Jaromír Funke

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Josef Sudek, Portrait of Jaromír Funke, 1924. Gelatin silver print. 28.5 x 22.8 cm.

Czech photographer. In 1922, he set out on the road to abstraction, ultimately developing a school of his own: Photogenism. He responded to the inspiration of Cubism and also made exemplary works in the styles of New Objectivity and Constructivism. In the 1920s, he became one of the first photographers to accept Poetism and Surrealism. With the exception of Jaroslav Rössler, Funke was the only important Czechoslovak photographer to grasp the international context of avant-garde photography, painting, and sculpture. Not only with his photographs but also with his extensive work as a theorist, critic, organizer, editor, and, in particular, as a teacher, he considerably influenced the photography of his day. At art schools in Bratislava (head of photography department at the School of Arts and Crafts since 1931; he considered studying at the Bauhaus, but in the end gave priority to teaching in Bratislava) and Prague he had a unique opportunity to disseminate his knowledge at a time when this was impossible in the neighbouring countries, particularly Nazi Germany. Editor of the Fotografický obzor [Photographic Horizons] journal.

Publications[edit]

  • with Ladislav Sutnar, Fotografie vidí povrch. La photographie reflete L'aspect des choses, intro. V.V. Štech, Prague: Státní grafická škola nákladem Družstevní práce, 1935, 32 pp; repr., Prague: Torst, 2003, 60 pp. [1] (Czech)

Literature[edit]

  • Antonín Dufek, Jaromír Funke, Prague: Torst, 2003, 152 pp. [2] (Czech)
  • Antonín Dufek, Jaromír Funke. Mezi konstrukcí a emocí, Prague: Kant, 2013, 276 pp. [3] (Czech)
    • Jaromír Funke. Between Construction and Emotion, trans. Derek Paton and Marzia Paton, Prague: Kant, 2013, 240 pp. [4] (English)
  • Antonín Dufek, "Jaromir Funke and Czech Photography, 1920-39", in Object:Photo. Modern Photographs: The Thomas Walther Collection 1909-1949, eds. Mitra Abbaspour, Lee Ann Daffner, and Maria Morris Hambourg, New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2014. (English)

See also[edit]

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