Jan Koblasa

Modelling

At the Teplice Gymnasium (Boredom, 1952) and later during his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Koblasa focused on sculpting portraits (Syphilitic Girl, 1953; Self-Portrait, 1954; Portrait of Mary, 1957). As an undisputed talent, he received awards from his school, a prize at an exhibition of young sculptors in Vienna, and a creative scholarship as graduate. In contrast to his school assignments, which were predominantly realistic in style, his free-form portraits reflected a persistent sense of personal threat from the Stalinist regime of the time and carried a strongly existential undertone (We're in It Up to Our Necks, 1957, He Who Is Afraid, 1957; Salome—or How Easy It Is to Lose One's Head, 1957).

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  Boredom, bronze (1952)
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  Syphilitic Girl (1953)
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  Portrait of miss D (1957)
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  Portrait of Mary (1957), Museum Kampa
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  Salome — or How Easy It Is to Lose One's Head (1956)

By the late 1950s, he had already moved rapidly away from realistic portraits toward simplifying and flattening the forms of his figures (The Return of the Prodigal Son, 1958) and, by eliminating representational elements, toward radical abstraction (the reliefs The Labyrinth of the World, 1958). Koblasa thus responded to the oppressive atmosphere of the 1950s by exploring primordial human messages and returning to rituals and biblical and archaic myths. The search for a point of reference and a new starting point became both a spiritual source and one of the fundamental tendencies of his work. Myth encompassed all human deeds as well as the sum of ancient traditions and binding norms. Depicting mythical figures meant stepping outside one's own time and becoming a participant in ancient stories.

The sculpture The Return of the Prodigal Son is an expression of Koblas's meditative focus and represents a basic form that, despite its expressive economy, is capable of conveying a complex message. The two-dimensional shell of the body bears the traces of lived experience, while the ovoid head is a zone of harmony and spiritual balance. In his later works, the elemental primitivism of the overall form is combined with sensitive modeling, and despite its apparent brutality, it avoids all the pitfalls of academic training (Magdalene, 1959; St. Sebastian, 1958, Young man weeping, 1961). The internal continuity of his artistic vision was also evident in the largest commission he received in the second half of the 1960s—the relief "Gateway to Space" for the new Ruzyně Airport building (covering an area of 4.5 x 42 m in the main departure hall). This monumental work was based on Koblasa's richly figurative and imaginative interpretation of the Apocalypse, a subject he had explored in previous years.

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  The Prodigal Son (1958)
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  Reclining young woman (1958)
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  St. Sebastian (1958)
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  St. Magdalene (1959)
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  Young man weeping (1961)

Driven by the need to capture the experience of life, the theme of the head at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s evolved into a drama of psychological processes (Head, 1959; Model of My Brain, 1961). Instead of the usual modeling of the skull and face, Koblasa uses imprints whose dynamic structure evokes the activity of vital forces. The idea of the imprint is symbolically interpreted in the series Veronica's Veil, whose expressiveness reveals the materiality of the artwork as a dark and dense plan of realization, where personal psychological energies intersect with universal spiritual symbolism. The Offering series (1960), a collection of double-sided reliefs made of patinated plaster and installed in space, marks a transition to the wooden sculptures of the early 1960s.

Koblasa then returned to modeling in a series of sculptures through which he sought to come to terms with the trauma of emigration. The depiction of the head here ranges from amorphousness to highly stylized modeling, conveying the personal losses and feelings of despair, anguish, and uncertainty associated with forced exile (Lamenta, 1970; Sticking Out the Tongue, 1970; Yellow River, 1971; Ecce Homo, 1972). The intensity of the expression, in which the polyvalent, formless head contrasts with the naturalistically rendered protruding tongue, evokes a range of associations, from defiance to despair and helplessness. The installation Big vomiter – Ecce homo takes this statement to the extreme as the body's immediate reaction to psychological trauma. The Laments series (1970) depicts an inward-turned, wounding, and agonizing torment. The urgency of the sculptures is underscored by cracked vaults, which transform them into structures of pain, as well as by realistically rendered details—such as hands clasped over the head or gaping mouths with exposed teeth. In 1970, Koblasa reached the depths of his crisis and broke free from rock bottom with the series of sculptures Attempt at a Smile. The sculpture is an expression of contemplation leading to liberation from pain and the regaining of mental balance. It is followed by drawings and wooden and stone sculptures on the theme of Buddha, with the open hole serving as a symbol of openness toward the unknown.

A frequent theme is theatre (Hamlet, 1974) or literary works — The Wailing Wall (1974), inspired by James Joyce's book Ulysses.

Synthetic materials

Some of the sculptures were created under difficult conditions shortly after his emigration, and their subject matter also called for a specific artistic treatment. These include the series Lamenta, Sticking Out the Tongue (1970), and the installation Ecce homo (The Big Vomit) (1972), as well as The Wailing Wall — originally created as clay models and later cast in plastic. The spatial installations Yellow river (Léthé), Trap (1971) and The Last Round and Happy End (1973) are also made of colored plastic. These represent the position of the individual in a world that is limited and yet open to the outside.

Some of his later sculptures combine plastic and polychrome wood (Hamlet-Polonius, Intimacy, 1974). The sculpture The Pink Cavalier (1970) combines the modeling of highly sensual physiological tension with the rigidity of the wooden support-shell.

The small-scale sculptures (Laments, Sticking Out the Tongue) were later cast in bronze, as was The Wailing Wall (1974)

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  Trap (1970)
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  Sticking Out the Tongue (1970)
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  Ecce homo (The Big Vomit) (1972)
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  Laments (1970)
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  Laments II (1970)
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  Lament of Job (1970)
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  The last round (1973)
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  Happy End (1973-74)
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  Hamlet (Polonius), 1973-1974
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  Intimacy (1974)

Fired clay and ceramics

Ceramic clay, as an easily accessible material, initially helped him get through the early years of his emigration (Yellow River, Lethe, Birds, 1971; small glazed clay sculptures of Buddha, 1973). In collaboration with ceramicists, he later created engraved drawings on ceramic vases (1974) and painted vases (1975). He returned to fired, engobed clay in the series Golem (1983), Exodus (1996), and an installation Barokoko - windows for the Klenová Ceramics Symposium in 2012.

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  Head (1959)
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  Barokoko - windows, baked engobed clay (2012)

Wood

After completing his studies, Koblasa devoted himself exclusively to painting and graphic art, returning to sculpture, this time in wood, in 1962, when he came across a felled elm tree in the garden of the house. His works emerged from a fierce, impulsive struggle with the material to achieve a new richly structured and expressive form — from cutting, chopping, drilling, and working with chisels to the final purification by fire and preserving. The emphasized verticality of the sculptures refers to the figurative foundation and the upright posture as the primary position of human existence in relation to the world.

In the years that followed, this intense focus gave rise to series of figurative sculptures (Dwarfs, 1962; Kings, 1962; Madonnas, 1964; Splitting, 1965; Prophets, 1966; False Prophets, 1966; In Praise of Oblivion 1968) as well as abstract symbols (Target, 1963; Anointed Head, 1963; Bad Omen, 1964). The larger-than-life Nike (Black Angel) dates from 1967. In 1968, within a few weeks, he created a series of 30 sculptures for an exhibition in Kiel (Man and Woman), and toward the end of that same year, sculptures for exhibitions in Milan (David) and Legnano (The Great Silence). In Kiel, he created a series of smaller wooden models of variable sculptures without a fixed base (The Desire to Embrace, 1969), that are based on a floor plan and embody the harmonious fluidity of an all-encompassing gestural movement. Together with the "Spectator" series of sculptures (1968–1969), they bear no resemblance to the sculptor's earlier work and, with their ideoplastic nature, resemble cult objects.

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  King (1962)
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  King I (1962)
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  King of the Kings (1962)
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  Nice Lady (1962)
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  A Cage Too Tight (1963)
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  Target (1963)
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  Anointed Head (1963)
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  Beautiful Lady with Her Page (1965)
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  The Aged Comedian (1965)
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  JProphet (1966–1967)

Since 1973, his busts and heads have sometimes been polychromed (Janus, 1973–1977), as well as his "Actors" series (The Comedian, 1973; Daphne, 1975; Berenice, 1981). The Actors series serves as a counterpoint to the monumental, poignant weight of despair conveyed by the seven heads of The Wailing Wall (1973), which serves as a kind of commentary on James Joyce's Ulysses. The motif for the Actors series was the duality of personality and role, reflected in the contrapuntal completion of the sculptural form with paint, which obscures or disrupts anthropomorphic features. A wide range of literary characters — from Othello to Berenice to Winnetou bring to life stories of both human happiness and misfortune. Koblasa's work, which heralded a wave of Neo-expressionism, was initially rejected and did not gain recognition until the 1990s. At the same time as the Actors sculptures, he began creating, starting in 1973, an entire series of sculptures on the theme of the Roman god of "beginnings", Janus, whose dual nature — gazing both into the past and the future, he fused into a unified, succinctly conceived form.

Sculptures inspired by biblical motifs (The Great Passion, 1976; The Messengers, 1976, 1978, 1986; Levitation, 1976; The Guardian, 1978) are characterized by an emphasized verticality, through which JKoblasa draws on the legacy of Gothic art.

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  Janus I-VIII, polychrome wood (1973–1976)
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  Actors (1973-79)
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  Actor Berenice (1976–1979)
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  The Messengers (1986)
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  Penelope (1998), České Budějovice

From the late 1970s, he explored the limits of abstract representation in a series of minimalist stelae (Poles, 1978) and sculptures featuring contrasting white stripes that stand in for light. This led to the creation of the spatial installation Ritual (Bonn, 1981) and the relief Dead Wood. The theme of the death of a tree was revisited in 1983 in the installation Forest and a year later in Agony and Dead Meadowland. Since the mid-1980s, Koblasa has often finished his wooden sculptures with striking polychromy (Aged Punk, Winged Messenger, 1985; New Charles Bridge, 1988; Sharon, United States).

At the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, he created both intimate works (Headaches, 1987) and monumental, robust compositions made of stained wood, such as The Return of the Prodigal Son, 1989, The Sacrifice (Abraham and Isaac), 1989, Dead Mother (Reversed Pietà), 1991, Monsieur la Guerre, 1994, or the series of black-and-white Apocalyptic Messengers (1986) and Messengers (1987–1990). With their slender verticality, these works symbolize the connection between Earth and the Cosmos, while also serving as a silent reminder of something oppressive and irreversible. The sculptures Memories (1994) and Fly (1994), suggesting the illusion of takeoff, evoke the striking vertical ascent of the wood's naturally formed line. The newly regained possibility of returning to his native country also evoked, in Memories, the former techniques of spontaneous penetration through the mass of wood. The six oak sculptures of the Meistersinger date from 2001.

The 1997 installation—Two Friends Gazing at the Moon (after C.D. Friedrich)—combines polychrome sculptures (240 cm) with a digital image.
The large-scale sculpture Exodus, from 2000, features white and black symbols on a gray background that enhance the sculptural effect.
Polychromy is often used to emphasize the expressive effect of the sculptures, as in the series Demons of the 20th Century (2006/7), and is characteristic of Koblasa's work after 2004 (The Water Sprite and Rusalka, The Golden Calf, 2004, Carmen (2006), La Traviata (2007), Paradise—Adam, Eve, and the Serpent (2010)). Some of the polychromed sculptures were finished by his wife Sonia Jakusheva (Angels, 2008–2013).

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  Return of the prodigal son (1988-89)
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  Sacrifice (1989)
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  Conversation - Adieu (1991)
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  Dead Mother (reversed Pietá), 1991
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  Monsieur la guerre (1993-1994)
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  Water Nymph and the Water Sprite (2003-2004)
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  Golden Calf (2004)
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  Adam, Eve, Snake (2010)
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  Exodus (2000)
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  Angels, polychrome wood (2004-13), with Sonia Jakuscheva

Stone

His first work in stone was a male torso carved from marl, created while he was a student in 1955.
Koblasa returned to sculpting in stone nearly twenty years later, as a professor in Kiel and the winner of public competitions for sculptures in public spaces. After creating small-scale sculptures in dolomite (Attempt at a Smile, 1974) and alabaster (Buddha, 1974), he went on to create the monumental marble sculpture Buddha (1976) for a park in Kiel. At the sculpture symposium in Lübeck (1983), he created the sculptures Arabella (marble) and The Couple, Adam and Eve (dolomite).
Since the early 1980s, he has consistently devoted himself to working with stone as an educator (Gottorf Sculpture Symposium, 1982; Brøby, 1984; the sculpture Inside the Stone, Anröchte, 1986; the sculpture The Messenger, Anröchte, 1987, 1988, 1989; the sculpture Guardian, sandstone), as well as during summer residencies in Carrara (1984, 1985; the sculpture Nike, Elmshorn) and in Norway (Good News, 1985, diabase, Flensburg; The Big Step—Balance, 1988–1998, granite, 4.5 m, Kiel).

In early 1989, he worked in Eilat on the monumental Guardians (travertine and marble, 5 m), and that same year, at a sculpture symposium in Neumünster (1988), he created the sculptures David and Goliath (diabase, 230 cm). In September and October 1989, in Anröchte, he created three sculptures for Swisttal (Day and Night Watch, 2.5 m) as well as an obelisk and seven sculptures for the employment office in Kiel. The frontal design of these austerely conceived, monumental stone blocks evokes the legacy of ancient civilizations. Koblasa's sculptures embody both the projection of the human spirit into the "soul of stone" and the symbolic significance of stone — its permanence, its iconic status, and the memory of the natural processes that shaped it.

In 1990, upon his first return from exile, Koblasa participated in the Hořice symposium and created the sandstone sculpture The Great Sacrifice (as a Tribute to Václav Havel).

At the turn of the 1990s, he created the sculptures The Spectator (1998, Verona marble), The Prophet Jeremiah (1999, Anröchte dolomite, 410 cm), and Small Temple (2000, Egyptian granite, 270 cm, Aswan). The monumental The Great Spectator (Slivenec marble) was created at a sculpture symposium in Dobřichovice in 2003; The Great Eagle for Schleswig in 2005; The Five Narrow Gates of Life for Forchheim in 2007; and The Baptismal Font for the church in Ellerau in 2011.

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  Arabella (1983), Lübeck
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  Domtürme (1983)
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  Head (1987)
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  David and Goliath (1989), Neumünster
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  Column of Life and Seven Days of the Week from Anröchter Sandstein (1989), Jobcenter Kiel
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  The Great Sacrifice (1990), Hořice
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  Parze, Cuxhaven (1996)
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  Rendsburg - Hans-Heinemann-Park
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  Family (1998), Mikulov
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  Tombstone of Ivan Diviš (2001)
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  Call of the Mountain (2002), The Path of Friendship, Bílka
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  The Great Spectator (2003)
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  The Holy Family, 2005, Kuks
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  Der Wächter, Eppendorf
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  Der Wächter, Hattingen

Metal

His work with metal began in 1962 with the chance discovery of fragments of old iron, which he transformed into assemblages (Lives of the Martyrs), but in the mid-1960s he began using an electric welder and created several figurative welded sculptures (Head, 1965, Young Man in His Prime, The Great Prophet, Tribute to Ptolemy, 1966). In the striking slenderness of the figures and the delicate tangle of sensitively layered lines, one can find echoes of the drawings for The Apocalypse. He returned to welded sculptures in 1986 (The Angel Messenger) and in 2005 with the series of steel sculptures Templ.

In the 1960s, Koblasa managed to cast some of his school works (Boredom, Portrait of Miss D, The Idiot), including a nude sculpture that was intended to be his graduation project but was rejected for ideological reasons, as well as free-standing sculptures from the late 1950s (Saint Sebastian, 1958; Head, Magdalene 1959).

In 1965, he designed rhodium plated tin candlesticks for the altar of the Church of St. Peter and Paul in Jedovnice. He created several small-scale sculptures for casting in bronze while preparing for an exhibition in Germany in 1968 (Little Angel I–IV, Toad) and a new series, Angels, in the 1990s.

The monumental bronze sculpture Neighbor, located in front of the Registry Office in Kiel, dates from 1972; Corpus, located at Blankeneser Kitche am Markt, Gemeindehaus, Hamburg, dates from 2012.

Since November 17, 2013, his gilded bronze sculpture The Resurrection, which he created in 1981, has been on display in St. Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle. The 4 m high sculpture has been displayed on the exterior wall of the Church of St. Giles in Nymburk since 2012.

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  Head (1966)
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  A Young Man in His Prime, Máňa the Dwarf (1966)
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  Messenger - Angel, welded metal (1986)
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  Tempel (1982–1989), Schleswig - Schlossinsel
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  Heiliger Sebastian (1991), Schleswig - Schlossinsel
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  Angels I-IX, bronze (1990s)
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  Nachbar (Neighbour) Kiel (2015)

Combined materials

The contrasting use of multiple materials in Koblasa's work conveys hidden messages and reflects extreme situations, as seen, for example, in the series of three-dimensional sculptures made of wood and stone weights placed on a metal edge, titled Balance (1972). The sculptures symbolize a pivotal juncture in life, marked by the delicate balance of opposing forces. The strength of personal grounding, symbolized by a downward-pointing prism clad in lead plates, is counterbalanced by an opposing block of white stone, symbolizing new paths (Balance I). Balance II metaphorically depicts an encounter of one's past with present selves.

He combines metal and wood in the sculptures Great Dependence (1968), Hommage á Mikuláš Medek (1974), Agony (1984), and Mr. Liberty (1993). The combination of wood and stone was used in the Golem series (1981, 1983). The theme of the Golem recurs repeatedly in Koblasa's work, from a print (1972), through a series of succinctly conceived wooden sculptures from the 1980s and sculptures made of fired and glazed fireclay, to harmoniously balanced wooden sculptures with an embedded stone cube serving as a shem (1992).

His sculptures Wheelbarrow — Hommage à Mikuláš Medek and a similar work dedicated to František Muzika, who, like Medek, died in 1974, strike the viewer as somewhat unusual. Wheelbarrow depicts a sort of bier carrying the deceased to the afterlife. The slender, snow-white forms of the sculptures are poetic symbols, an original parable, and a fond remembrance.

Polychrome wood and other natural materials were used in the Actors series (1975–1979), and metal cubes set in stone (diabase-cast iron, granite-iron, as in Heavy Head, 1990, 1991). To emphasize the sacred significance of a symbol, he uses gilding (Reclining, 1987; J. Valenta's tombstone, 2004; Angels, 2010).

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  Balance, wood, stone, steel (1972)
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  Balance II, wood, stone, steel (1972)
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  Wheelbarrow - Hommage á Mikuláš Medek, polychrome wood, metal (1974–1975)
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  Heavy Head, Eppendorf

Reliefs and architecture

His first relief design—a gate with the theme The Family of Man (1958) was created while he was still a student.

Koblasa's ability to master even monumental spaces was evident in his design for the new interior of the church in Jedovnice (in collaboration with Mikuláš Medek, 1963), which is dominated by Medek's altarpiece and Koblasa's assemblage incorporating fragments of destroyed old altars.

This was followed by the creation of a mosaic for the Czech Airlines building in Košice (1963) and wall made of prefabricated elements in Ostrava (1964). In 1967 Koblasa won the first place in a competition and a commission for a relief covering the entire interior front wall of the new airport building in Ruzyně (4.1 x 45 m). With its emphasized verticality, the relief is a direct reference to the Gothic heritage, while its sensitive modeling is reminiscent of the Czech Radical Baroque.

In 1968, he created designs for reliefs for the Czech Airlines building in Rabat and the embassy in Brasília. Later, in Germany, he had the opportunity to create the relief Sea for the Employment Office in Kiel (1971), relief-adorned entrance doors and columns for the courthouse in Norderstedt (1985), the group of concrete sculptures Dance, and the design for the atrium of the post office with sculptures in Flensburg (1983, 1985), the large sculpture The Crucified in Dietrichsdorf (1981), an altar, a cross, and windows in Lübeck (1991), and a large glazed ceramic cross (5x5 m) in Neumünster (1997).

In 1976, he collaborated with architects on a project for a new cemetery in Bremen; in 2000, on a new chapel in Bílka (with architect Ivan Nosek); and from 2004 to 2010, on the sculptures and overall design of Mahler Park in Jihlava.

In Germany: The Prophet Isaiah, Königstraße, Hamburg, 2013 (in collaboration with Sonia Jakuschewa); Two Birds of Paradise, Blankenese Cemetery, Hamburg, 2013.

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  Entrance door, Court building in Norderstedt, wooden frame, bronze (1985)
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  Gustav Mahler park in Jihlava
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  Gustav Mahler park in Jihlava
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  Gustav Mahler park in Jihlava
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  Gustav Mahler park in Jihlava

Monuments and statues dedicated to friends and parents

• 1965 The Aged Comedian (to his father)
• 1968 Requiem (Hommage à Antonín Tomalík)
• 1973 Actor—Devilish Trill (to his father)
• 1974/75 Wheelbarrow (Homage to Mikuláš Medek)
• 1976 Sleep My Prince (Homage to František Muzika)
• 1991 Conversation—Adieu (To Jiří Valenta)
• 1991/92 Dead Mother (inverted Pietà)
• 2001 Tombstone for Ivan Diviš, Břevnov, Prague
• 2004 Tombstone for Jiří Valenta, Břevnov, Prague
• 2004 Tombstone for Milan Kymlička, Toronto

Drawings, prints, illustrations, collages

Men's Club — Jan Koblasa, Nepraš, Dlouhý (later known as Šmidrové) — developed a distinctive poetic style in their drawings, where humor blended with absurd reality (The Clown's Funeral). In Koblasa's later drawings, the element of humor disappeared (The Sword of Damocles, 1958; drawings for The Apocalypse, 1965). Some of the geometric figures (Diana on the Hunt, Reclining Woman) were also rendered in three dimensions (wire, plaster) and painted.

Koblasa was introduced to graphic techniques at the Academy by his classmate Jaroslav Kadlec and later also to lithography by Josef Istler. His first prints were woodcuts (Tied-Up Dog, 1956) and drypoint engravings (until 1958). With the transition to abstraction, he first created a series of tachist monotypes (Abel and Cain, The Labyrinth of the World, 1958), followed later by several series of informel prints such as line etchings, sometimes combined with aquatint (Fundamentals of Geometry, 1959; Fundamentals of Surveying, 1961). The title of the graphic series Fundamentals of Surveying refers directly to a work by Franz Kafka, just as the series of paintings K (1959) does. The monotypes Diagram of My Brain (1962) are an expression of existential feelings and their innermost revelations. They are closely related to the "psychic texture" of the paintings by Mikuláš Medek.

Based on preparatory drawings, he printed 23 sheets on the theme of the Apocalypse (etching with aquatint) in 1966–68. His interest in the Apocalypse was sparked by a lecture and an essay by Jaroslav Chadraba, as well as Bergman's film The Seventh Seal. This text, which has inspired the imagination of artists for centuries, served as a basis for Koblasa to depict contemporary fears as well as visions of destruction and creation. The stylization of mythical stories into symbolically conceived narrative plot summary (in the manner of William Blake) takes the form of a unified central composition with striking accents.

The drawings and silkscreen prints Old Women, the lithograph Jonah and the Whale, and the print commemorating Jan Palach's sacrifice (Young Man in Flames) were created in 1969 in Florencefollowed by the drawings and silkscreen prints Old Women (1969). The lithographs Jonah and the Whale were created in Florence in 1969.

Figurative motifs continue in the Heads series (1969–74, 1980) and, in particular, in the extensive series of etchings (Sabbath, Witches, Intimacy, The Little and Great Passions, etc.) and silkscreen prints (Sticking Out the Tongue, Dance of Death) from 1972. Christian themes recur regularly in Koblasa's work (the color etchings Pieta, 1989, and The Last Supper, 1989).

Koblasa returned to printmaking with themes that could not be realized in sculpture (Lament, 1976; Jogging, 1978; One, Two, Fly, 1986), but also in parallel with his sculptural work (Mountains, 1974/80; Pietà, 1980).

During his stay in Vence (1975), he produced two hundred ink drawings. The series of color drawings Hangover, The Annunciation, and Struggle with the Angel date from 1977.

During his stays in United States, he created drawings on the theme of Ubu Roi and an extensive series of mixed-media works, The Making of Americans (Hommage à Gertrude Stein, 1978) and Jeremiah's Prophecy (1979). Textual elements reappear in the series of drawings Diaries (1999/2000). In the 1980s, he painted a series of color drawings titled Cherchez la femme (1987–1988). Koblasa found inner harmony and transcendence in Eastern religions (Buddha, 1974–1975) and especially during his stays in the mountains, which he depicted in drawings and prints (Mountains, 1969–1974)

In 1989, he created the monumental four-part color etching Last Supper (64x198 cm), and in 1995, alongside his bronze sculptures, he produced the color etchings Angels.

Illustrations form a separate part of his graphic work (Máj, 1995; Gilgamesh, 2002; From the Life of a Poet, 2007; Shakespeare's sonnets, 2008). The Epic of Gilgamesh was also one of the inspirations for the series of drawings and color etchings titled Wind from 2002; the series Flood (2003) was created under the influence of the disaster that struck Prague in 2002. By rotating the original plate and making multiple prints from it, Koblas succeeded in evoking a sense of movement, impermanence, transience, and turbulence.

The series of figurative collages Panatomie, made from torn drawings on paper, was created in 1963; the collage combined with drawing Melancholy—Shit in the Head was created in 1992.

Since late 2003, Koblasa has also been working in computer graphics.

Paintings

After acquiring his first studio in 1958, with the intention of breaking away from the conventions of academic realist sculpture, Koblasa painted intensively (The Garden of Delights, 1959; Me and Lolita, 1960) and quickly moved toward abstraction and structural painting centered on the theme of sacrifice (The Dead Man, 1960, Veronica's Veil, 1961) and existential anxiety (Noli tangere circulos meos, 1960; Finis terrae, 1961; What Is Below Is Also Above, 1961). He constructs a painting as an autonomous object that emerges from the interplay of materialized psychological states and a rationally composed form. He is one of the founders of Czech Informel. This cycle of abstract paintings culminates in the large-scale canvases titled Transcendence (1961). The paintings titled What is above is below illustrate the internal logic of Koblasa's work, which is based on a reversible analogy (which, in a horizontal sense, can be expanded to read "what was at the beginning will also be at the end").

In the mid-1960s, stylized figuration appeared in Koblasa's paintings, most often reflecting private themes (Emotional Life, 1965).
While in exile, he did not return to painting until the late 1970s, during a period of personal crisis and when he was unable to work in his sculpture studio (Dance, Fallen Angels, 1977; Mein Schatz hat grün so gern, 1980).

Koblasa experiments with artistic techniques and often explores the themes of the Earth (Horizons, 1998) and the elements (Wind, 2001) in his series of paintings.

In 2008, he created the paintings Conversation with the Devil, Dogs and Rabbits.

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  Noli tangere (1960)
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  Noli tangere circulos meos III (1960)
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  What's above is below (1960)
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  The Red-Haired Little Man (1960)
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  Finis terrae II (1961)
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  Double transcendence (1961)
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  Transcendence III (1961)
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  Veronica's Veil (1961)
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  Dead Man (1964)
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  The Fake Soprano (1965)
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  Emotional Life (1966)

Scenography, masks and costumes

• 1964 The End of Shrovetide (masks), Josef Topol, r. O. Krejča, National Theatre
• 1965 Maškary z Ostende (Masques ostendais) (masks), Michel de Ghelderode, r. O. Krejča, Divadlo za branou, Prague
• 1969 Lorenzaccio (200 costumes and masks, property), Alfred de Musset, r. O. Krejča, Divadlo za branou, Prague
• 1970 Antigona^{[disambiguation needed]}, Oedipus Rex (masks, costumes), Sofokles, r. O. Krejča, ivadlo za branou, Prague
• 1971 Faust (masks, costumes), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, r. O. Krejča, Rezidenztheater Munich (not implemented)
• 1971 Scontri generali (masks), r. Giuliano Scabia, Venice
• 1979 Lorenzaccio (scene, costumes, masks), Alfred de Musset, r. O. Krejča, Avignon
• 1979 Tři sestry / Three sisters, Anton Chekhov, r. O. Krejča, Belgium
• 1985 Romeo and Juliet, ballet by Sergei Prokofiev (scene, costumes), Kiel (ballet Vienna)
• 1986 Canticle of the Sun – According to St. Francis, summer scene Preetz
• 1989 Villon (decor and costumes), r. Jaroslav Gillar, Hamburg
• 1990 La dama duende, (costumes), Pedro Calderón de la Barca, r. Jaroslav Gillar

Films

• 1960 The White Dove, r. F. Vláčil, sculptor – artistic collaboration
• 1967 Marketa Lazarová, r. F. Vláčil, sculptor – artistic collaboration

Librettos

• 1953 Tiché milování / Silent loving (song cycle), Jan Bedřich
• 1955 Leda with a Saxophone (ballet)
• 1955 Královy nové šaty / The Emperor's New Clothes (ballet), Jan Bedřich
• 1956 Honzovy toulky / Honza's Wanderings (Children choirs), Jan Klusák
• 1956 Panatomic ballet
• 1957/58 Za dveřmi / Behind doors, Wolfgang Borchert, opera, Rudolf Komorous
• 1958 Slečna anděl / Miss Angel (ballet), Rudolf Komorous
• 1958 Lovecké rondeau / Hunting Rondeau (ballet), Rudolf Komorous

Diaries and poetry

• Jan Koblasa, Záznamy z let padesátých a šedesátých / Records from the 1950s and 1960s, diary and poetry, Vetus Via, Brno 2002, ISBN 80-86118-70-3
• Jan Koblasa, O tom / About It, Edice současné české poezie / A Series of Contemporary Czech Poetry, J. Drda Library 2006, ISBN 80-86937-12-7
• Jan Koblasa, Emigrace. Vstávání z mrtvých se živým nedaří / Emigration. The living cannot rise from the dead, diary, Ztichlá klika Gallery, Prague 2011, ISBN 9788090389878
• Jan Koblasa, Konec exilu / The end of exile, diary, Ztichlá klika Gallery, Prague 2014, ISBN 978-80-904641-6-2