The Legacy of a Deeper Vision - Exhibition of Josef Sudek photographs at Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

The day following the visit to Ryerson Image Centre, we visited the Art Gallery of Ontario, which was holding a large exhibition of prints by Josef Sudek. Over 175 prints were included in this exhibition from the AGO's recent aquisition of over 1000 photographs by this photographer.
The exhibition comprised mostly still lifes, gardens, landscapes and some streets and churches from a period from 1920's through to the 1970's. Some early photos taken when he was working commercially had the high contrast and strong graphic qualities necessary for advertising. Later photos were darkly moody monochrome prints. Apart from a few early photographs, people did not appear in his photographs at all. What a contrast to the violence and decisive moments of the Ryerson Civil Rights exhibitions!
One similarity with the Ryerson exhibition was that the exhibits all appeared to be original prints, and in this case, most if not all were made by Sudek himself. Indeed, I understand that Sudek's printing methods are an important contributor to the style of his photographs. In the latter half of his career, he used a large format camera which could take 30 cm x 20 cm negatives which he used to produce final contact prints of that size. He also printed on a variety of papers to achieve the mood  that he intended.
It is interesting that his work was displayed in his native Czechoslovakia as art (later in New York and around the world), whilst in the middle of the twentieth century, painting was following  experimental non-figurative trends. Is it in the nature of photography and painting to compliment each other by going in opposite directions? If there is a tendency for photography to become more experimental (see the variety of work in BJP for example) does this account for the return of figurative art to public appreciation.