Art historian Hana Buddeus will present the world-renowned Czech photographer Josef Sudek (1896–1976) and discuss his almost unknown photographs capturing his beloved sculptures. “Sculpture is alive and it has to be photographed as alive,” said Sudek in a 1950s interview. Dr. Buddeus will talk about the connection between Sudek’s photographic series and his commissioned works. The talk will be moderated by Christopher Harwood.
Sudek’s exhibitions and publications suggest that he liked searching for parallels between photographs of sculptures and people. The artist’s favorite motifs were Prague's urban landscape and heritage monuments, gardens, landscapes, and still lifes; his favorite sculptural motifs also included Czech Gothic Madonnas and saints whom he called “lovelies.” He photographed them at Prague exhibitions in the 1930s and then returned to the theme in the 1960s.
Josef Sudek's most important photographic series include Saint Vitus, The Window of My Studio, The Magic Garden, and Labyrinths.
Dr. Buddeus’s research draws on Josef Sudek’s extensive collection of photographs of artworks, part of a five-year-long project, “Sudek Project,” at the Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. The collection (approximately 20,000 negatives and positives) was donated by Josef Sudek's sister, Božena Sudková, after the artist’s death. It has an unprecedented value as it contains photographs of works by artists who are nowadays often forgotten.
The majority of the photographs from the Sudek’s collection held at the Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences is available online: SUDEK PROJECT.
Hana Buddeus, PhD, is an art historian, a current research fellow at the Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. Her research addresses the history of art in relation to photography. She is one of the founding members of the Photography Research Centre (CVF) at the Institute of Art History. She co-curates exhibition program at the Fotograf Gallery in Prague. She also co-curated the Prague Fotograf Festival. She is a member of the editorial board of the Czech Fotograf magazine. Buddeus works as a director of AMU Gallery in Prague. Recently she edited a new book, Sudek and Sculpture, based on a catalogue for the exhibition entitled Lovelies from the Files. Sudek and Sculpture. The book, featuring more than 600 pages and over 400 reproductions, with texts by seven authors is available through Chicago University Press.
Free and open to the public. Suggested donation $5. RSVP through Eventbrite to receive the Zoom link.
This event is organized by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, New York Chapter, with support of Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA).