Group Show: Miroslav Tichy & Jacques Henry Lartigue

At first glance, Miroslav Tichý, a down and out from the Czech Republic, and Jacques Henri Lartigue, one of the greatest photographers of the 20th Century, have very little in common. Upon closer inspection there are striking similarities, in both subject matter and approach, in the work of these two artists and their stories are uncannily parallel despite their disparate backgrounds. It is for this reason that The Michael Hoppen Gallery will be holding the very first simultaneous exhibition of the work of Miroslav Tichý and Jacques Henri Lartigue.

Tichý and Lartigue, both self-taught photographers, used the camera to produce aide-mémoires of the seductive world around them. Similarly they trained as classical painters, Lartigue, at the Academie Jullian in 1915 and Tichý, at the Academy of Arts in Prague up until 1948. Their work was produced for personal pleasure and they kept it to themselves, never intending it to be exhibited.