Above Eva Fuková’s cradle, two Fates had a dispute.The first brought palette and brush, the second, a modern day held camera.
From 1939 to 1951 she took pictures with Leica, then Rolleiflex and Nikon. She entered the digital era with Canon in hand and have been faithful to it ever since.
Today, after to a lapse of time, we already know which one has prevailed: Eva Fuková ranks among the legendary founding figures of Czech photography.
She has been taking photographs systematically since 1951. At that time, she and her husband Vladimír Fuka were friends with “subversive elements” Jirí Kolár, Zdenek Urbánek, Jan Hanc, Emanuel Frynta and Kamil Lhoták, and attracted the tireless attention of the secret police. Publishing pictures was out of the question.
After some years, Eva Fuková’s photographs were allowed into periodicals and after she had been recognised by critics as the most important figure of the new photography, she was allowed an exhibition .
In 1963, after 12 years of work, she published a monograph. She was the first woman in Czechoslovakia to be granted that privilege. Taking into consideration the fact that photography was, at the beginning of the sixties, still fighting for recognition as a form of art, her book was probably the first monograph of a woman photographer ever to be published.
In 1967 Eva Fuková emigrated to the USA. She continued to take and restore photographs; she exhibited her works and sculptured. But in Czechoslovakia not a single word could be uttered about her until 1989. In her home country she did not exist.
After 1990 she returned to the Czech Republic. She had two big exhibitions in 1996 and 2007, plus a few smaller ones. In 2007 a new monograph of Eva Fuková was published by Torst.
Eva Fuková has taken many pictures, but made a merciless selection. After 60 years of photographing, her work consists of only a couple of hundreds pieces.
Ales Kisil, writer and film director.
May I mention after this presentation of Eva Fukova’s photographic works a sentence from French architect Le Corbusier circa 1925 about Devetsil :
“Si, dès 1921, les Tchèques ont brillé avec tant d’éclat à l’horizon, naissant de ces temps nouveaux, c’est dû en grande partie à votre influence, vos revues, vos manifestes, vos poèmes, vous : Teige, Nezval, Krejcar…” Le Corbusier
“If since 1921 the Czech have shined with so much light on the nascent horizon of these modern times it is mostly because of your influence, your reviews,your writings, your poems, you :Teige , Nezval,Krejcar…. Le Corbusier”
Lola Fabry
Fabulation – Eva Fuka
Curator Ales Kisil
Until April 14, 2013
Leica Gallery Prague, p.b.c.
Skolska 28
110 00 Praha 1
Czech Republic
e-mail: [email protected]
tel.: +420 222 211 567
Mon to Fri: 9 a.m. until 9 p.m.
Sat & Sun & Bank Holidays: 2 p.m. until 8 p.m.
