Jan Saudek artwork • prints & multiples • previously for sale Girl with a straw hat

The childhood of Czech photographer Jan Saudek was marked by the war and his Jewish background. In 1969 he moved to the United States as an art photographer, where he received acclaim for his work by Hugh Edwards, curator of the Art Institute of Chicago. Back in Prague, he worked at a factory and in his spare time took photographs in which he broached themes of free eroticism. He is best known for his coloured photos with naked or half-naked figures against a peeling wall. They are reminiscent of 19th century erotic photography, which Saudek emphasizes by dating his photos to the 19th century. Saudek's work was regularly the subject of censorship in the 1990s.