The Dargerfication of Miroslav Tichy

 I went to the Miroslav Tichy exhibit at International Center of Photography a few weeks ago, and then I went back again last Friday. (See Vinnie Smith’s earlier post here on Beware of the Blog.) Miroslav Tichy is an old Czech, born in Kyjov, Moravia, in 1926. He went to art school, and then stopped painting sometime in the late 1950s. He became very unkempt, dressed in rags, and started wandering around Kyjov with cameras he constructed out of garbage—shoe boxes, twine, lenses from broken eyeglasses. According to some of the local residents who were interviewed for a documentary on Tichy’s life, most people didn’t believe his cameras were real; those who did would call the police whenever he began “taking pictures”—mostly of women’s feet, legs, and butts. The police also hauled Tichy off to the local insane asylum whenever he showed up for the annual May Day parade, because they didn’t want the village weirdo spoiling their proper celebration.

 The images Tichy made are pretty great, because his cameras and his enlarger were made out of trash, and also because of Tichy’s obsession with his subject matter. Last Friday I watched a couple looking at the first few photos at the ICP exhibit; the young woman turned to her date and said, “He sure liked booty, didn’t he?” Clearly he did, which is pretty obvious to anyone who just looks at the pictures. But if you read the accompanying text for the show, written by some curator, you will discover that these images are all about esthetic choice as to how best to represent the experience of village life, or some such nonsense. Instead of shooting interiors or church scenes, Tichy chose to shoot at the local swimming pool for some esthetic reason or other. The fact that there are usually not a lot of half-naked babes at the church didn’t enter into it at all, apparently. But Tichy himself, in an interview in the documentary film that’s showing in conjunction with the exhibit, just goes on and on about sexuality, atoms screwing, dinosaurs doing it—he doesn’t say a word about his “esthetic choices.” He does say, “To be famous, you have to be worse at something than anyone else in the whole world.” So he’s not stupid.

I don’t understand why we have to do the Henry Darger on these guys. Nobody goes to all the trouble of making cameras out of trash unless their passion forces them to make those images. Why can’t people just look at the photos and appreciate them for what they are? It doesn’t lessen the power of the photos to accept that the photographer was the local creepy weirdo, or that any “esthetic choices” were being made by his Little Miroslav.

ICP show until May 9 (Friday is pay-what-you-wish after 5:00).

Also illuminating: the “Problems” section on the offical website.

Thanks for reading my blogpost this time, and may God bless.

 

Comments

[Jack Lechner]

Absolutely right! I loved seeing Tichy's photographs at the ICP -- they are extraordinary, regardless of the impulse that created them -- and thought the pompous, disingenuous commentary in the show was hilarious. The frustating thing is that the ICP missed an opportunity to ask a rather profound question. If you accept that Tichy created these images as a homemade, purpose-built porn stash (and there's no doubt in my mind that he did), then the real question is: How different is that than what ANY artist does?

[Dan]

Well said! As someone who has worked on the periphery of the art world for a number of years, this tendency to indiscriminately invest vernacular photography, or folk art - or whatever - with some higher-key, academic motivation is forever maddening.

[Emile]

Absolutely right on. The BS level by art theorists on this guy is excruciating. I don't think those writers would recognize a genuine human impulse if it bit them in the ass.

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[Jaroslav]

Look at www.tichyfotograf.cz- the official webside of Miroslav Tichy

[maria elvitsky]

I'm looking forward to finally seeing this show this week. Thanks for the illuminating article-- I think that the work has cred as being 'authentic' and it is appropriated by the academic theorists as it offers a raw ingenuousness that more self-conscious and 'artful' photography lacks- but often tries to emulate. I love the phrase from Jack above--'homemade all-purpose porn stash' !!!! I want one of my own!

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