SNG online

2010

INSITA 2010 – 9th Triennial of Self-Taught Art
2. July 2010

2009

František Drtikol
From Photographic Archive
11. November 2010

Extent of the exhibition:
49 photographs + 1 pastel
film of J. Holna František Drtikol Photographer (2002)

The Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague had and still has a unique position in the life and work of Czech photographer František Drtikol (3. 3. 1883 Příbram – 13. 1. 1961 Prague). It was the site of his first independent comprehensive exhibition (1922) but also the recipient of his artistic legacy containing over five thousand photographs (1942). The retrospective exhibition which was prepared in the museum by Dr. Anna Fárová (1972) the collection curator, became a breakthrough. Since then, Drtikol has been perceived as a figure of international significance and is included in the most prestigious world exhibitions and collections.

The majority of the events organized until today were oriented on the author’s work of the 20th century, when he worked in the spirit of art deco and created unique female nudes. His works from the period of photographic Art Nouveau implemented through the use of various photographic techniques (flexographic printing, oleography, pigment and others) constitute another commemorated theme. So far, only limited space has been dedicated to the author’s culmination in the first half of the 1930s, when he freely gave up his photographic work.

This exhibition draws from his photographic archive which was given to the museum during World War II. The exhibited set consists of unique photographs, mostly work studies and variations which were not designated for public presentation at the time. They represent a probe into the author’s studio work and the decision to publicize them almost eighty years after their creation is based on the author’s opinion that “Only the birth of art is of divine essence, but the weight of the world hangs on the completed work”. They show the technique of working with a living model (variations of nudes) and a number of abstract compositions which by themselves would ensure František Drtikol a significant position in world photography, in addition to originally arranged snapshots, referring to the author’s spiritual orientation on the philosophical and religious teachings of the East. They originated during the peak of the economic crisis which also affected Drtikol’s studio in Prague. Therefore we must appreciate these works even more as they were created without any possibility of commercial application, completely autonomous free work implemented by using the technique of contact copies from large format negatives. The majority of photographs will be introduced to the visitors in the première and the exhibition should be complemented by the projection of director Jiří Holna’s documentary film František Drtikol Photographer (2002, 28´) which was also made in cooperation with the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague.

The author of this exhibition is Jan Mlčoch, the curator of the collection of photography of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. He has prepared a number of Drtikol exhibitions at home and abroad (for example in the Museum of Decorative Arts 2000, 2004) and has selected the exhibition sets from the author’s work for tens of events. He has also published two thematic books. In the past twenty years he was the initiator or co-operator in many exhibitions dedicated to the work of Josef Sudek and other personalities of Czech inter-war Avant-garde, the theme of photographic nudes, etc. Together with prof. Vladimír Birgus, besides others, he also prepared the extensive historical work Czech Photography of the 20th Century. Lucia Almášiová of the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava is the exhibition’s expert partner.

Jan Mlčoch

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