Pictures From the History of Czech Photography

An art-world analogy to the saying that the victor in war gets to write the history books is that whoever has the power and money to build the biggest and best art collections put their mark on shaping art history when their collections are publicly displayed. Internationally, the Gettys, Guggenheims and Saatchis of this world exert a heavy influence on the public's conception of major developments in art. Locally, the PPF financial group founded by Petr Kellner is putting its distinctive stamp on shaping the public view of the history of Czech photography.

The current show at the Václav Špála Gallery, "Pictures From the History of Czech Photography," is a case in point: a subjective selection of Czech Modernist and contemporary photography from the collection of the financial group's subsidiary PPF Art, which has operated this prominent gallery on Národní třída since the spring of 2010. The exhibition's title might be misleading if one focuses on the word "history," but taken literally, it is exactly what it purports to be: not a comprehensive history of Czech photography but a selective meander through the past century of the medium's development.

PPF has incrementally been sharing its vision of Czech photography by showcasing its sizable collection at two other sites: the Louvre Photography Gallery, which it operated until the end of 2010, and the Josef Sudek Atelier, a small gallery in the recreated former studio of the great Czech Modernist photographer. This show is a kind of recapitulation of the program PPF Art has been presenting at both the Louvre Gallery and the Sudek Atelier, and regular visitors to both places will recognize a number of works that have been exhibited there. Notably, Sudek is not included in this show; PPF Art is currently showing a group of his works at the Sudek Atelier across the river.

The curator, Josef Moucha, himself a photographer, picked 20 artists held in the PPF corporate collection: Ladislav Emil Berka, František Drtikol, Jaromír Funke, Alexandr Hackenschmied, Václav Chochola, Václav Jirásek, Běla Kolářová, Jan Lauschmann, Jan Lukas, Emila Medková, Adolf Novák, Ivan Pinkava, Karel Plicka, Jaroslav Rössler, Drahomír Josef Růžička, Adolf Schneeberger, Jan Svoboda, Bohumil Šťastný, Karel Valter and Peter Župník. Each of the artists is represented by two to five images. Most of them are household names to photography aficionados, but there are several lesser-known photographers who deserve to be more widely known.

Berka (1907-93) is one of them. Five of his works are displayed at the very beginning of the show, right after five from Rössler (1902-90) - the only photographer in the avant-garde art group Devětsil. Berka's five prints, all made between 1929 and 1933, range from double-exposures of Prague and of a typewriter to a tilted architectural shot - a style most associated with Funke. A half-dozen prints by Drtikol (1883-1961) summarize most of his main photographic interests, from an early Pictorialist-inspired Monk strolling in a cloister from 1911 to Symbolist nudes combined with shadow play or geometric abstract patterns from the late 1920s and '30s.

The back room of the ground floor is anchored by a selection of five images by Chochola (1923-2005), including two of his characteristic shots in which the figure dissolves: Night Walker (1949) and Imprint (1970). They are joined by groups of prints by Valter, Plicka, Novák and Šťastný.

In the gallery's cellar, photographer and filmmaker Hackenschmied (1907-2004; known as Alexander Hammid after his emigration to the United States) is represented by several portraits of the experimental filmmaker Maya Deren (his wife from 1942 to 1947), including a still from their collaborative short film Meshes of the Afternoon. Růžička (1870-1960), who was born in the United States and was a doctor by profession, was influential in Czech photography mainly by propagating the purist ideas of the American Pictorialists, particularly Alfred Stieglitz. He is represented here by two unremarkable shots of Prague.

Of the five prints from the 1920s and '30s by Lauschmann (1901-91) - a chemist who, like Růžička, pursued photography as an amateur - the most captivating is Countrywomen with its light/dark and thematic juxtaposition.

The cellar's back room is dominated by Funke (1896-1945), who has the most works of any artist in this show. The nine images range from semi-abstract to purely abstract compositions from the first half of the 1920s, his classic avant-garde period. Schneeberger (1897-1977), Funke's fellow founder of the Czech Photographic Society, has three works from the same period though quite different in spirit.

In the light-filled upstairs rooms are smaller selections - two or three images - of more recent works by seven photographers: two from the 1960s by Lukas (1915-2006), two from the 1970s by Svoboda (1934-90), two abstractions by Kolářová (1923-2010) from the late 1960s, and then there is a leap forward into the 1990s and the 21st century with three works by Župník (born in 1961). In the final room, two works by Medková (1928-85) from the late 1940s and early '50s are nicely paired with two images from the 1990s by Pinkava (born in 1961). The show concludes with three staged portrait photographs by Jirásek (born in 1965) made between 1999 and 2003. With his small selection of contemporary photographers, the curator seems to have picked images that vaguely link back to Symbolist and Pictorialist traditions (Pinkava and Jirásek, respectively) displayed in the downstairs rooms.

The selective and subjective nature of the exhibition, with no explanatory texts to be read, encourages the visitor to contemplate the works mainly on their aesthetic merits. It offers a random ramble rather than a purposeful stride through the history of Czech photography. In this sense, it is just what a summer show should be.

Mimi Fronczak Rogers can be reached at
Features@praguepost.com