Manfred Heiting: Czech and Slovak Photo Publications: 1918-1989

Description

This survey of Czech and Slovak photo publications commemorates the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Czechoslovakia on 28 October 2018. It demonstrates the persistent tradition of superior artistic imagination and technical ingenuity that is uniquely and wonderfully Czech and Slovak. Over more than 1,000 years of existence the Czechs and Slovaks were only a free nation between 1918 and 1938-and again since 1989. When fi nally living under their own rule, photographers and writers, typo graphers and book designers, graphic artists and printers were consumed by a love of country and documented its landscapes, cities, national treasures, monuments and the life of its people with unfl inching attention-thus forming their unique cultural identity, even during Nazi annexation and 40 years of Communist occupation. In nine chapters this comprehensive book explores over 800 pub- lications from 1918 to 1989, highlighting the work of more than 250 photographers and graphic artists including Alphonse Mucha, Josef Sudek, Frantisek Drtikol, Jaromir Funke, Jaroslav Roessler, Zdenek Tmej, Jindrich Styrsky, Karel Teige and Ladislav Sutnar to Vladimir Hipman, Karel Plicka, Jan Lukas, Karel Hajek, Tibor Honty, Josef Prosek, Libor Fara, Martin Martincek, Karol Kallay, Pavel Stecha, Jindrich Streit, Bohdan Holomicek and Josef Koudelka.

Eight essays, written in Czech and in English, outline the entanglement between political compulsions and images published in a nation consistently redefining itself throughout the twentieth century.--Lynn Maliszewski "Brooklyn Rail"