Among the most celebrated and auction-coveted photographs of František Drtikol is The Wave (sometimes referred to as Dark Waves). This iconic work from 1926 marks Drtikol's decisive entry into the world of the avant-garde and has become a defining symbol of Czech — and indeed world — modernist photography. It remains one of the most sought-after pieces at international photography auctions.
Composition and visual language
The photograph captures a female nude in a dramatic, sweeping backbend. The body forms a graceful, dynamic curve that evokes an ocean wave — movement, fluidity and raw energy. Drtikol achieves a masterly union of light and shadow: the light models the body almost sculpturally, abstracting it into a pure organic line, while deep shadows and a dark background create powerful contrast and a sense of spatial depth.
Several variants of the work exist, dating from 1925 to 1927. The most celebrated is the horizontal composition, in which the body lies in a bent posture and the arms together with the torso amplify the impression of a surging wave. The geometric props characteristic of Drtikol's work — wooden rods, cylinders and boards — heighten the tension between the organic (the living body) and the inorganic (the studio set).
In this work Drtikol synthesises the influences of Cubism (the deconstruction and reconstruction of forms), Futurism (the dynamism of movement) and Art Deco (elegant geometry and clean lines). He advances the nude from Symbolist Secession and Pictorialism towards a modern conception in which the body ceases to be a mere symbol and becomes, above all, an aesthetic and formal element.
Symbolism and deeper meaning
The title The Wave is not accidental. As early as 1914, Drtikol described life in his diary as a wave-form — the alternation of peaks of happiness and troughs of sorrow, an eternal oscillation between light and shadow. The body in The Wave thus symbolises the cyclical nature of existence, inner energy, the forces of nature and human vitality.
In the nude, Drtikol sought not eroticism but the pure beauty of line, movement, light and shadow. The body becomes a landscape, an abstraction and a manifesto of harmony between a living organism and the geometry of the studio set. Anna Fárová described The Wave as the quintessence of Drtikol's entire artistic thinking — the fusion of organic and inorganic lines, the living model with geometry.
The work also alludes to a merging of the human with the forces of nature, a return to primal matter and transcendence — themes that would later culminate in Drtikol's pure abstraction and what he called photo-purism.
Place in Drtikol's work and in Czech photography
Anna Fárová regarded The Wave as the perfect consummation of Drtikol's transition from Symbolist Secession to Art Deco modernism, with its emphasis on geometry, dynamism and a new type of athletic feminine ideal. It represents the apex of his pivotal period from 1925 to 1929, during which he still works with a live model yet already abstracts her significantly and sets her against modern formal elements.
Stanislav Doležal perceives The Wave as the pinnacle of the Art Deco period and simultaneously as a harbinger of Drtikol's later spiritual direction — a work in which he still draws fully on physical beauty, yet in which mystical elements already resonate: the wave as a symbol of kundalini energy and the movement of the soul.
"The body functions as the garment of the soul, through which a higher principle shines — light, rhythm, harmony."
The Wave thus stands at a threshold: still anchored in the material world, yet already pointing the way towards transcendence.
Conclusion
Drtikol's The Wave remains a technically flawless and deeply philosophical work — a meditation on the energy of life, on beauty and on the eternal movement between light and shadow. A century after its creation, it stands among the most powerful icons of twentieth-century Czech and world photography.
Authentic materials relating to Drtikol's work, including references to The Wave, are published in the František Drtikol edition, issued by Nakladatelství Svět under the editorship of Stanislav Doležal. The edition makes archival sources accessible to scholars and collectors worldwide.