Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Czech artist Miroslav Tichý in November 2026
On 20th November 2026, one hundred years will have passed since the birth of the significant Czech artist Miroslav Tichý.
To mark this occasion, the tichyocean foundation is preparing a year-long programme reflecting on the life and work of this exceptional figure in Czech art. The commemorative programme will include exhibitions, lectures, screenings, discussions, and community events. The Foundation also invites art and cultural institutions to take part in the anniversary with their own accompanying programmes.
Tichy’s work comes to us at the end of the silver-gelatin era, before the arrival of the digital, and turns back 150 years of photography. After completing his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Miroslav Tichý withdrew to his hometown of Kyjov, choosing a life outside official artistic structures. In the late 1950s he abandoned painting and gradually became a solitary, highly unconventional figure. From the late 1960s onward, he began working with handmade cameras of his own construction, using them primarily to photograph local women. He subsequently intervened in these photographs through authorial alterations, additions, and framing. The resulting body of work is characterised by entirely unusual formal qualities that deliberately disregard traditional photographic rules. What emerged is an extensive and unique corpus of images—poetic, dreamlike, and ambivalent—depicting the female figure against the backdrop of a socialist provincial town.
In the Czech Republic, the main exhibition marking the 100th anniversary of Miroslav Tichý’s birth will take place in Prague at Fotograf Zone Gallery from 19 November 2026 to 5 January 2027.
In Zürich, several exhibitions will take place at tichyocean’s exhibitions room throughout the year:
Tichý 100 Works – April – June 2026
Artists for Tichý – October -December 2026
The tichyocean foundation would like to reach out both to institutions that have presented Tichý’s work in the past and to those interested in addressing it anew, inviting them to participate in the celebrations of the centenary of his birth. The form of participation is open and may vary in scope—from recalling Tichý’s exhibitions on social media, through lectures, screenings, or discussion programmes, to community-based activities such as organised visits to Kyjov.
If this call has caught your interest, we would be pleased to hear from you at info@tichyocean.com.
We would be happy to arrange an online meeting and discuss possible forms of collaboration.
