Eugen Wiškovský

Background

Eugen Wiškovský was born on September 20, 1888, in Dvur Kralove, Czech Republic.

Education

Eugen Wiškovský studied languages at universities in Prague and Geneva but was self-taught in photography.

Career

Eugen Wiškovský taught languages at secondary schools in Kolin nad Labem and Prague.

He published ten important articles in various photographic journals about the problems of creative photography, and also translated some of Freud's work into Czech.

In seemingly non-aesthetic and technical objects (insulator, corrugated sheet, screw, etc.) Eugen Wiškovský found interesting and impressive shapes, the effect of which he emphasized with elaborated cuts, changes of scale, and work with light.

His photographs of a functionalist power plant in Kolín, where he used innovative processes and the knowledge of László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) and Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (1891-1956) regarding views from below or dynamically diagonal, became famous.

Works

More photos

• artwork

  • Moon Landscape

  • A Shadow (A Coil Spring Insulator)

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• According to Petr Tausk: "Although Eugen Wiškovský was an amateur photographer, he influenced considerably the evolution of Czechoslovak photography since his own photographic work was highly innovative. He was a typical intellectual photographer who confirmed his theoretic opinions by his own praxis. In his photographic work there is evident the influence of 'New Objectivity' with regard to keen views on modem architecture and in some cases even [the] slight influence of surrealism in his approach toward the depicting of 'objets trouvés.'"

References

• Eugen Wiskovsky The oeuvre of the leading Czech avant-garde photographer Eugen Wiskovsky (1888-1964) is not large in size or subject range, but it is noteworthy in its originality, depth of ideas, and mastery. Wiskovsky's early New Objectivist works, from the late 1920s and early 1930s, sought artistic effect in apparently nonaesthetic objects.
  2006