Miroslav Tichý
27.04.2016 - 28.08.2016

Miroslav Tichý is the eleventh exhibition held in the ex-kindergarten of Bruzella, home of the Rolla Foundation. The works are from the private collection of Rosella and Philip Rolla and presents on this occasion 40 photographs and 5 drawings.

Miroslav Tichý (1926-2011, Kyjov, Czech Republic), between 1960 and 1985, using cameras made from found objects, cardboard, cans and other materials, shot thousands of photographs, predominately of women of his native town of Kyiov.

The photographs remained largely unknown until 2004 when the curator Harald Szeemann introduced him to the art world at the Biennial in Seville.

The images—fleeting glimpses, blurred, stained and poorly printed due to the limitations of his primitive equipment and to a series of intentional mistakes—reach poetic imperfections.

The catalog text is by Francesco Zanot, Italian curator.

Miroslav Tichý 
Untitled, 1960-85
vintage gelatin silver print
12.9 x 8.9 cm

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ARTWORKS
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INSTALLATION VIEW
Miroslav Tichý

Tichý attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague dedicating himself to modernist painting until 1948 when the communist regime imposed the representation of workers in overalls rather than posing models. Tichý refused and left the academy. After military service he began painting again according to his style, to the point that the communist regime considered him a dissident and confined him for a few days in the state psychiatric clinic. In the sixties Tichý began to neglect his physical appearance so much as to be considered by all an eccentric. He wandered around the city of Kyjov with a self-built and deliberately imperfect camera (blurry shot, dirty lens and scratched...) to steal images of women, drawn by the essence of femininity.

Miroslav Tichý
Untitled, 1950-1980
vintage gelatin silver print
17 × 9.7 cm

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view