Joseph Martinek, Czech Art Deco Carved Natural Resin Cubist Owl Bird Sculpture Joseph Martinek

American sculptor Joseph Martinek was born in Chicago in 1915. He was a second generation apprentice to Auguste Rodin. He studied sculpture at the State Industrial School of Art, Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1934-39.
This abstracted form conceived by Martinek is carved from natural resin and placed atop a dark wood pedestal, its features defined by a Modernist, almost Cubist aesthetic influenced by the streamline aesthetic of the earlier generation of Cubist and art deco sculptures. Antoine Bourdelle, Demétre Chiparus. Joseph Csaky, Paul Manship, Bruno Zach.
He exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago and was awarded the Robert Rice Jenkins Memorial Prize in 1945.