When, during the first years of his studies at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, the young artist took up making traditional collages and photomontages, he became one of the very few persons in the artistic scene of those times with such fascinations. (…) Dziaczkowski’s collage works inspired a renaissance of interest in these techniques among the young generation of Polish artists. It was the collages in which the author of Małpi Dwór clearly showed his fascination with artistic tradition and the aesthetic past that received the most response, brought Dziaczkowski publicity and even overshadowed his painting practice – wrote Stach Szabłowski in the text At Home, Not at Its Place/ U siebie, nie na swoim miejscu.
The predominant retro stylizations, references to the broadly understood modernist past, and, above all, inspirations drawn from surrealism – these are the common features of the collages of Dziaczkowski and his peers – Kama Sokolnicka, Mateusz Szczypiński, Tomasz Szerszeń and Grzegorz Kozera, to whom Dziaczkowski was a forerunner of a new artistic trend.
Jan Dziaczkowski – Collages / Jan Dziaczkowski – Kolaże contains 148 reproductions of works from the artist’s most important series: Keine Grenze, Japanese Monster Movies, Mountains for Warsaw / Góry dla Warszawy and Sztuka polska XX wieku / 20th Century Polish Art. The texts in the publication were written by renowned international critics: Jan Verwoert, Brian Dillon, and Stach Szabłowski of the Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle.
We decided that only the The Black Market of Art series would not be included in this album, as we would like to present this series in a separate publication – Ola Dziaczkowska, Jan’s widow, told Culture.pl.
The album will be released in Polish and English. It will be accompanied by a limited edition of works which were created as side-products of the printing process. The so-called start-up sheets present random collages from various series and periods which overlapped, creating new, unique compositions.
The album was launched on the 11th of September 2014 at Warsaw's Studio Bar, accompanied by a concert by Marcin Masecki.
Jan Dziaczkowski – Collages / Jan Dziaczkowski – Kolaże
Edition and book concept: Karol Hordziej
Graphic design: Witold Siemaszkiewicz
Format: 209 x 272 mm
Number of pages: 272
Number of illustrations: 148
Edition: 500 copies in Polish + 500 copies in English
ISBN: 978-83-62978-18-2 (PL) / 978-83-62978-19-9 (EN)
Pub.: The Foundation for Visual Arts, Kraków, 2013
Sources: The Foundation for Visual Arts, korporacja ha!art, own materials, edited by: AS, 8.09.2014
Translated by: Marek Kępa
