Zdenko Kalin is a renowned Slovenian post-World War II sculptor. A member of the Independent Group of Slovenian Artists, he started working in the 1930s, influenced mostly by French artists, primarily Auguste Rodin and Aristide Maillol. In those early years, his sculptures featured rough, uneven surfaces. Just prior to and especially after World War II he began smoothing the surfaces of his figures, which gradually led to their reduction and schematization, something that is also prominent in the group of works entitled Children’s Games.

This five-piece series is simple in subject: it represents children at play, enjoying a clapping game, double backbend, blind man’s bluff, walking on stilts, and spinning. More important than the subject are the formal considerations – the sculptor’s process of smoothing the figures resulted in delicate, slender, slightly elongated children, stylized and with simplified details. The question broached by the artist here concerns the space of the sculpture. The figures seem set on escaping their captivity in the motionless sculptural mass with dynamism. While seemingly frozen in time, their gestures and postures still indicate movement. The time seems to have paused, and when it starts again, the children engrossed in their games will move too.

Kalin’s work mainly revolved around the human form, in particular the figure of the child, and he also did a lot of portraits. Among others, he is the author of the well-known Boy with Flute sculpture, an emblem of the broadcaster RTV Slovenija, and of the extensive sculptural ornament above the door to the Slovenian Parliament, which Kalin made in 1959 together with Karel Putrih (another a member of the Independents group).