PHOTOGRAPHS BY GRAPHIC ARTISTS. ALPHONSE MUCHA, VIKTOR STRETTI, TAVÍK FRANTIŠEK ŠIMON, VOJTĚCH PREISSIG

Curator: Jan Mlčoch
Graphic design: Štěpán Malovec

Modern Czech graphic art and photography developed concurrently. Around 1900 the photographic camera became part of the art equipment of many painters and graphic artists who had no longer felt bound by routine stereotypes. The star of the Art Nouveau style Alphonse Mucha (1860–1939) used his photographs as studies for further artistic rendering, whether for his paintings, posters or illustrations. The well-travelled Tavík František Šimon (1877–1942) transformed his photographs into visually impressive graphic sheets. Viktor Stretti (1878–1942) focused mainly on Prague-related themes and he finished some of his photos with hand-drawn sketches. The versatile “polygraphic experimenter” Vojtěch Preissig (1873–1944) also used his shots of important monuments and parks made during his sojourns in Paris and Boston in his graphic art. Most of the authentic, artists’ positives on display, which form an organic part of their artistic estates, have been incorporated into the museum’s holdings in recent years.