Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
who shot mainly nudes, poised against dramatic, angular backdrops. Rössler spent
several years in Paris, refining a style of powerful abstract imagery that drew on con-
structivist trends.
During communism, photography was enlisted in the service of promoting the
workers' state. Picture books from that time are comically filled with images of tract-
ors, factories and housing projects. Serious photographers turned inward and inten-
tionally chose subjects - such as landscapes and still lifes - that were, at least superfi-
cially, devoid of political content. Arguably, the best Czech photographer from this
time was Josef Sudek (1896-1976). During a career that spanned five decades, Sudek
turned his lens on the city of Prague to absolutely stunning effect.
Current Czech bad-boy photographer Jan Saudek (1935-) continues to delight his
fans (or dismay his critics) with his dream-like, hand-tinted prints that evoke images
of utopia or dystopia - usually involving a nude or semi-nude woman or child.
WEIRD ART OF DAVID ČERNÝ
David Černý's sculpture is often controversial, occasionally outrageous and al-
ways amusing. Following are six of his best-known works that are permanently
on view in Prague:
German Embassy in Malá Strana. A Trabant (an East German car) on four hu-
man legs serves as a monument to the thousands of East Germans who fled the
communist regime in 1989 prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, and who camped
out in the embassy garden seeking political asylum.
»
Viselec
(Hanging Out; 1997) - above Husova street in Staré Město. A
bearded, bespectacled chap with a passing resemblance to Sigmund Freud,
casually dangling by one hand from a pole way above the street.
Nové Město. Amusing alternative version of the famous St Wenceslas Statue in
Wenceslas Square, only this time the horse is dead.
