Photos

The Southern Gardens of Prague Castle have become the open-air gallery for the fourth time already.
The fourth " Maximum Photography" exhibition is presenting d work of Ivan Pinkava.
This black-and-white photographs, made between 1990 – 2004 show Pinkava’s famous portraits and less well-known standstills. The exhibition called Salome focuses on the theme of a girl and the death.


Ivan Pinkava (born 1961) ranks amongst today's most renowned Czech photographers and is one of those who have also managed to break successfully onto the international scene. The exhibition entitled Heroes is the first systematic gathering of his work from its beginnings at the beginning of the 1980s up to now. Over one hundred and thirty selected works form an independent composition conceived directly for the premises of the Galerie Rudolfinum, and follow the most important moments of the author's creative development. The main theme of Pinkava's work is precisely pointed parallels, quotations and connotations to the great tales of European culture. Pinkava makes use of the human body and face as a mirror of cultural significances, without at the same time detracting from the authentic identity of a specific person. Thanks to its emphasised, purely personal physiognomy, his portrait works present references to icons of the European pictorial tradition. Figures in carefully arranged scenes of gesture, expression and attributes multiply their personal identity in favour of wider significances constructed on perceptible links to myths, biblical stories, introspection of inner life, but also towards a cultural memory drawn from the history of visual art and literature.
(Petr Nedoma)