibitions in Canada, the United States and Europe. The several hundred collectors who have acquired his sculptures are now beginning to take an interest in his paintings and in his recent monoprints. As a sculptor, Schimanszky has a superb command of marble, aluminum and bronze. He abjures the polished finish in flavor of sumptuous and voluptuous patina. It is the curve which composes and orchestrates his work, articulating the perceptions derived from Nature, from the human body, and from animal and plant life. In the same way, it is the curve which provides the inspiration for his stylisation and reduction of his models, which he recreates in his own forms-dense, imbued with both tension and tenderness, discipline and freedom, solitude and exuberance. Leo Schmimanszky plans to explore his creative energies in a European context now, and we wish him all the success he deserves. At the same time we hope he will not forget that it was in and around Montreal that his career began and he made his name. It was also in his studio in Hudson that, in the summer of 1991, Schimanszky's output took on a new ebullience, imbued with an energy which testified to the maturing of his art. A dozen maquettes on a table, bearing witness to the fact that, against the background of today's cluttered artistic styles, the sculptor is still capable of the tour de force of evoking a highly personal image. Also in his studio: four shapes fashioned in fiberglass, in a subtle red, standing on white pedestals, their visual impact a standing invitation to dream of fabled gardens setting up sensual harmonies with Nature; an antidote to the drabness and increasing pollution of our cities.