The exhibition of works by Krzysztof Vorbrodt (1929-2001) entitled Symmetriads – Repetition, co-organized by the Foundation, will open on Thursday, 27th of May, 7.00 p.m., at the Asymmetry Gallery. Symmetriads – Repetition is the first individual presentation of Krzysztof Vorbrodt’s works in Warsaw. Had it not been for the Anthology of Polish Photography by Jerzy Lewczynski, Vorbrodt would have remained a completely obscure artist. The output of this photographer, associated with the circle of Photographers’ Association in Gliwice, was discovered and preserved because the effort and help of Jerzy Lewczynski.
Negatives from before the Second World War belonging to Zofia Chometowska arrive at the Foundation in installments, packed in small plastic boxes resembling those used to hold children’s paints. This is how the artist stored the material.
We warmly encourage you to purchase the catalogue accompanying Tadeusz Suminski’s exhibition Factory and Form, published by the Foundation in a limited bibliophile edition of 50 copies. The volume features 18 illustrations and a text by curator Marta Przybylo-Ibadullajev, price 20 PLN. The income from the catalogue will support research on the Suminski archive.
The ongoing digitization of video material from Janusz Bakowski’s stay in New York (in the years 1988-1990) has yielded extremely interesting footage from visits to the studio of Tadeusz Myslowski in Long Island City, Queens. While presenting the studio, Myslowski comments on his works and personal philosophy. The footage from meetings with Jadwiga Przybylak and Tadeusz Myslowski also features visits to New York museums, among others the Noguchi Museum and P. S. 1 Contemporary Art Center. The material is available at the Foundation.
Among the materials that make up Zbigniew Dlubak’s archive are catalogues of key exhibitions from the 1970s. Our recent discovery includes publications from Centro de Arte y Comunicación from Buenos Aires. Run by Jorge Glusberg, the CAYC in the 1970s was a significant center of interdisciplinary research on the art of Latin America of the day, which drew upon conceptual practices.
At the beginning of June we participated in the conference ”Archiving the Artist” held in the Tate Britain. The priority of our visit was to learn more about the methods of storing and cataloguing of archive materials employed by London institutions. Thanks to the hospitality of conservators, we had an opportunity to observe the Tate Britain Paper Conservation Department at work, we also visited a part of the Victoria & Albert Museum Photography collection.
Up until the 11th of September, the Asymetria Gallery will host an exhibition that is the second installment of new work by Krzysztof Pijarski who was invited to confront the archive of Zbigniew Dlubak, Polish photographer, painter, art theorist and critic. more photographs>>>
On Friday, 9th October, the exhibition Zofia Chometowska – the Polesie Mythologies will open at the Association for the Encouragement of Fine Arts [Zacheta] in Lublin. The show will be the first presentation of fragments of Zofia Chometowska’s archive researched by the Foundation.
An interdisciplinary seminar/workshop Archive Fever. Archives of Contemporary History and Art in Poland After 1989. This seminar aims to reflect on the question of archive research in the historical, artistic and cultural context, as well as its significance for theory and practice. The invitation has been extended to historians, art historians, philologists, cultural anthropologists, archivists, curators and artists. We will address the following issues: what are the key archives in Central Europe? How to analyze the archive material amassed by institutions of an oppressive power apparatus? What is the relationship between archives and memory? What is the role of archives in research on the Holocaust within the context of non-memory, repressed memory, and exclusion? How can a research practice combine archive research with research based on oral history? Can artistic practices foster a new understanding of the notion of an archive?
Owing to the great contributions of participants, the “Archive Fever” seminar became a space of exchange for views and experience gained during archive research. Suggestions brought up by guests have proved to be important guidelines for further work on material amassed at the Foundation. We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all those involved in the project.
Research into the archive of Zofia Chometowska allows us not only to rediscover the artist’s oeuvre, but also yields priceless shots of everyday life in the Polesie region. A found set depicts the one-armed general Carton de Viart who, having abandoned an extremely promising career in diplomacy, settled in Polesie. He was photographed along with princess Izabella Radziwill, who lived in the Mankiewicze estate, during an attempt at capturing a foal.
Numerous friends of Zofia Chometowska visited her at the Drucki-Lubecki family estate in Prochonsk in the Polesie region. Among them was Tadeusz Przypkowski (1905-1977), photographer, bibliophile, and sundial expert. It is said that the blue hat with suns and stars, visible in the photographs, exists to this day…
Apart from Przypkowski the photograph taken during a duck hunt depicts Chometowska herself and an unknown man from the Polesie region steering the boat. It is likely that the photograph was taken by Jakub Chometowski, the artist’s husband and an amateur-photographer.
Edward Krasiński and Henryk Stazewski posing for a photograph taken by Zbigniew Dlubak, against the backdrop of their work presented in Gallery EL during the First Biennale of Spatial Forms in Elblag. The now legendary event took place in 1965 at the initiative of Gerard Kwiatkowski, the founder of Gallery EL, and Marian Bogusz.
We are currently in the course of digitizing the video recordings made by Janusz Bakowski during his prolonged stay in New York in the years 1880-1990. Among the variety of materials is the account of Krzysztof Wodiczko carrying in the making of his “Homeless Vehicle” project, photography classes conducted by Jagoda Przybylak with the students of the New York Institute of Technology, exhibition openings, as well as discussions and meetings held at studios of such artists as Krzysztof Wodiczko and Tadeusz Myslowski.
This exhibition offers the first glimpse into material from the archive of the outstanding landscape photographer Tadeusz Suminski, currently being researched by the Foundation. It features a selection of works made during the period when Suminski worked as the photographer for the African and Asian edition of “Polska” monthly (“La Revue Polonaise”, “The Polish Review”, published by Polonia press).
In October 2008 an archive of Zbigniew Dlubak was integrated: boxes with negatives, prints, manuscripts, exhibition documentation, etc. kept in Meudon, near Paris, were brought by the Foundation to the artist’s former apartment in Poland, where they joined other materials and works left behind by Dlubak. Research in the archive scheduled for November promises a great number of interesting discoveries.
Research in the archive of Zbigniew Dlubak has shed light on a fragment of the least known period in the artist’s practice. In the 1950s, having withdrawn himself from artistic and public life, the artist abandoned avant-garde experiments in order to turn towards documentary photography. From 1950 to 1962, Dlubak photographed desolate cityscapes and scenes from small town life, turning their ugliness and gloomy atmosphere into an artistic value.
In February 2009 Foundation employees traveled to the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam. The visit was aimed at gathering knowledge of local standards for storing and digitizing photographs. Owing to the hospitality of the curators and conservators of the Museum, we were able to acquaint ourselves with the workings of the institution’s archive.
In the course of research on Zbigniew Dlubak’s archive the Foundation extended an invitation to Krzysztof Pijarski, photographer, art historian and critic. Setting out to document the collection in photographs, Pijarski followed his own interpretative threads. In researching an archive, documenting a state prior to ordering, segregating, classifying, and distributing, etc. is of utmost importance.