MA-g
The Museum of Avant-garde

Jaroslav Rössler

Czech Republic (1902—1990)

Born in Czech Republik at the beginning of last century, Rössler started his career in Prague, learning various printing techniques such as oil, bromoil, pigments. In these early years he started to search for his own photographic style, experimenting with geometric solid materials, light reflections and shadows. Around mid 1920s he moved to Paris to further develop his style. Here he was influenced by his contemporaries and his work was often published in avant-garde periodicals. After ten years in Paris and allergedly involved in street demonstrations, he decided to return to Prague and abandoned any creative work to focus on his portrait studio. Only in the mid 1950s he restarted his exploration: during this late period he produced some of his personal photomontages and geometric highly contrasted compositions. He named them Prizmata (prism), but he also created photographs that were based on the technique of solarization and pseudo-solarization (Sabatier effect).