JOSEF KOUDELKA. FROM THE CYCLE CHAOS

Exhibition concept: Tomáš Pospěch

Josef Koudelka, the most famous living Czech photographer and the sole Czech member of Magnum Photos, donated his life’s work, numbering almost two thousand photographs, to the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. This was something he had long considered doing. So far there have been two phases of this donation, and in 2018 the museum presented a selection of Koudelka’s work in its newly renovated building. Koudelka: Returning was a retrospective exhibition marking the photographer’s eightieth birthday. Around this time the museum also arranged for a set of Koudelka’s photographs, Invasion 68, to be transferred to the collections of the National Museum in Prague. Other sets of his photographs have been added to the collections of the National Gallery Prague and the Moravian Gallery in Brno. Josef Koudelka’s generous gift to Czech museums will be summarised in a forthcoming publication that currently has over 250 pages.