Małgorzata Szymankiewicz, "Tribute to Fangor", 2011, Colour photograph, courtesy of BWA
The show asks what impact did the works of Wojciech Fangor have had on the youngest generation of Polish artists
The show opens with a photograph by Agata Bieńkowska. It is a seemingly literary interpretation of Fangor's famous "Postaci" / "Characters" from 1950, which leads to a paradoxical revaluation of the idea behind the painting. Fangor's piece shows a couple of labourers and an elegant woman, a representative of the western debauchery. Bieńkowska's work shows a young couple, who look more like bankers than labourers, and a young, equally elegant Asian woman.
Fangor's "Okręgi" / "Circles", a work known to international audiences, is another milestone in his career. The artists looked at the aesthetics of Fangor's colourful pieces from a critical perspective. The pure, undisturbed abstraction meets organic forms, imperfect abstraction, as it were "digested" by reality. The works by Małgorzata Szymankiewicz show a plate of red liquid (leftovers of a Christmas beetroot soup on grandma's tableware), which closely resembles abstract paintings from the 1960s. Michał Chudzicki used a similar technique. The artist prepared a series of works, which resemble afterimages of the moon.
Wojciech Fangor (born 1922) is one of the greatest living Polish painters. He is one of the last "great masters", who made their debut after World War II. He is an artist with many faces, frequently changing his style, creating figurative art as well as abstract paintings. Ironically, event though Fangor was not a keen photographer, "Tribute to Fangor" is largely a photography project. Even artists who usually paint or create installations (such as Michał Chudzicki or Iza Tarasewicz) opted for the medium of photography. Artist Kuba Dąbrowski shows yet another face of abstraction. He uses monotony that draws attention away from their function and forces to think about the aesthetics of an object.
It is well known that Fangor is one of those Polish artists, who achieved financial success in times of communism, and whose works can be found at the best collections. Paweł Sysiak knows that as well and allows the viewers to become artists themselves. If we paint the blue shape of a palm with yellow paint, we can watch the colours mixing and turning green – the colour of dollars. By creating paint circles, we receive a colour that has become indispensably connected with Fangor's works, namely their market value.
The exhibition consists of works by eleven artists: Agata Bieńkowska, Michał Chudzicki, Mikołaj Długosz, Kuba Dąbrowski, Przemek Dzienis, Maciej Landsberg, Sławomir Pawszak, Mateusz Sadowski, Paweł Sysiak, Małgorzata Szymankiewicz and Iza Tarasewicz.
After "Tribute to Wróblewski", "Nowa fala popierdala" / "The New Wave is Pissing Along" and "Tribute to Krasiński", the exhibition at the BWA Warszawa is the fourth project of young artists reflecting on the "milestones" in Polish art from the second half of the 20th century. It always consists of an exhibition, a catalogue and a limited edition of files with the works by artists involved in the project.
The show has been prepared by Piotr Bazylko and Krzysztof Masiewicz – authors of the ArtBazaar blog.
The exhibition is open from the 5th to the 20th of November, 2011.
BWA Warsaw
Jakubowska 16/3 street
Warsaw
ww.bwawarszawa.pl
Source: press info, www.tributetofangor.blogspot.com