MDC and Aperture- New York to Host Exhibition Featuring Historic Collection by World Renowned Photographer Josef Koudelka Dec. 1
Czechoslovakia, 1968, Josef Koudelka
Miami, November 24, 2009 - The Miami Dade College (MDC) Art Gallery System (AGS) and Aperture-New York will host the Invasion 68 Prague exhibition, a collection of historical photography by world renowned photographer Josef Koudelka, from Dec. 2, 2009 through Feb. 6, 2010, at the Freedom Tower at MDC.
The opening reception will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2009, from 6 to 8 p.m.
In Invasion 68 Prague, Koudelka documents the period beginning Aug. 21, 1968, when Warsaw Pact tanks invaded the city of Prague, ending the short-lived political liberation of Czechoslovakia that came to be known as the Prague Spring. Forty years after the invasion, this impressive exhibition features nearly 60 of these searing images — most of them exhibited for the first time — personally selected by Koudelka from his extensive archive.
Born in 1938 in a tiny Moravian village, Koudelka began making pictures as a teenager with a 6 x 6 inch Bakelite camera. While working as an aeronautical engineer in Prague and Bratislava in the 1960’s, he started to photograph the theater in Prague, then the gypsies of Slovakia and Romania. In 1968, he recorded the invasion of Prague by the Warsaw Pact armies, and his work became internationally known, winning him the prestigious Robert Capa Gold Medal.
Koudelka left Czechoslovakia in 1970, and was awarded asylum in England. He became a member of Magnum in 1974, but has refused most journalistic assignments: in constant movement, he prefers to wander Europe in search of pictures of a world that is rapidly disappearing. He has been the recipient of many major grants and awards, including the Grand Prix Cartier-Bresson in 1991.
This exhibition is presented in conjunction with the release of Koudelka’s book of the same name, published by the Aperture Foundation. This impressive book features more than 200 images accompanied by compositions from Czech historians that will give readers a glimpse of the events during that extraordinary period in Prague.
The Invasion 68 Prague Art exhibition will be on display Dec. 2, 2009 through Feb. 6, 2010
MDC Art Gallery System and Aperture-New York to Host Invasion 68 Prague Exhibition Opening and Reception
- WHEN: Tuesday, Dec. 1, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
- WHERE: Miami Dade College’s Freedom Tower, Main Gallery, First Floor, 600 Biscayne Blvd., downtown Miami
For more information about Invasion 68 Prague or any other exhibition, contact MDC’s Art Gallery System at 305-237-7700 or galleries@mdc.edu.
Media-only contacts:
Juan Mendieta, 305-237-7611, jmendiet@mdc.edu, MDC communications director
Tarnell Carroll, 305-237-3359, tcarroll@mdc.edu, Media Specialist
Sue Arrowsmith, 305-237-3710, sue.arrowsmith@mdc.edu, media specialist
Alejandro Rios, 305-237-7482, arios1@mdc.edu
Andrea Smith, director of communications, Aperture Foundation, 212-946-7111