At the beginning of 1956 Miloš Budík entered a seemingly inconspicuous, somewhat unusual house at 45 Černopolní Street in Brno with camera in hand. He had been dispatched to this address by the editorial room of the Brno daily Rovnost, with whom he was working at the time as a photographer. He never dreamed that the collection of about sixty views, which to all intents and purposes he would take there at random would, after half a century, become a valuable documentary - as well as exceptional artistic - statement about one of the most important buildings of modern world architecture. For at that time the renowned Tugendhat House had for several years been used as a rehabilitation centre for children and young people with spinal defects by the nearby County Children’s Hospital (today the Children’s Teaching Hospital). In the end neither a report nor any photographs of the Tugendhat House were published in Rovnost in 1956. However, one of the most celebrated of Budík’s photographs was taken there.
Miloš Budík (born 24 August 1935, Brno) is one of the leading figures of modern Czechoslovak photography and one of the legends of Brno’s artistic life. Inspiration for his own work was provided by both daily life and exceptional events, as well as friendly contacts with the art scene. As early as the 1950s his native Brno became his unrivalled model, which he photographed in all its changing diversity. He recorded the city during all the four seasons, by day and by night, with its historic architecture as well as new buildings, and above all with its everyday life. Miloš Budík’s photographic output, presented at many exhibitions and competitions, has gained many awards and recognition not only at home but also abroad. In 2007 he was awarded the City of Brno Award for his life’s work and employment.
The most celebrated photograph of Miloš Budík’s collection of ‘Tugendhat House 1956’ literally flew around the world and gained many awards abroad too. On the reverse side of the photograph there are preserved labels from photographic exhibitions and prestigious salons: Munich (1958) and Leipzig (1963), Saumur in France (1959), Birmingham in Great Britain, Dunedin in New Zealand, and in addition New York, Singapore and Tokyo (1960). And because ‘It’s a small world and coincidences do happen’, the girl with the ponytail standing by the onyx partition did not remain just a charming anonymous model. She was in fact doc. Ing. arch. Dagmar Glosová, who graduated from Brno’s Faculty of Architecture at the University of Technology and has been working for many years in Brno in teaching.
The book was published by the Villa Tugendhat Endowment Fund in cooperation with the Brno City Museum in three languages (Czech, German, English).
Černoušková, Dagmar; Chatrný, Jindřich (eds.). Miloš Budík. Villa Tugendhat. 1956, Brno 2015
The book is available for purchase at Villa Tugendhat and at Brno City Museum inside Špilberk Castle. It may also be ordered online at smerdova@spilberk.cz.
Price: 230 CZK + packing and shipping costs