Josef Koudelka at the Art Institute of Chicago

Amanda Maddox of the Getty Museum, Josef Koudelka, and Matt Witkovsky of the AIC on the dais.

Words and photos by Dan Gorman

I attended the opening of the Josef Koudelka exhibit at AIC last week. I walked through the exhibit itself Thursday afternoon, and then attended the panel discussion in the evening.

The exhibit is spread out over three galleries in the Modern Wing. One of the galleries is across the main hallway from the other two, which unfortunately kind of breaks up the viewing experience. The staging is both chronological and thematic, with each of the major phases of Koudelka's career (theater, Gypsies, Invasion, Exiles, and panoramas) getting more or less its own space. The gallery devoted to the panoramas must have been just a bit too small to hold them all, as one large piece was hung in the gallery across the hall in the larger gallery where most of the Exiles pieces were displayed. Koudelka made reference to the staging of the exhibit during the discussion, stating that the three galleries taken together were the smallest space he'd ever had to work with for a retrospective, and that the size of the space created some "challenges" in putting the show together.

There were also some interesting choices in the layout of the galleries. The Invasion images are all displayed in a fairly narrow corridor, which serves to emphasize what a brief and finite interval of his career this episode really was. At one end of the corridor, there's a small monitor playing a video loop of a Walter Cronkite nightly newscast, showing several of Koudelka's images for the first time on broadcast television, roughly a year after they were taken. The images were accompanied in the broadcast by a sound recording of Morley Safer's on-the-scene reporting as the incipient rebellion was being crushed by Warsaw Pact troops. Very dramatic.

The gallery housing the main body of the Gypsies images is trapezoidal in layout (see illustration above), which seems like an interesting choice—almost as if the curators wanted to create a feeling of being in a tightly confined space, possibly analogous to the interiors of the Roma homes in many of the images. In a glass case nearby are displayed a couple of different editions of Gypsies, along with some proofs marked up with notes by Koudelka. In another, separate section of the gallery, Koudelka's own prints of the Gypsies images, made in the mid-1960s, are displayed. Koudelka mounted these prints on some kind of rigid backing material, and left them unmatted and unframed.

The images from the Exiles period (roughly mid-'70s to early '90s) occupy two long walls. They are large traditional prints—I wondered whether some or all of these might have been printed by Voja Mitrovic, but didn't see anything to indicate one way or the other. [Probably—Voja has been Josef's primary printer for many years. —Ed.] The prints in this section seem to have mostly been made in the mid-1980s.

There are several very large (at a guess, 24x60") inkjet prints of Koudelka's recent panoramas of ancient ruins. The prints are gorgeous, but the gallery in which they're hung is so small as to allow no distance for appreciating such large pieces. In the same gallery are hung three or four of Koudelka's "accordion" books, comprised of panoramic images on themes like the Israeli security wall on the West Bank, and the so-called "Black Triangle" of Central Europe. The books are displayed fully opened, with some extending perhaps 50–60 feet along three walls at more or less eye level. While it's interesting to see these books in their original form, seeing them on a wall from several feet away makes it difficult to see the kind of detail you could easily see holding the book itself in your lap. While I was in this gallery, the guard had to caution several people not to get too close to the images, explaining that the humidity from their breath could damage the books—a curious way to display these very powerful images, I thought.

The panel discussion (or "Conversation," as it was billed) was held in Fullerton Hall, which probably holds something like 400 people. While the audience filed in, a slide show of Koudelka's Gypsies and Exiles images played on a projection screen, accompanied by what sounded like Roma folk music. The hall was packed, with perhaps 100 additional people (including me) standing along the sides and back of the hall. Joining Koudelka on stage were the two curators of the exhibit—Matt Witkovsky of the AIC, and Amanda Maddox of the Getty Museum.

Koudelka had a number of interesting things to say (all heavily paraphrased here, as I didn't try take notes during the event, but scribbled down the bits that lingered in memory immediately afterward):

• This is the smallest space for one of my shows, made it a challenge, had to limit selections from each period
• Wanted to show three films to introduce panel conversation, but would have taken 30 (of 60 total) minutes
• I like difficult people, they challenge me, I can find out if my ideas are right or wrong
• There are no great photographers, but there are some great photographs
• The best portrait of a photographer is his photographs
• Wants to do as many exhibits and books as possible, because he wants to define his own legacy as a photographer; doesn't want some "clever" curator to "discover" unknown photos after he's dead and re-define Koudelka as a photographer—if Koudelka didn't choose to show it or publish it, you should assume he didn't think it was good
• After he stays in one place 3–4 months, can't "see" anything anymore

There's a brief video on the AIC web site, of Koudelka talking about the exhibit, and about the title "Nationality Doubtful." Worth a look.

I want to thank you, Mike, for introducing me to Koudelka. You've written admiringly of his work several times, and without your introduction I might never have gotten to know it. I hope you'll get a chance to see the exhibit, and maybe write about it on TOP.

Dan

"Nationality Doubtful," a retrospective of the work of Josef Koudelka, is on view at the Art Institute of Chicago, in the heart of downtown Chicago, Illinois, USA, until September 14th, 2014.

The Catalog is available for pre-order

©2014 by Daniel Gorman, all rights reserved

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Comments

[Rob]

I saw these pictures in Arles a couple of years ago; they are great, stunning, a delight. They are compositionally innovative and have a tremendous graininess, which adds to an atmosphere of raw sponteneity that fits the subject. Everyone should see them in the flesh just once, at least. The grain works so much better in the silver prints than in any of the reproductions that I have in the monographic collections so far published.

What I find fascinating though is how an individual, however talented at that time, can survive doing the rounds of exhibitions on the same old frozen body of work. Does it only happen in photography?

[RobinP]

As always TOP educates!
I'd seen mention of Koudelka many times, even briefly browsed through some books of his photos and come away unmoved to buy, but this short essay taught me two important things...
1/ I should have another look at his work
2/ The man is still alive - I had no idea!

Thanks Daniel & Mike.

[Michal Daniel]

Watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql0l3y9-Lv4

Best!

[Kenneth Tanaka]

Good report, Dan! That's basically the story. I'd like to add a few remarks to your report.

There are those who would ask why Josef Koudelka is worth the attention today? It's a fair question since his most renowned bodies of work were completed nearly 30 years ago. In fact, the most recent body of his work in this show, his "Panoramas", is nearing 20. So why has he become a cult-like figure in photography? Why was the Art Institute of Chicago's Fullerton Hall filled to standing-room-only capacity with people of all ages eager to see and hear this 76 year-old guy?

Answers will vary. My own: (a) because Josef Koudelka is one of the very few remaining colorful and enigmatic characters from photography's history, and (b) because his camera has truly been his eyes AND mouth for much of his life. He is a personification of a life following a lens.

Josef Koudelka, 2010

I first met Josef Koudelka at a reception hosted for him during his visit to MoMA's Henri Cartier-Bresson retrospective which had just landed at the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC). (He hated the show, by the way, and felt it did not do much justice to his late Magnum colleague and friend. Many shared similar feelings.) What I remember most of him from that evening was his ever-twinkling eyes behind those round glasses, his bear-paw hands and his vice-like handshake. I knew little about his work or lore at that time. But he sure seemed like a fellow who would rather be out dancing or making pictures than drinking wine with a bunch of suits. At one point I noticed the pocket of his vest bulging heavily. At a quiet moment I leaned to him and asked, "Is that a Leica in your pocket?". He just smiled and winked.

Fast-forward to the next time I encountered Josef in the flesh, the opening reception held the evening before the lecture Dan reported. Here was a man of 76 who was even more energetic than the man I met four years earlier! His eyes still twinkled every bit as brightly, his step was just as lively, and his handshake was every bit as ... owww! Wearing his more formal attire of black shirt and slacks on this celebratory evening Josef seemed in his prime. And no need to ask what camera he was using this evening; he had a Fujifilm X100s slung over his shoulder.

If you watch this brief video made during the show's installation you'll "get" Josef Koudelka. You'll get his energy and intensity. Most of all, you'll get his core message: the concept of "nationality" IS doubtful for all of us citizens of the same planet.

My good friend and principal curator of Josef Koudelka: Nationality Doubtful, Matt Witkovsky, has devoted substantial hunks of six years toward creating this retrospective show, Koudelka's first in America in over 25 years. It's been an epic effort that has required tremendous patience, relentless persistence, a sublimated ego, and an unwavering vision. I suspect that the work of Getty assistant curator Amanda Maddox might have been a wonderful just-in-time reinforcement when the Getty signed on as a second venue.

It may not be immediately apparent to the casual stroll-thru visitor to Josef Koudelka: Nationality Doubtful but that hard work is definitely on the walls and, perhaps even more importantly, on the pages of the show's excellent catalog. The show is truly retrospective and spans Koudelka's entire photo career to-date from his earliest theatrical and abstract work through his panoramas. I guarantee that everyone can learn and see something new in this show. You may, for example, think you've seen "Gypsies" but you've never seen these prints. They're the complete surviving set of prints from the 1967 debut of the Gypsies work. Many of the materials come Koudelka's personal estate and have never been published or exhibited. Ten of the "Invasion 68" prints, for example, were made by Josef himself shortly after he captured the images. So if you visit the show, either at the AIC, the Getty, or Madrid's Fundación MAPFRE take your time and pay attention!

If you cannot visit any of the show's venues the catalog will serve as an excellent proxy. In fact, it's an essential for anyone interested in getting a comprehensive view of Koudelka. With its plain khaki-colored cover (an allusion to Koudelka's ever-present khaki shirts) the Yale Press book features an excellent design (by the in-house AIC group) and equally excellent reproductions of some challenging material. (Tip: don't wait too long to order the catalog, either from amazon or even directly from a museum shop. They're selling surprisingly fast.)

Catalog for the show

Early theatrical work

Experiments in abstraction

With his Magnum colleague, Henri Cartier-Bresson

So why devote attention to Josef Koudelka? Visit the show or thumb through its catalog and I suspect that you'll find your own answer.

[Dan Gorman]

Wow! Thanks, Ken, for the very helpful context, and delightful detail.

I hope everyone who has an interest in Koudelka, and the opportunity to attend, will visit the exhibit. I went in knowing next to nothing about Koudelka, but hoping to learn. I not only learned a great deal, but came out convinced that Koudelka's is a body of work that rewards repeated viewing.

Congratulations to Matt, Amanda, and all who were involved in putting on the exhibit. I definitely plan to go back and learn more.

Cheers!
Dan