JAN SAUDEK | EMOTIONAL | 6. 5.—1. 6. 25
We cordially invite you to the Czech Gallery of Modern Art to an exhibition of artistic photographer Jan Saudek. We have selected for you a sample of this artist's unique work, which is being held on the occasion of Jan Saudek's 90th birthday, which he will celebrate on May 13. Come and see it, it will definitely be worth it.
Jan Saudek
(born in Prague, May 13, 1935)
The most provocative figure in the history of Czech photography. He has had over 400 exhibitions all over the world. His photographs can be found in the largest and most important collections in the world. Only in his work can you find the true form of Jan Saudek, the Jan Saudek who can say two completely contradictory sentences in five minutes and perhaps even fight for each of them. As if the truth – as is often the case – lies somewhere in the middle.
1950
He gets his first camera: a Kodak Baby Brownie. It's great and he would have continued to work with it, but the special film format is no longer produced for it.
1951
He arranges and then colors his first photograph. The family doctor, to whom his mother embarrassedly shows it, says without hesitation that it is hopelessly bad, kitschy and outdated. Young Saudek believes this and immediately stops (years later he finds the picture again: it is beautiful, like the beautiful time of youth!).
1959
He buys his first real camera. A Flexaret 6x6. He still works with it today. He also starts drawing and painting.
1963
He will be forever influenced by the catalogue for the photographic exhibition “Family of Man” (Edward Steichen). He dreams of photographing the human family. The hymn to fatherhood, motherhood and childhood, and of course love, which he creates during the 60s and 70s, when he mainly photographs himself and his own family, has the depth of a supreme emotional experience and is extremely sincere. The magic of the origin of life plays a special role here. There is no doubt that these at first glance completely simple black and white, “family” pictures, from the very beginning of Saudek’s work, are among the most valuable that he has ever created.
1972
He finds his Wall – but he doesn't yet realize how important a milestone in his career it is. The Cellar Wall
apartment of an old Prague Žižkov building, peeling, with traces of damp stains and a window that
leads nowhere. He found himself there involuntarily after one of his divorces. And this became the stage for his
photographic story.
1981
His first monograph, Il teatro de la vita, is published in Milan.
1983
After years of working in a factory, he becomes a freelance photographer and devotes himself fully to his own work.
1990
When, at the end of 1990, the French Minister of Culture presented the prestigious title of Le Chevalier des Arts et des Letters (Knight of Arts and Letters) simultaneously to the Czech Jan Saudek and the American Joel-Peter Witkin, the world press wrote about two revered and at the same time cursed photographers of our time, who, with their controversial work, help us understand the complexity of the world and ourselves. Director Jérôme de Missolz is making a film about him, "Jan Saudek - Czech Photographer".
