"Self-Portrait in a Unbuttoned Shirt", 1981, pencil on carboard; property of Wojciech Karpiński
Jung studied interior design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw between 1971and 1976. Upon completing his studies, he began working with the "Repassage" Gallery, which he went on to manage in the years 1978-1979 (during which time it was referred to as "Repassage 2"). He continued to be active within the gallery until its closing in December 1981.
Performance art was Jung's preferred art form during the 1970s. His thesis project, which included a "visual theatre" component, was something of a search for a visual and simultaneously sensual equivalent for corporeal experience. Nets were the characteristic ingredient in his actions and performances; woven of thread, they filled the space and connected people. The netting transferred and strongly amplified even the smallest movements and gestures of the naked actors in his actions. His most important performance art pieces in this vein were Przemiana (Wojtkowi Karpińskiemu) / Metamorphosis (to Wojtek Karpiński) (photographs), 1978, Miłość / Love (photographs), 1978, Kokonienie (Grzegorzowi Kowalskiemu) / Cocooning (to Grzegorz Kowalski) (photographs), 1979, Stwarzanie poprzez innych i horyzont wolności / Creating Through Others and the Horizon of Freedom, 1980. While the artist worked with the "Repassage" Gallery, he also organized a number of street happenings that criticized surrounding socio-political realities. These included two different interventions on the gate of the University of Warsaw (1978 and 1979) (photographs) and an action titled Całopalenie IV. Epitafium uliczne pamięci Jana Palacha / Burnt Offering IV - Street Epitaph in Memory of Jan Palach (photographs)(1979).
The "Repassage" Gallery was closed with the introduction of Martial Law in Poland. During the subsequent years, when the gallery's activities continued in private studios, Jung presented one of the most significant commentaries on the situation at the time - a performance art piece titled Caprichos XIII - Gdy rozum śpi, budzą się potwory / Caprichos XIII - When Reason Sleeps, Monsters Are Born (photographs), 1982. In 1989 Jung briefly reverted to his poetic, sensual and highly visual metaphor of "threading" in the performance piece Ślad (Konstantemu Jeleńskiemu) / Trace (for Konstanty Jeleński).
He achieved full development in the second realm of his art, painting and drawing, in the 1980s. The artist had been drawing consistently since his days as a student and in the 1970s created a series of stylized, perfectly detailed representations of insects, erotic motifs, and scenes inspired by literature (one example being those based on Kafka's Metamorphosis). In 1983, influenced by Wojciech Karpiński and Józef Czapski, a new acquaintance at the time, Jung began to treat painting seriously.
He was mostly interested in landscapes. His paintings at the time - characterized by strong, saturated colors that the artist assigned a symbolic role - were synthetic in style and possessed clearly accented compositional and narrative dominants. These same traits occur in the many oil and pastel compositions of the series Drzewo w środku świata / Tree at the Center of the World (created in the mid 1980s), paintings and drawings depicting the motif of the matseva, like Grób Adama / Adam's Grave (1987), and works from the series Rybienko - Widok na Bug / Rybienko - Views of the Bug River (1992). The artist also willingly explored portrait art and the male nude as subject, primarily using pastel technique to do this (see the series Św. Sebastian / St. Sebastian, c. 1985-1992). A broad range of techniques are evident in his Autoportrety / Self-Portraits. The most distinctive work in this group is a series of pink watercolors dating from 1985 and a number of large pencil drawings from 1989. In 1988 the artist also began to draw portraits of exceptional artists and intellectuals like Józef Czapski, Zbigniew Herbert, Konstanty Jeleński and Czesław Miłosz, which he published in "Zeszyty Literackie" ("Literary Notebook").
Jung exhibited very infrequently after he stopped working with the "Repassage" Gallery. In 1989 he had a series of individual presentations in Warsaw: among them, an exhibition of drawings at Galeria "Pokaz" (Show Gallery) and an exhibition of paintings and performance art (the above-mentioned Ślad /Trace) at the Galeria "Dziekanka" (Dean's House Gallery). In 1993 he participated in a retrospective dedicated to the "Repassage" Gallery at the "Zachęta" National Contemporary Art Gallery. In 1991 Krzysztof Jung began teaching drawing and art history at Private High School no. 14 in Warsaw. It was on Jung's initiative that the school adopted Polish painter Józef Czapski as its patron. Following the artist's premature death, an exhibition of his works was held at the Museum at Królikarnia Palace in 1999; this was accompanied by the publication of a monograph on the artist and his work.
Author: Maryla Sitkowska, Museum of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, January 2003.
Photographs from Krzysztof Jung (1951-1998) - the catalogue published for the exhibition in The Xawery Dunikowski Museum at the Królikarnia.
Przemiana (Wojtkowi Karpińskiemu) 10/03/1978/Metamorphosis (to Wojtek Karpinski), 10/03/1978 back to the text |
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Miłość (Czesławowi Furmankiewiczowi) 12/03/1978/Love (to Czesław Furmankiewicz 12/03/1978 back to the text |
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Kokonienie (Grzegorzowi Kowalskiemu) 17/01/1979/Cocooning (to Grzegorz Kowalski) 17/01/1979 back to the text |
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Całopalenie IV. Epitafium uliczne pamięci Jana Palacha, 5/05/1979/Burnt-OfferingIV. Street epitaph to Jan Palach, 5/05/1979 back to the text |
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Działanie na bramie Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, 16/10/1978/Action at the entrance gate to Warsaw University, 16/10/1978 back to the text |
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Caprichos XIII - Gdy rozum śpi, budzą się potwory / Caprichos XIII - When Reason Sleeps, Monsters Are Born back to the text |
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Macewy u drzewa/Matzevas and Trees, ca 1986, pencil on paper; Józef Czapski/Józef Czapski the 1980s, pencil, on cardboard, property of Wojciech Karpiński; Czerwone trzciny/Red Reeds the 1980s, pastel, water-colour, on paper, property of Wojciech Karpiński; Autoportret/Self-Portrait ca 1985 acrylic, pencil, on cardboard |
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Drzewo nad Bugiem/Tree by the Bug River the 1980s, pencil on paper, Property of Grzegorz Kowalski; Rybienko - widok na Bug/Rybienko - A View of the Bug River 1992, oil on canvas, Property of Maria Olejniczak; Grób Adama/Adam's Grave 1987, oil on canvas property of Irena and Aleksander Smolar |
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