Karel Kuklík

• Name — Karel Kuklík • Born — 7 March 1937 • Birthplace — Prague, Czechoslovakia • Died — 18 August 2019 • Place of death — Prague, Czech Republic • Known for — Photographic series: Imaginative Landscapes (1958–1964), The Šumava, Prague • Occupation — Photographer

Karel Kuklík was born in Prague. His father was a tailor, who was imprisoned for illegal activity during World War II. Young Karel spent part of the early 1940s with his relatives in a few places, for example in a village near Blaník Hill. When he was about six he befriended František Šmejkal, who was the same age as him and who later became a notable art theoretician. At the age of fifteen Kuklík acquired his first camera (6x6 cm) and a year later he bought a 6x9 cm plate camera. It was also at that time that he became seriously interested in fine art and started visiting galleries. In the first half of the 1950s he saw an exhibition of paintings by Jan Zrzavý, which made a great impression on him. Between 1952 and 1954 he trained to be a car mechanic, which was what he did from 1954 to 1956 and from 1958 to 1960. Between 1956 and 1958 he did his military service. In 1960 he became a photo laboratory assistant at the State Institute for Historical Monuments Preservation and Environmental Protection in Prague. It was there that he acquired many useful photographic and darkroom skills. Since 1964 he has been a freelance photographer. Karel Kuklík died after a long illness on Sunday August 18, 2019.

Imaginative Landscapes is a general series created between 1958 and 1964. It includes the following individual series of photographs: • 1958–1960 Tainted Landscape I • 1960–1963 Landscape of Hope • 1962–1964 Tainted Landscape II • 1964 Landscape of Cognition • 1964 Wreckage

• Dvůr 1976–1978 (Homestead 1976–1978) Ten original 18x24 contact prints. Ten numbered copies published by the author in 1979, with accompanying text by Karel Dvořák. • Krajina návratů II. 1973–1980 (Landscape of Returns II 1973–1980) Ten original 18x24 contact prints. Ten numbered copies published by the author in 1981, with accompanying text by Anna Fárová. • Grébovka 1974 Ten original 13x18 contact prints. Ten numbered copies published by the author in 1993, with accompanying text by Jan Kříž. • Šumava – variace na téma (The Šumava – Variations on a Theme) Seven original 15x20 enlargements. Ten numbered copies published by the author in 1995, with accompanying text by Daniela Mrázková.

• Illustration — Untitled, 1955 • Illustration — From the Dead Town series, 1959 • Illustration — From the Tainted Landscape I series, 1959 • Illustration — Structure no. 3, 1960 • Illustration — Crack II, 1962 • Illustration — Waiting triptych - Left Wing, 1962 • Illustration — From the Tainted Landscape II series, 1964 • Illustration — From the Time of the Town series, 1964 • Illustration — From the Objects I series, 1967 • Illustration — From the Homestead I series, 1976 • Illustration — From the Landscape of Returns II series, 1980 • Illustration — From the Traces and Projections series, 1985 • Illustration — From the Landscape of Returns II series, 1993-1994