Composition - 1925

Vintage pigment print
28,1 x 22,2 cm
Signed and dated on the mount, lower right

Provenance:
Grisebach, Berlin, 30 May 2018, lot 2042

The nude studies from 1925 - 1929 are undoubtedly amongst the most original and groundbreaking images made by Frantisek Drtikol. Using sets from the National Theater in Prague as the decor in which he staged his models - often dancers at the theater - he created a body of photographs that refers to the aesthetics of the Art Deco period and Cubism, as well as the imagery of expressionist movies. By placing the female nude in a theater set with undulating forms, a composition is created where two-dimensional and three-dimensional elements complement and contrast with one another, in a visual rhyme. For this photograph, Drtikol used an elaborate pigment-based printing process resulting in a warm sepia-colored image with a soft, velvety texture that only accentuates the qualities of its subject: at the same time a hyper- stylized formal study and a presentation of the female body that is athletic and strong - representing the "modern" woman - but also powerful and dominating in her erotic appeal.