Photographer - Jan Svoboda

Nationality: Czech
Subject of photography: still life
Life dates: 27. července 1934 Bohuňovice – 1. ledna 1990 Praha
Sample of work:

source: www.gavu.cz/pavel-vancat-jan-svoboda/

source: www.kulturissimo.cz/index.php?zarputily-jan-svoboda-v-atelieru-josefa-sudka&detail=169

 www.photoeditionberlin.com/programm/czech-fundamental/jan-svoboda/

 
Jan Svoboda (1934–1990) became a legend of Czech photography already in his lifetime. Not even fifteen years after his death, this legend has achieved a near-Faustian dimension, which gradually begins to obscure the work of its creator. Svoboda as the first among the disciples of Josef Sudek, Svoboda as the mystical worshipper of light and shadow, Svoboda as a simple, rustic man at the tender mercies of urban life, Svoboda as the only true “artist” among Czech photographers, all these and other affirmations push the artist himself into black and white contours, speaking little of the real scope and importance of his work. Svoboda was probably the most obstinate of Czech photographers. It is a strange and wonderful experience to trace from its beginnings the originality and ferocity with which he embarked on a path entirely his own, along which he logically had to remain faithful to himself alone. “I have no program, that’s the horror of it,” he complained (perhaps with bitter satisfaction) in 1982 in an interview with Liba Taylor. But it was he himself who set his own program, in the form of a search for the autonomy of the photographic image.
Svoboda’s very first works of the late 1950s differ radically from the then ascending trends in artistic photography, confidently embarking on a path of defining the possibilities and limits of the medium of photography. Aside from reverbations of surrealism and symbolism (which influenced Svoboda throughout his life) his rendition of the subject matter in his early works betrays a completely different approach to the reality he portrays. Svoboda here tried to construct the photographic image in a manner similar to how painting liberated itself from the mimetic canon and set out on a Modernist search for the elementary rules of surface and composition. In an effort to achieve maximum degree of autonomy of the photographic image, Svoboda, thanks to fundamental and original formal innovation, reached the very limits of the possible. Due to their sophisticated techniques, his works entirely shook off the principle of being reproduceable and thus became (paradoxically for photography) unique works of art. Their solitary nature was emphasized, Svoboda being unaccustomed in those days to large formats, by a total absence of framing, the use of a solid foundation with a supporting framework, of detaching the works from the surface of the wall. Photographs are thus elevated to the rank of objects that communicate independently with both the exibition space and the atmosphere of the lighting.


www.artbook.com/9788072154241.html

Czech artist Jan Svoboda (1934–1990) spent a lifetime laboring to redefine the language of photography. This catalogue gives an overview of his career, from early still lifes to works that questioned the rules and boundaries of the photographic image to his pioneering conceptual photographs of the late 1960s--pictures that frequently quoted from other works of his.


www.fototorst.com/book.php?pk=575

Jan Svoboda (1934–1990) was an important Czech artist, who sought to redefine the language of photography in relation to painting and sculpture. From the late 1950s onwards, he moved from existentially conceived still lifes to works that pose questions about the rules and boundaries of the photographic image, its composition, tonality, and physical substance. In the late 1960s, his work began to come to a peak, with philosophically self-reflective pictures, often directly quoting from, and depicting, his own works, ranking him among the world’s pioneers of photographic appropriation and forerunners of conceptual photography. The author is Pavel Vančát, a curator and writer on art.


www.cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Svoboda_(fotograf)

Po nedokončených studiích modelérství porcelánu (1949–50) ve Staré Roli u Karlových Varů studoval Vyšší školu uměleckého průmyslu v Praze (1950–54), od roku 1952 specializovaný obor scénické výtvarnictví (prof. Richard Lander). Fotografoval zátiší, krajinu a akty. Pracoval jako reklamní grafik, průmyslový návrhář a fotograf. V letech 1963–1964 byl členem skupiny výtvarných umělců Máj. Nechal se inspirovat Josefem Sudkem, se kterým v roce 1983 společně vystavoval vRoudnici nad Labem. Námětem jeho fotografií jsou běžné předměty, často opakovaně tytéž (např. cyklus Stůl), které využíval pro vyjádření nálad vytvářených různými šedými odstíny. Charakteristickým rysem jeho fotografií jsou velké rozměry zvětšenin, důraz na kompozici a iluzivní grafické ztvárnění prostoru.

Jan Svoboda představuje významnou osobnost českého výtvarného umění, který se pokusil redefinovat jazyk fotografie ve vztahu k malířství a sochařství. Od konce padesátých let se přes existenciálně pojatá zátiší propracoval až k otázkám po pravidlech a hranicích fotografického obrazu, jeho kompozice, tonality i fyzické podstaty. Od konce šedesátých let pak jeho tvorba vrcholí filosoficky sebereflexivními obrazy, často přímo citujícími a zobrazujícími vlastní tvorbu, které ho řadí mezi světové průkopníky fotografické apropriace.


Links:
www.kulturissimo.cz/index.php?zarputily-jan-svoboda-v-atelieru-josefa-sudka&detail=169
www.photoeditionberlin.com/programm/czech-fundamental/jan-svoboda/
www.artnet.com/artists/jan-svoboda/past-auction-results
www.artmap.cz/jan-svoboda-1934-1990