Jerzy Lewczyński (born in 1924 in Tomaszów Lubelski) once wrote the following: “I use the term archaeology of photography to describe actions that help to discover, research and comment on events, facts and situations which happened earlier, in the so-called photographic past”. “Tryptyk znaleziony na strychu” (“Triptych Found in the Attic”) from 1971 may be considered part of the archaeology of photography programme which has been implemented since 1970. The said work started the series “Negatywy” (“Negatives”) which lasted until the 90s.
It is unknown when the three badly damaged pictures found by Lewczyński in Sanok were made or who they depict. The clothing, looks and family accounts let us presume that the depicted persons are young Jewish women who were photographed before the War by a local photographer. Lewczyński returned to “Tryptyk znaleziony na strychu” many times, he edited the negative, he processed and printed anew the central photograph and a fragment of this picture as if trying to penetrate the photo and reach the boundary of the depiction.
The processive nature of the artistic work is already visible in the first version from 1971. The positive image of “Tryptyk znaleziony na strychu” is sepia-toned, which makes this image seem older and slightly lyrical. The photographs, iconic in their ordinariness, from the series “Negatywy” (“Negatives”) and the photographs that comprise “Tryptyk znaleziony na strychu” returned in the 70s in various sets. After artistic editing the initially homogenous negative image began to exist also as a single portrait, a single negative and as three joined copies that differ from one another.
The 1975 work “Negatywy” which was based on “Tryptyk znaleziony na strychu” went a step further. The composition also consists of three photographs. In the first one we see a dirty negative showing a portrait of one of the women present in the photographs comprising “Tryptyk znaleziony na strychu”; in the second picture we see the heroine’s significantly enlarged left eye. In the third, most enlarged image one can see only the grainy structure of the photograph. The concentration on the materiality of the photograph causes the author of the “archaeology of photography” programme to shift from figuration to abstraction in the process of editing his creation.
Lewczyński’s works were put on display for the first time at the exhibition “Fotografowie poszukujący” (“Seeking Photographers”) which was important not only to the photographic community. Urszula Czartoryska, who noticed his works thanks to this exhibition, wrote:
Why do I consider J. Lewczyński’s participation in the exhibition “Fotografowie poszukujący” a real revelation? Because he put the issue of photography’s attitude toward reality on an intellectual ground that is completely different to all other levels. He alone proved that the function of being a “photographer” is neither auxiliary nor outdated.
The great critic appreciated Lewczyński’s pioneering use of found visual material. This is evidenced by Czartoryska’s comparisons of Lewczyński to Andy Warhol and Alain Jacquet which may be found in one of the critic’s texts. From today’s perspective it is clear to see that the originality of the activities of the artist from Tomaszów Lubelski consisted in reaching for material which was found – as indicated by the title of “Tryptyk znaleziony na strychu” – in an attic, rather than in mass media (Warhol) or history of art textbooks (Jacquet). In other words, Lewczyński is interested in an object of low rank, in a poor reality which is doomed to be forgotten. In this there is a dose of nostalgia for that which has passed, but the artist is protected from slipping into sentimentality by the authenticity of the activities he undertakes.
Lewczyński – unlike Christian Boltanski, with whom the artist from Tomaszów Lubelski is sometimes compared – commits himself to images. The visual and material dimensions are also important as are the signs of deterioration which point to the fates of the images and the stories of the depicted people (Lewczyński is one of the first Polish artists to address the topic of the Holocaust). This is far more important than the association with the movement of conceptualism which was fashionable in the 1970s. Wojciech Nowicki rightly noted that:
“Lewczyński’s conceptualism isn’t pure, in other words: it is surprising. The concept is often preceded by sight”.
Author: Adam Mazur, March 2014
Translated by: Marek Kępa
Jerzy Lewczyński,
“Tryptyk znaleziony na strychu” (“Triptych Found in the Attic”),
1971