[Couple on Bench]

1970s

Not on view

Returned to lender

This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.

Few photographers are as difficult to place in a historical context as Miroslav Tichý, an eccentric Czech artist trained as a painter. Here, a young couple embrace and enjoy their privacy on a bench in a small town in Moravia. They are seemingly alone, save for the photographer working far across the park with a partially homemade camera. Tichý outfitted it with a homemade shutter and a telephoto lens cut out of a sheet of Plexiglas ground with sandpaper and polished for clarity with toothpaste and cigarette ash. That the artist could generate any images at all with such a jerry-rigged contraption is a miracle.

Artwork Details

Overview

Exhibition History

Title: [Couple on Bench]
Artist: Miroslav Tichý (Czech, Kyjov 1926–2011 Kyjov)
Date: 1970s
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions: Image: 6 3/8 × 4 5/8 in. (16.2 × 11.8 cm)
Mount: 7 7/8 × 5 11/16 in. (20 × 14.4 cm)
Framed: 16 1/2 × 14 1/2 in. (41.9 × 36.8 cm)
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Promised Gift of Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee, in celebration of the Museum’s 150th Anniversary
Curatorial Department: Photographs