KAREL TEIGE
Czech
The Prager group of artists of Deveˇtsil, founded by
Karel Teige in 1920, wanted to oppose academi-
cism by viewing reality poetically, by breaking with
the old forms, and by globally spreading art. The
contemporary generation of artists regarded art
from the time before the First World War as reac-
tionary—its values were destroyed in the trenches
of Verdun. This specifically Czech variant of Dada-
ism also changed photography. It connected differ-
ent art domains with it: dance, music, collage, and
print graphics. Another important field was books,
into which photographs were integrated.
Between 1924 and 1926, Karel Teige assembled
his first photos; these served mainly as book covers
(The departure to Cythera, Typographic Poetry).
Under the influence of the new developments of
Soviet art he saw the possibility of a ‘‘renouveau’’
of the art in the achievements of constructionalism
and in artistic pragmatism: The ‘‘aura’’ of the ori-
ginal, the exclusivity of vintage prints, precious
presentation of works of art—these were things
that Teige wanted to see exterminated from the
art repertoire in the 1920s. Everyone should be an
artist, everyone should have the possibility of seiz-
ing a camera. Anti-bourgeoise art served a func-
tion, by making the transformation of society
visible as information and documentation and as
a means of education.
The ‘‘would-be artist’’ Karel Teige (he recog-
nized very early he lacked talent)—who had written
articles already during his art studies for German
newspapers and had directly promoted himself to
one of the most important art theoreticians of the
young Prager avant-garde—recognized very early
the possibility of using photography and photo
assembly (photo-collage) in advertising. During
the 1920s in particular, he moved photography in
his theoretical studies into the proximity of film—
photo-assembly and photo-collage replaced the
canvas of the painter. Thus the poetic anthology
Zˇivot II(Life II), which was co-edited by him, is the
first Czech example of the use of the photo-assem-
bly in shaping the book cover.
At the end of the 1920s, Teige was one of the most
important proponents of the Soviet art of photo-
assembly (from Rodchenko to Klucis to El Lis-
sitzki), whom he regarded as exemplary. In his
1931 published article,The Tasks of the Modern
Photography, he blamed the aesthetic view of
photography as ‘‘pleasant and sentimental patterns
for the pastime rich Ms, who kill the time with
Kodaks and Leicas.’’ For him photography was a
service: as an aid to science, journalism, industry,
civilization, and the culture. Photo assembly
resembled a poster, a handbill that agitates, re-
cruits, communicates. In practical application as a
producer of cover Teige looked for more clarity ‘‘in
the whole modern visual culture’’ that was shaped
by the cinema, advertisement, and poster art.
Only one year later, 1932, he accepted also ‘‘free
photo assembly’’: On one hand book illustrations
with photographs—Teige particularly was fasci-
nated by the typography of John Heartfield for
Kurt Tucholsky’s,Deutschland, Deutschland u ̈ber
alles(Germany, Germany over Everything) and by
the photo-illustrations for Andre ́Breton’sNadja—
on the other hand designs with photography (as for
instance of Max Ernst, Willy Baumeister, and La ́s-
zlo ́Moholy-Nagy).
From 1927 to 1931 he led the magazineRed, held
lectures on architecture at the Bauhaus in Dessau,
and became editor-in-chief of the magazineZemeˇ
soveˇtu ̊(The Country of the Soviet), which he pub-
lished for six years until 1937. By 1933 he already
understood the wrong way: ‘‘What happens there
(in Moscow) within the range of architecture and
the art, (is) a mess driving to despair....’’
After several years of persistent opposition to
Andre ́Breton and his Surrealist manifestos, Teige
joined the Surrealist movement in 1934. The
emphasis of the ‘‘e ́criture automatique,’’ the inter-
pretation of dreams, the study of unconscious were
to Teige as well known as the psychoanalysis of
Sigmund Freud and Otto Rank. In his own literary
texts Teige tested different techniques of these ‘‘e ́cri-
ture automatique.’’ However the painter Jindrˇich
Sˇtyrsky ́ (1899–1942) had a decisive influence on
him, and, who as editor of theErotic revueand of
theEdition 69, published in 1933 the first Surrealist
photo-collage in his bookEmilie prˇicha ́zı ́ke mneˇve
snu(Emilie Comes in the Dream to Me) as well as in
his vast cycleSteˇhovacı ́kabinet(Removal Cabinet),TEIGE, KAREL