Gallery Talk: Jan Svoboda & Jaroslav Beneš: Lenticular Poetry

Curator Pavel Vančát, will discuss the exhibition "Jan Svoboda & Jaroslav Beneš: Lenticular Poetry", in a gallery talk scheduled for

Sunday, 2:00- 3:00pm

About the exhibition:

Jan Svoboda and Jaroslav Benes, photographers
Pavel Vančát, curator

Initiated by the Embassy of the Czech Republic, this exhibition brings together two outstanding figures in European photography for the first time in the United States —legendary photographer Jan Svoboda (1934–1990) and his artistic disciple Jaroslav Beneš (b. 1946).

Jan Svoboda is widely recognized as one of the most original photographers of the 1960s, a pioneer of Conceptual photography whose practice blended Romantic symbolism, poetic restraint, and a radical questioning of photographic form. His hauntingly minimalist compositions helped redefine the relationship between photography and fine art.

Jaroslav Beneš builds on Svoboda’s legacy. He captures simplified, illusory architectural forms using a large-format analog camera, crafting images that strip scenes to their poetic essentials that let light, shadow, and silence do the talking.

Lenticular Poetry invites viewers into a quiet, compelling dialogue between these two generations of artists. Svoboda and Beneš’s images remind us of the medium’s power to dream, reflect, and endure—even in a digital world.

This event will be held in-person at the museum.

Please direct any questions about this event to the museum's main contact for this event, Patricia E Poku-Speight at [email protected].

Image: Jaroslav Beneš, Untitled, 1980. Contact prints on hardboard. Courtesy of the artist.

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Host or Publisher American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center