Helping to establish and then work with the St Matthews Photo Workshop and subsequently the Cambridge Darkroom between 1978 and c.1992 was one of the most rewarding parts of my life. Not only did I learn a great deal about photography, I had the privilege of meeting a many creative people: Pavel Buchler, Roy Hammans and Mark Lumley, who did so much to establish the Darkroom as a force in photography; and contributing artists such as John Benton Harris, Brian Harris, Paul Hill, Angus McBean and Roger Palmer. In this strong cast of characters Pavel stands out as an extraordinary creative force (both as an artist, curator, and graphic designer), a flamboyant and challenging figure who brought Mitteleuropean pizazz and intellectual rigor to a rather staid Cambridge.
We have maintained an infrequent, but continuing contact since he left Cambridge in the late 1980s – his end of year cards are as intriguing as they are delightful. It is gratifying to hear now of his major retrospective, ‘Signs of Life’, at the Moravian Gallery, Brno, from 22nd September 2023 – 25th February 2024. The following text is taken from a media release issued by Tanya Leighton (www.tanyaleighton.com).
‘The artistic career of Pavel Büchler is divided rather asymmetrically between the then Czechoslovakia on the one hand and the UK for which he left his home country at the beginning of 1981 on the other. Using a range of representative examples, the retrospective exhibition presents a broad spectrum of artistic strategies across time and media. Before his departure into exile, Pavel Büchler’s work was formally related to conceptual and land art as well as the medium of the artist’s book. In 1980s, he ran the Cambridge Darkroom Gallery [he was co-director with Mark Lumley] where he engaged in a specific type of photography on a theoretical and curatorial as well as at the same time practical level.’
‘Büchler continues to cultivate a conceptual approach to text and old-fashioned techniques and media. In miniature objects and large format installations alike, he confronts seemingly disparate elements which, at a second look, show deep contextual connections. Allusions to various subversive giants of modern culture – such as Kafka, Beckett, Godard, Warhol, or Marx and Engels – are very frequent in Büchler’s works, many of which are part of collections of renowned institutions like the Tate in London or the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven.’
‘Pavel Büchler (born in 1952 in Prague, Czech Republic) lives and works in Manchester. He has had an influential career as a teacher and a writer. He holds the title of Professor Emeritus in Fine Art at Manchester School of Art and served as the Head of the School of Fine Art in Glasgow. Büchler has made significant contributions to the debates around artistic production and the peculiarities of art as a form of work, asserting however that his practice focuses on “making nothing happen”.’
‘Büchler has been exhibiting internationally for over 40 years. Solo and group exhibitions include Moravian Gallery, Brno; Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven; the SEFO 2021 Triennial, Olomouc; IKON Gallery, Birmingham; Biennale Gherdëina, Ortisei; the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow; Broad Art Museum, East Lansing; Power Plant, Toronto; Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver; Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis; Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva; Museion, Bolzano; DOX, Prague; National Gallery, Prague; and Tinguely Museum, Basel. Büchler’s work is held in esteemed public collections including the National Gallery, Prague; Tate, London; The Arts Council of England, London; The Whitworth, Manchester and Leeds Art Gallery, among many others.’