In Zlín, Sandal's photographs of interwar architecture will be on display

Gahura F.L., Memorial T. Baťa, 1933, photo Rudolf Sandalo, Museum of the City of Brno

Zlín – The Regional Gallery of Fine Arts in Zlín will showcase acclaimed photographs of interwar architecture by photographer Rudolf Sandalo Jr. The author, who lived from 1899 to 1980, photographed buildings in his hometown of Brno as well as elsewhere in Czechoslovakia. His images made the Tugendhat Villa famous even in the United States. The exhibition, created in collaboration with the Museum of the City of Brno, will have its opening on Tuesday at 5:00 PM, representatives of the gallery announced in a press release today.

Visitors will see original Sandalo photographs that are well-known from publications about Czechoslovak and world modern architecture. "Sandalo's photographs exemplify the author's work with light and shadow, perfectly capturing the essence of modern architecture. Sandalo fully understood the intentions and visions of contemporary architects. He was able to capture the spirit of modernity in his buildings. While photographing, he waited for optimal lighting conditions and meticulously performed subsequent retouching of the photographs on glass negatives," stated co-author of the exhibition Jindřich Chatrný.

Sandalo documented buildings by Bohuslav Fuchs, Ernst Wiesner, Josef Polášek, Jindřich Kumpošt, Václav Dvořák, František Lýdie Gahura, Vladimír Karfík, and many other architects and builders. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe noticed Sandalo's talent and commissioned him to photograph his iconic Brno building, the Tugendhat Villa. Two of Sandalo's photographs were even selected by Mies's friend, architect Philip Johnson, for an exhibition organized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1932.

A collection of forty-two original Sandalo photographs of the Tugendhat Villa was acquired by the Museum of the City of Brno in 2012. About thirty of them will now be shown to the public. The exhibition includes two hundred original photographs, most of which come from the legacies of architects and construction firms. Among the images on display are photographs of the Moravian Bank, the Avion Hotel, the Savoy Café in Brno, the Morava Rest Home in Trenčianske Teplice, as well as modern buildings in Zlín, Luhačovice, Bratislava, Nitra, and Košice.

In addition to photographs, visitors will also learn about the technology Sandalo used for photo editing and the type of camera he worked with. They will examine period literature, both Czech and foreign magazines in which Sandalo's images appeared. Some of his photographs will also be available for viewing in a video projection. Interested parties can visit the Regional Gallery of Fine Arts in Zlín until September 13, 2020.

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