Miroslav Tichy, Women on the Street, Original Photograph, 1970s

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Description

Miroslav tichy (1926 - 2011)

women on the street

unique vintage gelatin silver print

106 x 147 mm

good condition … Read more Miroslav tichy (1926 - 2011)

women on the street

unique vintage gelatin silver print

106 x 147 mm

good condition (as usual for the artist, taken by completely home-made camera and home-printed)

the artist

miroslav tichý (1926 – 2011) was a photographer who from the 1960s until 1985 took thousands of surreptitious pictures of women in his hometown of kyjov in the czech republic, using homemade cameras constructed of cardboard tubes, tin cans and other at-hand materials. Most of his subjects were unaware that they were being photographed. A few struck beauty-pageant poses when they sighted tichý, perhaps not realising that the parody of a camera he carried was real.

his soft focus, fleeting glimpses of the women of kyjov are skewed, spotted and badly printed — flawed by the limitations of his primitive equipment and a series of deliberate processing mistakes meant to add poetic imperfections.

of his technical methods, tichy has said, "first of all, you have to have a bad camera", and, "if you want to be famous, you must do something more badly than anybody in the entire world."

during the communist regime in czechoslovakia, tichý was considered a dissident and was badly treated by the government. His photographs remained largely unknown until an exhibition was held for him in 2004. Tichý did not attend exhibitions, and lived a life of self-sufficiency and freedom from the standards of society.

themes and exhibitions (selected)

miroslav tichy is worldwide considered one of the most important spontaneous erotic photographers.

tichý's work was largely unknown until his photographs were shown at the 2004 biennial of contemporary art in seville. Tichý's work won the rencontres d'arles 2005 new discovery award. In 2005, he had a major retrospective at the kunsthaus in zurich, another at the pompidou centre in 2008.

in february 2010, tichý had a solo show at the international center of photography in new york city. The exhibition featured 100 photographs, the film "miroslav tichý: tarzan retired," and two large vitrines exhibiting dusty and grimy piles of photographs, homemade cameras, lamps, and rolls of undeveloped film. In its review, the new york times thought his anti-modernist style was representative of the nonviolent subversion practiced by czech students and artists under the soviet regime, and called his photographs an "uncanny fusion of eroticism, paranoia and deliberation" that is "mildly disturbing [but also] intensely fascinating".

2013: “homage to miroslav tichý”, prague biennale, prague, czech republic
2012: "l'homme à la mauvaise caméra", pascal polar gallery, brussels, belgium
2012: "the artist with the bad camera", moscow house of photography, moscow, russia
2011: "sun screen", horton gallery, new york city, united states
2011: "miroslav tichỷ, retrospettiva", si fest, savignano sul rubicone, italy
2010: "miroslav tichỷ", international centre of photography, new york city, united states
2009: "miroslav tichỷ. Mirography", ivorypress art space, madrid, spain
2008: "miroslav tichỷ", centre georges pompidou, musée national d’art moderne, paris, france
2008: "miroslav tichỷ", kunsthaus bregenz, kub billboards, bregenz, austria
2008: "miroslav tichỷ", museum of modern art (mmk), frankfurt, germany
2007: "miroslav tichỷ", taka ishii gallery, tokyo, japan
2007: "miroslav tichỷ", beijing art now gallery, beijing, china
2007: "miroslav tichỷ", beijing art now gallery, shanghai, china
2006: "miroslav tichỷ", brno house of art, brno, czech republic
2005: "miroslav tichỷ", kunsthaus, zurich, switzerland i have official proof of authenticity such as vintage catalogs,
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