Jan Svoboda

ISBN: 978-80-7215-424-1|Published: 2011|Pages: 140
Binding: Softbound|Format: 160 x 180 mm|Graphic design: studio Najbrt

Jan Svoboda (1934–1990) was an important Czech artist, who sought to redefine the language of photography in relation to painting and sculpture. From the late 1950s onwards, he moved from existentially conceived still lifes to works that pose questions about the rules and boundaries of the photographic image, its composition, tonality, and physical substance. In the late 1960s, his work began to come to a peak, with philosophically self-reflective pictures, often directly quoting from, and depicting, his own works, ranking him among the world’s pioneers of photographic appropriation and forerunners of conceptual photography. The author is Pavel Vančát, a curator and writer on art.