Tichý not only rejected the art world, but also the
conventions of normal society. At a certain point he began to neglect his
appearance and refused to change his clothes or bathe himself. It wasn’t long
before he took on the appearance of a homeless tramp which put him on the
fringes of society and in constant conflict with the authorities. Some have
argued that he did so to protest against the Communists but it seems clear that
if a protest was his intention, then such a protest was not against a certain
form of government but against humankind in general. Needless to say, the
authorities continued to incarcerate him for his idiosyncratic appearance and
behavior.
It is at this time, at the tail end of the fifties,
that Tichý begins to take photographs. Using low quality cameras and some that
he makes out of refuse and any material at hand, Tichý moves around Kyjov taking
photographs, primarily, of women. Deliberately embracing chance and a haphazard
manner, Tichý’s photos are often blurred and over exposed which adds to their
poetic quality. By developing the negatives in a kettle and printing them in the
moonlight, the element of chance is not only enhanced but wholeheartedly
embraced.
Tichý also began to neglect his living quarters and, as
he claims, began his attempts to "perfect chaos." He embraced disorder
and his house was soon overrun not only with books, paper, objects, and
"garbage," but with rats and mice. It is in this chaos that the photos
were stored and, after years of "neglect," they are covered in dirt,
ripped and now bear the marks of time. While Tichý speaks of repairing his
damaged paintings, he makes no such reference to the photos. Either it was his
intention that the photos be so altered or it is indicative of his outright
disregard for them. Either way, this "damage" is part of the art and,
except in extreme cases, conservators refrain from "repairing" the
photos.
Much has been made of Tichý’s choice of subject
matter and some say he was enchanted or entranced by his models. Tichý himself
has never expressed such ideas and speaks more of form and classicism than of
any sort of "love" for women. If an artist is going to concentrate on
one type of subject matter then it is clearly the safest and most classical one
of all - the female form. Scholars have rightly included Tichý’s work in the
so called Bathers series and it is more useful to interpret Tichý as an artist
than as a voyeur. It is thoroughly consistent that the "last
classicist," as Tichý calls himself, should focus on the female form as his
starting point.
Much attention has been paid to the erotic qualities of
Tichý’s photographs. It should be pointed out that any photograph of a
scantily clad young woman can be deemed erotic, but that there is nothing lurid
or pornographic about his photographs. Tichý also took a lot of photos away from
the pool and of all sorts of women, young and old, heavy and thin. He also took
photos of children and, more rarely, men. Although the public swimming pool was
one of his favorite places to work, Tichý did not limit himself to this
location.
In Tichý’s universe of females, especially in his
paintings and drawings, we can see his preference of shapely or "Rubenesque"
figures. His drawings, at least in later years, reflect an even more erotic
quality than his photos and women are often seen wearing lingerie and assuming
risque poses. The most outright erotic or sexual photographs are the ones that
Tichý shot from his television screen. His photographs of life in Kyjov could
only be erotic to a point and he wouldn’t have had the chance to photograph
naked women in his meanderings through Kyjov. So he found another way.
Tichý’s approach to his equipment is similar. He
preferred to use material at hand or material that he found in the refuse
container to build much of his photographic equipment. He made use of everything
in his environment and, like many of his generation, he was reluctant to waste
anything. He has also lived on small sums of money for most of his life and he
had to learn how to economize. He went through a lot of film and photographic
paper which was not a free commodity. In the late eighties when he was offered
the chance to earn decent money from his art, he rejected it so it is not
surprising that he also rejects it at this time. His art has benefitted from his
poverty and is marked by an inventiveness that comes and is heightened by a need
to improvise with what is available. Paper towel rolls held spectacle lenses,
bottle caps acted as nobs. He had the opportunity to acquire more expensive
cameras but chose to use low quality ones or adapt old ones or even create his
own.
Tichý continued to have problems with the authorities.
Because he would appear at May Day festivities dressed as he was in rags, which
the authorities took as provocation, Tichý was in this time normally taken to
the mental hospital. It should be noted that Tichý, though he was often taken to
the mental hospital, was never held for long periods of time. He never saw
himself as mentally ill and at no time did he go to the hospital voluntarily. At
one point he was arrested and spent some time in jail awaiting trial on charges
of sexual assault, but all this was eventually dropped and it became clear that
it was a frame job. There were no witnesses.
It can be argued that Tichý was at this point already a
performance artist. His costume of rags and a disheveled overcoat and, later,
the Mickey Mouse watch, served not only to distinguish himself as a madman
outsider, as a sort of fairy tale figure, but it also lent itself to his
photographic expeditions. When considering his photographs it is useful to bear
in mind the appearance of Tichý and whether or not the subject is conscious of
his presence. Some women are smiling while others frown. Many of the women are
completely unaware of his presence while still others strike poses for Tichý.
It should be noted that Tichý deliberately obfuscates
the subject’s identity where he sees fit. Although he engages in outright
"peeping tom" activity, many of the nude photos are taken from the
television. Although his photographic method is often intrusive, there remains a
moral character to his photography. It can also be argued that Tichý never
intended to exhibit his photos and that photography was for him a hobby rather
than an art form.
Although he stops painting full scale canvases in the
late fifties, Tichý worked on frames and passepartouts for his photos which
often include pen work and design and he also sometimes drew directly on the
photos. He also continued to draw on paper and used a variety of media including
pen, ink and pastels. He didn’t stop these activities until 1997 or 1998 or,
even, later. It is around this time that his alcohol intake increases and now,
though he is no longer locked up in hospitals or prisons, he continues to have
altercations with the authorities but now for public drunkenness. He is given
fines which he refuses to pay arguing that there is no law against sleeping on
the street.
Tichý began to get famous in the late 1980's in Western
Europe when a cover article on eccentric artists appeared in the German magazine
De Stern. At that time collectors approached Tichý about buying his work but he
would keep raising his prices until the collector in question would realize that
he wasn’t about to sell anything and that he was just playing a game. In Kyjov
his fame in Germany is known only to some until Tjepkema publishes Pohadka (A
Fairy Tale) which includes a five page description of an early meeting with
Tichý in his house. It should also be noted that at that time many people
thought that his cameras were only props and that it was all just some
performance, or game, or, worse, the result of a severe mental illness. Tjepkema’s
book also served to dispel this myth - at least in part.
Tichý is then more or less forgotten about except by
those in direct contact with him and by some in the art world. Nothing more is
published about him until 2005 when his photos are included in an exhibition of
contemporary art in Seville Spain that is curated by the late Harold Szeemann.
Tichý then goes on to win the New Discovery Award in Arles, France and in the
late summer exhibits in the Kunsthaus in Zurich, Switzerland. Exhibitions
continue and his photos are sold for large sums on the open art market but
articles soon appear about Tichý’s disagreement with these public displays of
his art and his claim that much of it has been stolen from him. By May of 2005, when a
major exhibition opens in Brno, it is admitted by those responsible that the
exhibition is being done without his consent, thus making it illegal. In Mlada
Fronta Dnes, one of the main newspapers in The Czech republic, Tichý’s assumed
agent, Mr. Buxbaum, admits that he has no legal contract with Tichý to either
sell or exhibit his artwork.
Although Tichý is at this point known as a
photographer, it should be emphasized that he began as a painter and continued
to draw the whole time he was taking photographs. Tichý was prolific and in
addition to creating thousands of photographs, he produced hundreds of paintings
and thousands of drawings. Although some of this work is marked by a distinctive
Tichý style of his own invention, his entire oeuvre is distinguished by its
range of styles and techniques. Tichý bridges the gap between the classical and
the modern which makes sense in light of his quote that he is the "last
classicist." He even lets himself be influenced by modern classicism and in
the fifties, in an almost post modern gesture, he produces paintings strongly
reminiscent of cubism. Most often his subject matter is female in nature and,
though he used specific women as models, they are simplified to an archetypal or
essentially symbolic role. He has obscured their individual identity to the
point that the portrait becomes an expression of their absolute nature. We also
see a blend of classical themes with modern ones. One painting presents Medusa
while another, a women before a circus. Still other paintings are still lives.
Although Tichý was in large part rejected and even
ridiculed by the authorities and by regular society, he did have friends and he
was often seen amongst people in the pubs of Kyjov. Although Tichý is often
presented as not only an outsider but also as a loner or hermit, Tichý spoke
with many people on a daily basis. Needless to say, Tichý’s chosen friends
were mostly outsiders themselves. According to Tichý, the writer Veselsky was a
"nutter" as were the artists Petr Cmelik and, even, Tjepkema. Tichý
was by no means a loner and many people from Kyjov have spoken with him over the
years.
Tichý is perhaps a hermit in the philosophical sense as
his solipsism necessitates and, in this sense, he lives a life of isolation.
Still, it is difficult to live one’s life according to a philosophical
absolute, and Tichý is not only the solipsistic outsider of his speech but also
a man living amongst men. He also claims to be nothing more than a silent
observer of life which allows him to adopt different and even contrary
perspectives. One minute he can speak of life in terms of illusion and, in the
next, of a sort absolute materialism. In the same way he can forecast the future
with the confidence of a prophet and then, just as confidently, state that we
don’t know anything. He can run the range from Moses to Socrates, from Kafka
to Blake.
