Jaromir Funke
Photographer / Writer
Jaromír Funke (1896–1945) studied medicine, law and philosophy at Charles University in Prague. By 1922 he was a leader of the young opposition movement in photography and a founder of the Czech Society of Photography (1924) whose mission was to create photography that would fulfill new social functions. In his work Funke managed to combine some of the leading trends in modernist European photography, uniting constructivism and functionalism with surrealism and social commentary, with traditional Czech aesthetics. His interest in modernist ideas led him to make clearly focused studies of simple objects. As the decade progressed, he turned to the production of carefully arranged still lifes emphasizing abstract form and the play of light and shadow. During this time he also produced several important series of photographs, including two inspired by the images of Eugène Atget: Reflexy (Reflections, 1929) and as trvá (Time Persists, 1930–34).
Funke was also influential as a teacher, first at the School of Arts and Crafts, Bratislava (1931–34/35), which followed a Bauhaus-inspired curriculum, and then at the State School of Graphic Arts, Prague (1935–44). While in Bratislava, he became interested in social documentary photography and joined the leftist group Sociofoto, which was concerned with recording the living conditions of the poor. Throughout his career Funke published articles and critical reviews dealing with photography. From 1939–41 he worked with Josef Ehm to edit the magazine Fotografik obzor (Photographic Horizon).
Jaromír Funke’s works are part of many renowned collections, including Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum.
Jaromir Funke
Photographer / Writer
Jaromír Funke (1896–1945) studied medicine, law and philosophy at Charles University in Prague. By 1922 he was a leader of the young opposition movement in photography and a founder of the Czech Society of Photography (1924) whose mission was to create photography that would fulfill new social functions. In his work Funke managed to combine some of the leading trends in modernist European photography, uniting constructivism and functionalism with surrealism and social commentary, with traditional Czech aesthetics. His interest in modernist ideas led him to make clearly focused studies of simple objects. As the decade progressed, he turned to the production of carefully arranged still lifes emphasizing abstract form and the play of light and shadow. During this time he also produced several important series of photographs, including two inspired by the images of Eugène Atget: Reflexy (Reflections, 1929) and as trvá (Time Persists, 1930–34).
Funke was also influential as a teacher, first at the School of Arts and Crafts, Bratislava (1931–34/35), which followed a Bauhaus-inspired curriculum, and then at the State School of Graphic Arts, Prague (1935–44). While in Bratislava, he became interested in social documentary photography and joined the leftist group Sociofoto, which was concerned with recording the living conditions of the poor. Throughout his career Funke published articles and critical reviews dealing with photography. From 1939–41 he worked with Josef Ehm to edit the magazine Fotografik obzor (Photographic Horizon).
Jaromír Funke’s works are part of many renowned collections, including Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum.
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Jinjoon Lee: Audible GardenJul 21 – Oct 13, 2023This summer, the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange (KOFICE) and the Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCCUK) co-present Audible Garden, the solo exhibition of work by new media artist Jinjoon Lee as part of a yearlong celebration of the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Korea and the UK. (more…)
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AestheticaMagazine / OrganizationAesthetica is a British art and culture magazine. Founded in 2002, Aesthetica Magazine covers photography, visual art, music, film and theatre. It has a readership of over 311,000 and national and international distribution. (more…)
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Elle Pérez: IntimaciesJul 22, 2023 – Jun 2024Beginning July 22, 2023, MASS MoCA will present Elle Pérez: Intimacies, an exhibition of photographs by the acclaimed Bronx-born, Puerto Rican photographer. The show will be on view in B6: The Robert Wilson Building, through June 2024. This selection of works is an expanded presentation of a body of work titled Devotions shown in part in Pérez’s recent exhibitions at the Carnegie Museum and at the Baltimore Museum of Art. (more…)
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Anne Collier: EyeMar 25 – Oct 29, 2023Lismore Castle Arts is pleased to announce Eye, the first exhibition in Ireland by the New York-based artist Anne Collier. The exhibition is a focused survey of Collier’s works produced between 2007 and 2022 that feature images of eyes, including the artist’s own and those sourced from photography manuals, advertisements, comic books, film stills, and album sleeves. (more…)
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Chantal JoffeArtistChantal Joffe brings a combination of insight and integrity, as well as psychological and emotional force, to the genre of figurative art. Hers is a deceptively casual brushstroke. (more…)
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Alex PragerPhotographerPrager’s works are in collections of National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Kunsthaus Zürich, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. (more…)
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Thomas Demand / The Stutter of HistoryAug 9 2023 – Feb 10 2024What is it that we actually see when we look at Thomas Demand’s photographs? Demand, born in Munich in 1964, has spent almost three decades exploring the intersections of history, images, and architectural forms. (more…)
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Anicka Yi: A Shimmer Through The Quantum FoamSep 15 – Oct 21, 2023Esther Schipper is pleased to announce Anicka Yi’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. Entitled A Shimmer Through The Quantum Foam, the exhibition features a series of unique animated pod sculptures that pulse and undulate, casting their flickering light across the surfaces of luminous algorithmically-generated paintings. Below this suspended constellation of bio-techno lifeforms, the soft glow of an aqueous ooze – indicative of life’s marine origins – sprawls in a shallow crater in a built up section across the gallery floor. (more…)
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Andreas Gursky: Visual Spaces of TodayPublicationPublished by Fondazione MAST, this catalogue accompanies the first exhibition in Italy dedicated to the German artist Andreas Gursky. Gursky’s large-scale images frame the contemporary landscape and define our experience of the world (more…)
