Karel Kuklík

Karel Kuklík (March 7, 1937, Prague, Czechoslovakia – August 18, 2019, Prague) was a Czech photographer and one of the representatives of Informel in Czech fine art photography. He was classified as an artist influenced by abstract and surrealist tendencies and as an artist who creates works with a strong existentialist atmosphere. In 2000 he co-founded the photographic group Český dřevák.

Life

Karel Kuklík was born in Prague. His father was a tailor, who was imprisoned for illegal activity during World War II. Young Karel spent part of the early 1940s with his relatives in a few places, for example in a village near Blaník Hill. When he was about six he befriended František Šmejkal, who was the same age as him and who later became a notable art theoretician. At the age of fifteen Kuklík acquired his first camera (6x6 cm) and a year later he bought a 6x9 cm plate camera. It was also at that time that he became seriously interested in fine art and started visiting galleries. In the first half of the 1950s he saw an exhibition of paintings by Jan Zrzavý, which made a great impression on him.

Between 1952 and 1954 he trained to be a car mechanic, which was what he did from 1954 to 1956 and from 1958 to 1960. Between 1956 and 1958 he did his military service. In 1960 he became a photo laboratory assistant at the State Institute for Historical Monuments Preservation and Environmental Protection in Prague. It was there that he acquired many useful photographic and darkroom skills. Since 1964 he has been a freelance photographer.

Karel Kuklík died after a long illness on Sunday August 18, 2019.

Work

Photographic series

Imaginative landscapes

''Imaginative Landscapes'' is a general series created between 1958 and 1964. It includes the following individual series of photographs:
* 1958–1960 ''Tainted Landscape I''
* 1960–1963 ''Landscape of Hope''
* 1962–1964 ''Tainted Landscape II''
* 1964 ''Landscape of Cognition''
* 1964 ''Wreckage''

Other photographic series

* 1958–1961 ''Dead Town''
* 1959–1967 ''Structures''
* 1959–1970 ''Shadows''
* 1960–1965 ''Wood''
* 1960–1967 ''Landscape with Stones''
* 1961 ''Road'' (triptych)
* 1961–1962 ''Town''
* 1962 ''Waiting'' (triptych)
* 1962 ''Peace Be with the One Who Comes'' (triptych)
* 1961–1968 ''Objects I'' (triptych)
* 1963 ''Victory'' (triptych)
* 1963 ''Rest in Peace'' (triptych)
* 1963–1964 ''Town II''
* 1963–1964 ''Time of the Town''
* 1965 ''Graveyard'' (pentaptych)
* 1965 ''Machine I''
* 1967 ''Machine II''
* 1966–1967 ''Objects II''
* 1966–1967 ''Rocks''
* 1968 ''Quarry I''
* 1970 ''Quarry II''
* 1970 ''Shore''
* 1970 ''Trees Grow Straight I a II'' (triptych)
* 1970 ''Landscape of Returns'' (with snow)
* 1971–1991 ''Landscape of Returns I''
* 1973–1994 ''Landscape of Returns II''
* 1974 ''Grébovka''
* 1976–1979 ''Homestead''
* 1981 ''There and Back''
* 1985–1992 ''Traces and Projections''
* 1991 ''Čakov, House no. 18''
* 1991 ''Female Neighbours''
* 1991 ''Leaves''
* since 1997 ''Prague''

Included in collections

* Uměleckoprůmyslové museum v Praze (Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague)
* Národní galerie v Praze (National Gallery in Prague)
* Moravská galerie v Brně (Moravian Gallery in Brno)
* Muzeum Šumavy Kašperské Hory (The Museum of the Šumava in Kašperské Hory)
* Alšova jihočeská galerie v Hluboké nad Vltavou (Aleš South-Bohemian Gallery in Hluboká nad Vltavou)
* Galerie hlavního města Prahy (City Gallery Prague)
* The Museum of Modern Art in New York City
* Bibliothèque nationale de France (French National Library)
* The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, United States
* Národní muzeum fotografie v Jindřichově Hradci (National Museum of Photography in Jindřichův Hradec)

Books

* Šumava (The Šumava), Panorama 1984
Honourable mention for photographs in The Most Beautiful Book of the Year 1984 competition organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Socialist Republic and the Museum of Czech Literature; Annual Award of the Panorama Publishing House for 1984
* České a moravské rybníky (Bohemian and Moravian Ponds), Pressfoto 1984
* Český kras (Bohemian Karst), Pressfoto 1988
* Český Krumlov (with Pavel Kuklík), Pressfoto 1992
* Šumava (The Šumava), KUKLIK 1993
* Český Krumlov (with Pavel Kuklík), KUKLIK 1996
Awarded as The Photographic Publication of the Year 1997
* Monografie Karel Kuklík (Monograph of Karel Kuklík), České muzeum výtvarných umění (Czech Museum of Fine Arts), 1997 A
Awarded as The Photographic Publication of the Year 1998
* Praha 1997–1998 Katalog grantu Hlavního města Prahy 1998 (Catalogue of Grant by Capital Prague 1998)
Awarded as The Photographic Catalogue of the Year 1999
* Krajiny návratů (Landscapes of Returns), KUKLIK 2004
* Praha – Krajina návratů 1974–2008 (Prague – Landscape of Returns 1974–2008), KUKLIK 2010

Portfolios

* Dvůr 1976–1978 (Homestead 1976–1978)
Ten original 18x24 contact prints. Ten numbered copies published by the author in 1979, with accompanying text by Karel Dvořák.
* Krajina návratů II. 1973–1980 (Landscape of Returns II 1973–1980)
Ten original 18x24 contact prints. Ten numbered copies published by the author in 1981, with accompanying text by Anna Fárová.
* Grébovka 1974
Ten original 13x18 contact prints. Ten numbered copies published by the author in 1993, with accompanying text by Jan Kříž.
* Šumava – variace na téma (The Šumava – Variations on a Theme)
Seven original 15x20 enlargements. Ten numbered copies published by the author in 1995, with accompanying text by Daniela Mrázková.

Gallery

File:Kuklik_1955.JPG, Untitled, 1955
File:Kuklik_z_cyklu_Mrtvé_město-1959.jpg, From the ''Dead Town'' series, 1959
File:Kuklik_z_cyklu_Zamořená_krajina_I-1959.jpg, From the ''Tainted Landscape I'' series, 1959
File:Kuklik_Struktura_č_3-1960.jpg, Structure no. 3, 1960
File:Kuklik_Trhlina_II-1962.jpg, Crack II, 1962
File:Kuklik_triptych_Čekání_-levé_křídlo-1962.jpg, ''Waiting'' triptych - Left Wing, 1962
File:Kuklik_z_cyklu_Zamořená_krajina_II-1964.jpg, From the ''Tainted Landscape II'' series, 1964
File:Kuklik_z_cyklu_Čas_města-1964.jpg, From the ''Time of the Town'' series, 1964
File:Kuklik_z_cyklu_Věci_II-1967.jpg, From the ''Objects I'' series, 1967
File:Kuklik_z_cyklu_Dvůr_I-1976.jpg, From the ''Homestead I'' series, 1976
File:Kuklik_z_cyklu_Krajina_návratů_II-1980.jpg, From the ''Landscape of Returns II'' series, 1980
File:Kuklik_z_cyklu_Stopy_a_projekce-1985.jpg, From the ''Traces and Projections'' series, 1985
File:Kuklik_Krajina_návratů_II_1993-1994.jpg, From the ''Landscape of Returns II'' series, 1993-1994

References

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuklik, Karel
1937 births
2019 deaths
Photographers from Prague
Art Informel and Tachisme painters