Miroslav Tichý

In the East Wing, Corbett vs. Dempsey is delighted to present the first Chicago exhibition of work by the maverick Czech photographer Miroslav Tichý (1926-2011).  Known for his materially distressed pictures of women in the artist’s hometown of Kyjov, taken on one of several handmade cardboard cameras starting in the 1960s, Tichý’s unique and hermetic images have a mystery and allure that is darkly leering, funny, and often strangely tender.  The New York Times called the work an “uncanny fusion of eroticism, paranoia and deliberation.”  For some of the prints – which are unique, not editioned – he created quizzical colored-paper frames, crudely decorated with ballpoint pen.  Not quite like any other contemporary photographer, Tichý’s work only came to light in 2004, but since then he has been the subject of many solo exhibitions from Beijing and Tokyo to Paris and London.  His first U.S. exhibition was in New York in 2005; in 2010, the International Center for Photography (New York) presented an expansive solo retrospective.