JOSEF SUDEK (1896–1976)
Still life (from 'Labyrinths'), Prague 1965

Start price: €2.800

Estimate: € 5.000–6.000

Vintage silver print

29,2 x 22,8 cm

Signed by the photographer in pencil in the black margin, annotated and dated by him in pencil on the reverse.

During and after World War Two, Josef Sudek created haunting nightscapes and panoramas of Prague and, most important, his famous The Window of my Studio series, picturing the window glass that led to his garden. After the war, in the 1960s and 1970s, Sudek went on to photograph still lifes of the crowded studio interior, which resulted in the Labyrinths series. »I’ve been surrounded by mess all my life«, Sudek would later recall in an interview, but having given the series the title of Labyrinths, he clearly wanted to ennoble this »mess« and give it purpose. The discarded, the ordinary, the destroyed — the artful vision of decay is not a statement about anything in particular but a refreshingly unprompted and beautiful array of images that allow the viewer to engage in quiet contemplation.