“LIGHT. TRACKS.” H2 – Centre for Contemporary Art in Augsburg to exhibit outstanding Czech and Slovak photographs from the PPF collection

The event follows the hugely successful “Sudek, Funke, Drtikol…” (Czech and Slovak Photography from the PPF Collection) exhibit organised by the Regional Art Gallery Liberec last year. The exhibit will offer a slice of Czech and Slovak photography from the 1870s to the present time, with an emphasis on the pre-war Czechoslovakia period. “We are immensely pleased to present original Czech and Slovak photographs from the PPF collection to German audiences. Along with the curators of the Augsburg gallery, we selected a set of works that centre on photographs by Josef Sudek, Jaromír Funke and František Drtikol. Complementing them are, for example, the earliest Czech photographs of František Fridrich as well as the pre-war works of Miroslav Hák, Jaroslav Rössler and Alexander Hackenschmied. Photographers such as Běla Kolářová, Václav Chochola and Tono Stano represent the latter half of the 20th century, and contemporary authors are included too,” Jan Řehák, Director of PPF Art describes the broad scope of the exhibit at Augsburg’s Centre for Contemporary Art. The majority of the works will be presented to German viewers for the first time.

Central to “LIGHT. TRACKS.” are excerpts from the famed series of photographs by Josef Sudek whose admirers include Richard Gere. “The works of Josef Sudek are very much in demand abroad. For example, the exhibit at Dublin’s Douglas Hyde Gallery, which presented a selection from Josef Sudek’s works in the PPF collection to an Irish audience on the occasion of the photographer’s 120th birthday, was received very well,” Jan Řehák notes, adding: “PPF can regularly contribute towards the international promotion of sublime Czech art through the works of Sudek as well as other famous Czech and Slovak photographers, and we are very happy to do so.”

The exhibit at Augsburg’s Glaspalast will also show visitors works by other authors, offering a complete picture of the history of Czech and Slovak photography and representing various artistic styles – pictorialism, modernism, surrealism, existentialism, conceptualism and also post-modernism and post-conceptualism.

The “LIGHT. TRACKS.” exhibit from the PPF collection will open with an official launch ceremony on Thursday, 23 May 2019. Speakers include Christof Treppesch, Director of Kunstsammlungen und Museen Augsburg, Tomas Elsen, Director of H2 – Zentrum für Gegenwartskunst im Glaspalast and the curator of the exhibit, and Jan Randáček, Director of the Regional Art Gallery Liberec.

Exhibit title:         “LIGHT. TRACKS.” („SVĚTLO. STOPY.“) Key Works of Czech and Slovak Photography
Venue:                  H2 – Zentrum für Gegenwartskunst im Glaspalast, Augsburg
Duration:              24 May – 7 July 2019
Curator:                Tomas Elsen