Svoboda+Palcr: Seeing Sculptures

Svoboda+Palcr: Seeing Sculptures

Katarína Mašterová (ed.)

The photographer Jan Svoboda (1934–1990) perceived the sculptures of Zdeněk Palcr (1927–1996) as an autonomous artistic motif. The photographs of these sculptures were created from the 1960s to the 1980s primarily as documentation to be used by sculptors, but the photographer transformed them into images of specific artistic qualities and unusual iconic values. The book of these photographs is also a catalogue for the exhibition with the same name, which took place in 2019 at the Gallery of Fine Arts in Cheb.
In addition to the many reproductions, the book includes four expert studies exploring the actual photos of sculptures by Jan Svoboda (a study by Katarína Mašterová) and the works of Zdeněk Palcr (a study by Iva Mladičová and an essay by Vladimíra Koubová-Eidernová), which have almost been forgotten today, even though they represent some of the most important works of art of the second half of the twentieth century. The book is supplemented with a description of the friendship and artistic and intellectual connection between both authors (text by Jaromír Zemina), their brief biographies, and a selected bibliography. The book includes unique and newly accessible visual materials.

First edition, in Czech with English summary, 236 pages, black and white and colour illustrations, Prague 2019
ISBN: 978-80-88283-22-5