Supported by Nikon, a World Premiere show has recently opened at the Czech Photo Gallery : The Best Of Nude Photography. For first time, the exhibition will show together unique personalities of the world of nude photography – Taras Kuscynskyj, Jan Saudek, Pavel Brunclik, Robert Vano and Antonin Tesar. 65 photographs (with the exception of those from private collections) will be for sale. Presentations by the photographers will take place on the 9th of June 2013, at the closing of the exhibition. The Best of Nude Photography is the first in a series of exhibitions the gallery will devote to individual genres.
The Best of Nude Photography
Nude photography has an unmistakeable place in the history of Czech photography. That includes photographers whose valuable work is part of the world of photography treasures. Since the beginning of the last century, when the Czech artist Frantisek Drtikol’s photographs were included in every important exhibition in the world, this genre has undergone a fundamental change: in nude photography the important aspects are no longer the beautiful curves of the body modelled with light, the object itself and its creative transformation, but the feeling of life and ambitiously conceived sophisticated messages. To a certain extent that already applies to Frantisek Drtikol, the first Czech modern photographer who, through nude photography, succeeded in expressing the changing lifestyle of his time when photographs of the nude body were increasingly reflecting the reality of life – reality full of unrealised desires, romantic dreams, aggression, anxieties and uncertainties. And of course also of erotic fantasies.
The exhibition The Best of Nude Photography deliberately presents five completely different artistic approaches to photographing the nude body – from the classical Taras Kuscynsky to provocateur Jan Saudek, romantic Robert Vano, rational precisionist Pavel Brunclik and the decadent enfant terrible, Antonin Tesar. Each of them has contributed individually to the changes in the genre, which is as old as art itself. Their individual art, regardless of their differences, carries the specific marks of Czech photography – the sense of lyricism and gentle irony, humour and absurdity.
Taras Kuscynskyj (1932 -1983) was a master at linking the female beauty and eroticism to a psychological portrait of women. During the communist times his photographs of nude bodies, taken in open nature, had the effect of apparition. They were symbols of freedom. Their strong impact, especially on the younger generation, led to their use in publications (magazine illustrations, posters, calendars, record covers).
Jan Saudek (1935) is probably the most controversial personality of Czech photography. The genial creator of the “theatre of life” is still not sure whether he formed his own life according to his dreams, which he staged and photographed or whether his photographs are a reflection or even the reality of the life he lives. His work reflects the exciting and shocking drama of human existence from birth to death. It is both the human comedy and tragedy where passion plays the key role. Since 1977 he’s been colour-tinting his black and white photographs.
Robert Vano (1948) has created a unique portrait of homosexuality through his male nudes whom he infused with special emotional intimity, joy and playfulness. His experience in fashion and portrait photography and the old technique of platinotype he uses play a large part in the impact his photographs have.
Pavel Brunclik (1950) took his legendary aspiration to the perfection of form to the top with his exceptional set called The Geometry of Nudity. The perfect bodies of individuals and ambitiously arranged groups in dance poses and in movement are a celebration of beauty, shapes and human energy. His photographs are a monumental perceptual experience, a festive pictorial choir.
Antonin Tesar (1963) moves through his bizarre installations towards the sphere of ambivalence, hybridity and perversion of the contemporary world. He flirts with the decadent imagery of love and death, touches on the subconscious forms of anxiety and insanity, refers to pop culture and the devaluation of traditional ethics and aesthetics and the mass adoration of sex. He arouses both understanding and disgust. He tints his photographs.
The Best of Nude Photography
Photographs by Taras Kuscynskyj, Jan Saudek, Robert Vano, Pavel Brunclik, Antonin Tesar
Until June 09, 2013
Czech Photo Gallery
Újezd 19, Praha 1 – Malá Strana
Czech Republic
