Frantisek Drtikol, Nude (1883 - 1961)
ART+OBJECT is delighted to have been chosen by internationally-renowned cinematographer Michael Seresin as the auction house of choice for the disbandment of his world class collection of 20th Century Modernist photography. The collection toured the country between 2005 and 2007, exhibited under the banner Another View: A Selection of 20th Century International Photographs from the Seresin Family Collection, at Te Manawa Art Gallery in Palmerston North, the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Auckland Museum, Arartoi in Masterton and Whangarei Art Museum among others. The collection includes vintage photographs by the biggest names in 20th Century photography including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bill Brandt, Eugene Atget, Brassai, Andre Kertez, Brassai and many more. A date will be announced for the auction in early 2011.
The above image is by Czech photographer Frantisek Drtikol who began his career when Prague Symbolism and "Art Nouveau" still held sway. The influence of these movements is evident in his early nude photographs, such as the above print from the collection, which conveys a sense of alienation in its painterly quality. In the twenties and early thirties Drtikol reshaped the genre of classical nude photography by synthesizing into a new aesthetic aspects from silent film, avantgarde art, expressive dance and Art Deco design.
After his student years in the artistically fertile Munich of the turn of the century, after his apprenticeship and military service, he opened his own photographic studio in Prague, which became one of the most successful in Europe of the twenties. That his fame later suffered an almost total eclipse is only partly explained by the historical circumstances of the time, for in the early thirties Drtikol gave up photography, sold his studio, valuable glass pates and negatives, to devote himself to painting and mysticism in the seclusion of a hermit's life.
