Czech Photography

Display Schedule

Subject guarantor:

Tomáš DVOŘÁK, Václav JANOŠČÍK, Josef LEDVINA

Name of lecturer(s):

Tomáš DVOŘÁK, Václav JANOŠČÍK, Josef LEDVINA

Learning outcomes of the course unit:

Lecture series presents students with important chapters in the history of Czech photography. It also demonstrates potential aplications of critcial and theoretical aparatuses known to the first-year students from the „Photography History and Theory“ in a local context and in an analysis of the work of particular artists.

Mode of study:

lecture

Prerequisites and co-requisites:

none

Course contents:

01. (23/02) Introduction (Josef Ledvina) 

Overview of the course structure, requirements and study materials.

02. (02/03) Czech Photography of the 19th Century (Petra Trnková) 

A visit to the archive of the Institutie of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences and presentation of its photographic collection. 

03. (09/03) František Drtikol (Josef Ledvina) 

František Drtikol is internationally possibly the best known Czech photographer and is definitely the one whose prints reach highiest prices in auctions. The lecture will investigate the roots of this success. Biside that (and in relationship to it) it will focus on Drtikol's position of the bridge between pictorial symbolism and interwar modernism. 

04. (16/03) Jaromír Funke and Jaroslav Rössler (Tomáš Dvořák) 

The lecture introduces the work of Jaromír Funk and Jaroslav Rössler with an emphasis on the discussion of abstract and photography without a camera in the Czech Avant garde. 

05. (23/03) Josef Sudek in Czech Documentary Movies (Martin Čihák) 

The lecture will center on analysis of three movies: classical piece „Žít svůj život“ („Living Your Life“) by Evald Schorm (director of photography Jan Špáta; 1963), two years older 10minute amateur movie by František Kácha „Josefu Sudkovi“ („For Josef Sudek“; 1961) and finally the „Fotografie a muzika“ („Photography and Music“, director of photography Jiří Macák; 1974) – an attempt to present Sudek's work on his book „Janáček – Hukvaldy“ (1971). Attention will be payed not only to the visual ascpect of the movies and their relation to Sudek's conception of photographic image but also to other expresive mens of cinematogrphy (film cut, spoken word, music...) and their function in realization of cinematographic message.

06. (30/03) Surrealism in Czech Photography (Ladislav Šerý) 

The lecture focuses on the status of surrealism in the European avant-garde and the genesis of its Czech form from the movements of Devětsil and Poetism. Avant-garde practices are evident in the photographic works of Evžen Wiškovský, Jaromír Funke and Jaroslav Rössler, purely surrealist approach can be found in the works of Jindřich Štyrský or Karel Teige, and later Vilém Reichmann, Jiří Sever and Emila Medková. Accent will be put on surrealist principles and in particular on the specific technical processes that distiguished the photographic work of the examined authors. 

07. (06/04) Artistic Approach to Photography in 1960s: Experiment with or without Lens (Katarína Mašterová) 

Czechoslovak photography of 1960s experiments on the boundaries of the classical categories of fine art. Josef Sudek in his late works transforms an image into an object (so called „puřidla“ and „veteše“). Jan Svoboda further expands this principle with reference to the painters' canvas. While others as Běla Kolářova or Emila Medková work with photography by means of new experimental art techniques.

08. (13/04) Czech Documentary Photography in the Times of Normalization (Hana Buddeus) 

The 1970s and 80s, demarcated by the key historical events of August '68 and the Velvet Revolution, were otherwise a period without big historical changes. Therefore photographers turned their interest to the aestheticizing of the everday reality of Normalization, devoting themselves to topics on the perifery of social interest and, of course, documenting the activities of dissent. 

09. (20/04) Local Postmodernism (Josef Ledvina) 

The lecture presents general conceptions of Postmodernism in relation to the particularities of Czechoslovakia of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s. It focuses on a neopictorial tendency in the work of artists of the so called Slovak New Wave and the „critical postmodernism“ as practicet by art duo Lukáš Jasanský and Martin Polák and in self-portrait photo series of Václav Stratil. 

10. (27/04) Accelerating Photography (Václav Janoščík) 

It is probably impossible to characterize the stituation of contemporary (Czech) photography. But it is possible to speculate about the conditions of the fact, that in the era of the digital image, information war and inflation of photography, so many artists continue to work with this media. Through the examples of contemporary (Czech) artists using photography, we will attempt to analyze general (and often unintended) linknks between their work and the functioning of semio-capitalism. The guideline will not be the subject, critique or strategy but the time and speed, in which the photos circulate.

11. (04/05) Photography, Concept, Action (Hana Buddeus) 

Conceptual art created a new space for the use of photography which when appearing in the context of art, often has the character of photo-journalism or amateur photography. In the lecture we will focus on the most important figures of Czech conceptual art and performance, primarily of the 1970s and 80s with emphasis on their approach to photographic documentation.

12. (11/05) End (Josef Ledvina) 

Consultations on the course paper topics.

Recommended or required reading:

Petr. A. Bílek – Josef Vojvodík – Jan Wiendl (eds.), „A Glossary of Catchwords of the Czech Avant-Garde. Conceptions of aesthetics and the changing faces of art 1908-1958“, Prague: Faculty of Arts, Charles University: Togga, 2011.

Vladimír BRIGUS – Jan MLČOCH, „Czech Photography of the 20th Century“, Prague: KANT 2010.

Krzysztof Fijalkowski — Michael Richardson — Ian Walker, "Surrealism and Photography in Czechoslovakia.

On the Needles of Days", Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Limited 2013.

Matthew WITKOWSKY, „Foto. Modernity in Central Europe. 1918-1945“, New York – London: Thames & Hudson 2007.

Assessment methods and criteria:

The exam is in the form of a course paper of at least 7000 characters.

The paper will be dedicated to one photographic work or collection of works by a selected Czech artist and the student will apply theory and critical apparatuses with which they have become acquainted in previous courses of photography history and theory.

Requirement for successful completion of the course:

Submission of the essay and 70% lecture attendance.

Course web page:

Note:

none

Schedule for winter semester 2016/2017:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

Schedule for summer semester 2016/2017:

	06:00–08:0008:00–10:0010:00–12:0012:00–14:0014:00–16:0016:00–18:0018:00–20:0020:00–22:0022:00–24:00
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu	místnost 112 Učebna KF 112 (Lažanský palác) LEDVINA J. 10:40–12:15 (přednášková par. 1)
Fri

Date	Day	Time	Tutor	Location	Notes	No. of paralel
	Thu	10:40–12:15	Josef LEDVINA	Učebna KF 112 Lažanský palác		přednášková par. 1

The subject is a part of the following study plans:

• Photography CZ - Bachelor (qualification subject)