Josef Sudek: The Legacy of a Deeper Vision

During a legendary career that spanned almost six decades, Czech photographer Josef Sudek, the “poet of Prague,” developed a craftsmanship and technical virtuosity that was unparalleled among his contemporaries. Early in his career, though the prevailing art movements of the 1920s and ’30s included cubism, surrealism, and the Czech avant-garde, Sudek sought his own approach characterized by a striking mastery of light.

 

Copiously illustrated with photographs from the Art Gallery of Ontario—which will also exhibit the photographs through December 2012—this book takes readers on a journey through Sudek’s life and work. Included here are essays by some of the foremost writers on Sudek’s work, including curator Maia-Mari Sutnik, photo-historian Antonín Dufek, Canadian Art editor Richard Rhodes, and photographer Geoffrey James. Sudek’s photographs also feature heavily in Irish novelist John Banville’s Prague Pictures: Portraits of a City, which forms a biographical portrait of the photographer, and several excerpts from the book are included here. Rounding out the volume is a detailed biographical chronology by Czech art historian and Sudek expert Anna Fárová.

 

The photographs in this book cover every stage of Sudek’s extensive career, shedding light on his lifelong quest to perfect his photographic vision.

Maia-Mari Sutnik is a curator of photography at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto and adjunct professor in the School of Image Arts at Ryerson University.

Director’s Foreword

Tribute to Anna Fárová

Recollections from Prague Pictures

      John Banville

Plates

Essays

Sudek the Outsider

      Antonín Dufek

Josef Sudek and the Panorama

      Geoffrey James

Josef Sudek: Grace Notes

      Richard Rhodes

In the Studio, In the Garden: Variations of Light and Magic

      Maia-Mari Sutnik

Josef Sudek Chronology and Selected Solo Exhibitions

      Anna Fárová

Notes to List of Photographs

      Maia-Mari Sutnik

List of Photographs