The Art of Miroslav Tichy

Miroslav Tichy with one of his homemade cameras

I first saw the photographs of Miroslav Tichy at the Centre Georges Pompidou, in 2008. Seeing the photographs in their handmade paper frames was like discovering a missing link for me. I won't spell out what I feel about these photographs, you either get it, or you don't.

After studying at the Academy of Arts in Prague, Miroslav Tichý (born 1926) withdrew to a life in isolation in his hometown of Kyjov, Moravia, Czech Republic In the late 1950s he quit painting and became a distinctive Diogenes-like figure. From the end of the 1960s he began to take photographs mainly of local women, in part with cameras he made by hand. He later mounted them on hand-made frames, added finishing touches in pencil, and thus moved them from photography in the direction of drawing. The result is works of strikingly unusual formal qualities, which disregard the rules of conventional photography. They constitute a large oeuvre of poetic, dreamlike views of feminine beauty in a small town under the Czechoslovak Communist régime.

Miroslav Tichý, MT inv. no 3 - 8 - 35, by courtesy of Foundation Tichý Oceàn

Miroslav Tichý, MT inv. no 3 - 8 - 23, by courtesy of Foundation Tichý Oceàn

Miroslav Tichý, MT inv. no 3 - 8 - 22, by courtesy of Foundation Tichý Oceàn

Miroslav Tichý, MT inv. no 2 - 250, by courtesy of Foundation Tichý Oceàn

Miroslav Tichý, MT inv. no 1 - 17, by courtesy of Foundation Tichý Oceàn

Miroslav Tichý, MT inv. no 1 - 32, by courtesy of Foundation Tichý Oceàn

Miroslav Tichý, MT inv. no 2 - 232, by courtesy of Foundation Tichý Oceàn

You can visit the Miroslav Tichy website here