Josef Sudek: So Called Fine Art Photography
23. 9. – 13. 12. 2020
Window Gallery, Husova 4, Praha 1
After the death of Josef Sudek (1896–1976), Božena Sudková donated a collection of more than 20,000 negatives and original photographs by Sudek to the Institute of Art History of the CAS. Thematically, the collection includes a broad spectrum of reproductions of art works (including applied art and architecture), starting with st wedges, Greek and Roman Antiquity through Czech Romanesque art, the Gothic, Baroque and 19th Century through the art of Sudek’s contemporaries.
One of the results of the project, which was devoted to the complex treatment of the Sudek Collection at the Institute of Art History of the CAS, is making all of the photographs accessible through an online database, available at www.sudekproject.cz.
In the Sudek collection, deposited in the Institute of Art History of the CAS, there are also some other custom-ordered works in addition to photographs of works of art, such as an extensive set of advertising photographs for Družstevní práce [Cooperative Work], which Vojtěch Lahoda has presented to the public in the past.
An entirely unknown collection of Sudek’s pictures capturing a woman at the stove was also likely made to order. e views of the woman’s hands and the technical details are reminiscent of Man Ray’s photographs of Meret Oppenheim with a printing press. However, the female body does not serve here as a visually appealing object, but exclusively as an actor in the depicted event.
In some cases, photographs, which do not depict artistic works, were marked as so-called fine art photography and most likely ended up in the collection dedicated to the Institute of Art History by mistake, or we have not yet been able to find any more specific information about them. The exhibition works with this fact, it presents photographs, for which it is difficult to find a justification for their presence in the collection of photographs of works of art, they are usually not dated or described in any way.
The exhibition takes place as part of Fotograf Festival.
Author of the exhibition: Hana Buddeus
Installation & graphic design: Jan Brož
Photography pre–press: Vlado Bohdan
Production of the exhibition: Barbara Líznerová
Translation: Sean Mark Miller
Language correction: Dagmar Nárožníková