THE PHOTOGRAPHER FRANTISEK DRTIKOL

Prague: Kant, 2000. Second revived and enlarged edition. Hardcover. A near fine copy in a near fine dust jacket. Frantisek Drtikol (1883-1961) together with those of Jaromir Funke, Jaroslav Rossler and Josef Sudek, constitute the most significant Czech contributions to world photography in the first half of the 20th Century. Drtikol's photographs remain exceptionally impressive today for their originality, depth of thought, artistic cultivation, and technical mastery. Following years of virtual oblivion in the past three decades these works have again provoked exceptional interest at one-person and group exhibitions in many countries, as well as in the most diverse publications. Drtikol was the first Czech photographer to gain world-wide prominence, a draftsman whose talents remain underappreciated to this day, a graphic artist and painter, a designer of original decorations and house accessories, a thinker and spiritual teacher as well. Includes; 120 duotone and 8 color full-page reproductions of Drtikol's work. The text, supplemented witih almost fifty other reproductions, analyzes and characterizes Drtikol's photographs and locates them in the wider spiritual and artistic context of their time with the help of quotations from Drtikol's notes and correspondence. The monograph also contains a complete exhibition history, bibliographic listing, and a number of little known works, some never before published.