EducationalPlatform ofthe AspektyGallery
Alice in the Land of Abstraction. On the work of Zofia Artymowska.
The lecture concerns the work of one of the most important representatives of abstract art in postwar Poland. Zofia Artymowska began with the trend of colorism, which she very quickly broke with in order to take up mosaics and printmaking. She began her most important painting series “Poliforms” in 1970. Later she returned to printmaking, and also practiced collage and photo-collage. The lecture discusses the most important phases of the artist's work and presents representative works for each of them. Her works are supplemented with additional contexts. Analogies for their forms can be found in some Cubists and in early aspirations for objectless art. Contexts contemporary to the artist include American abstract art and the then emerging pop art, as well as op art, which was developing at the time. Polish artists working in parallel with Zofia Artymowska include Stefan Gierowski and her husband Roman Artymowski. The lecture additionally uses quotes from the texts of her exhibition catalogs by, among others, Bożena Kowalska and Urszula Czartoryska.
Zofia Artymowska was born in 1923 in Krakow, Poland. She studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts there, where she met her future husband. She married Roman Artymowski in 1952. She collaborated on the reconstruction of the Old and New Towns in Warsaw. Her first solo exhibition was held at the Krzywe Koło Gallery in 1955. She lived in Baghdad for several years, where she was active in teaching, which she continued after returning to Poland. She worked in painting, mosaics and printmaking, her most famous series being “Poliforms.” She died in 2000 in Warsaw.
Przemysław Głowacki
Art historian who for many years has been involved in the popularization of knowledge about art. He graduated from the University of Warsaw with a degree in art history, and also studied cultural studies at Jagiellonian University. He worked for many years at the National Museum in Warsaw acting as deputy head of the Education Department. Currently he cooperates with numerous cultural institutions, including the Royal Castle in Warsaw, where he conducts an original series of lectures. He also teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He is one of the originators of the Expeditions with Art project. He was one of the founders of the Forum of Museum Educators and co-initiated the Polish edition of the international social action Day of Free Art. He was a juror of the Sibyl Competition for the Museum Event of the Year organized by the National Institute of Museology and Collections Protection under the patronage of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. In 2007 he was awarded the badge “Meritorious for Polish Culture.” His passion is visiting museums and he runs a website dedicated to art and exhibitions www.artdone.pl.