[JEANSELLEM VIEWER] — JERZY GRABOWSKI TECKNINGAR GRAFIK 11-23 May 1973 — Categories: letters, press, docs, visual — Keywords: Galerie S:t Petri, Jean Sellem, archive — Category: letters — — — Category: letters — — — Category: press — JERZY GRABOWSKI — born in 1933 in Gutki, Poland11–23 May 1973During my final years of study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, I developed a critical attitude towards the roles assigned to artists in Poland. I became aware of the effect of “academicism” on me and grew sceptical of the claim that art is inherently subjective.By way of analogy, I concluded that science, technology and mathematics in particular could help me in my search and make it easier for me to free myself from emotionally subjective art and aesthetic academicism. I examined the rules and laws governing colour, surface, pictorial composition, perspective and visual representation in art. Studies of nature — though not impressionistic or emotional ones — clarified the close relationship between the appearance of structures made from certain elements and the elements themselves, in relation to the world of matter and thought (symmetries, diagonals, axiality, etc.). Everything is integrated; art should therefore be drawn from the totality of development, rather than founded on the artist’s subjective experiences. Beauty exists not only within us, but also outside us.Nature and technology are changing rapidly. There are ever more people and things. This finds expression in certain structural patterns in my compositions. Sometimes I tear them apart or cut them into strips — as a landscape is cut through by motorways, railways and runways. — The high-rise buildings along the streets are broken up, erased and given another content — at least artistically.I would like my work to become widely accessible, a mass-produced item like books, records, televisions, cars, irons and bread.But that would require a radical change in my workplace: a move from the painter’s studio to the factory floor and the computer centre, where a number of identical, equivalent pictures can be produced. I am not seeking reproduction. Changing workshops is a way of recovering time lost in carrying out the task. The events of the present and the criteria by which they are judged are not the same as those of the past.Besides mathematics and technology, folk art has inspired me. I feel particularly close to the art of the Białystok region. There I have found many concrete examples of objectively creating an objective aesthetic. One characteristic of folk art is that it has been less influenced by academic conventions and fashions, and has preserved an original way of seeing. The highly varied compositions and structural elements in my works deliberately refer to folk art. The elements themselves are often aggressive in nature, though unintentionally and without claiming any special significance. They are means corresponding to mathematical units, elements of a code. The arrangement of colours is chiefly the result of arithmetic operations.I favour the integration of science, art and technology. — — — Category: letters — — — Category: letters — — — Category: letters — — — Category: letters — Warsaw, 26 February 1973Dear Jean Sellem,I received your letter just as I was preparing to have my own letter translated into English. With your permission, I am writing in Polish, which makes things quicker. First of all, thank you very much for the information you sent me about the exhibitions at your gallery and for the posters from Lund Opus 73. Please accept my warm regards.When I was in Lund, we agreed that my exhibition would take place from 11 to 24 May 1973 — two weeks, for reasons of cost. We also agreed that, should an earlier date become available, I would take it, for example in April. Since returning to Poland, however, my schedule for this year has become precisely defined. From 5 to 29 April 1973, I have an exhibition of my paintings at the exhibition salon of the Bureau of Art Exhibitions of Sopot, in Gdynia. I cannot cancel it. My presence is essential, at least at the beginning, and I must now devote my time to organising it and preparing the works.I have also been invited to take part in an international drawing exhibition in the United States, for which I am currently preparing works. In June, from the 2nd to the 30th, I will again have a solo exhibition, this time in Olsztyn, at a salon similar to the one in Sopot. My presence will be just as essential to its organisation. After that exhibition, I will participate in an international gathering of painters working en plein air.Given this schedule, I can hold my exhibition at your gallery only on the dates originally agreed: 11–24 May 1973. I have already begun attending to some minor practical matters: arranging for an invitation to the opening to be printed in English, with a text and a photograph of one work, and for 120 copies to be made of a short statement in Swedish about the spirit of my work. Once these are ready, towards the end of March, I can send them or bring them in person; we can decide which. Your embassy in Warsaw has helped me with the Swedish text. It may also help attract the interest of art critics in Sweden, since the embassy has shown a positive interest in my work. — Here in Poland, the prospect of exhibiting my works at your gallery in Lund has been viewed favourably as an instance of cultural cooperation.There are other fairly important matters concerning the exhibition. We live under two separate monetary systems, each governed by its own laws. It is therefore necessary to settle these matters directly and in person, once I am in Lund. I see no other possibility — unless one arose through my participation in Lund Opus 73. But we did not envisage that possibility at the outset, so the only remaining option is to deal with them directly when I arrive in Lund.I would also bring with me the works I wish to exhibit. You told me, and you mention again in your letter, that you would like to have the works at your gallery at least a month in advance. I understand. For me, however, this would be too burdensome because of customs and administrative requirements: it would complicate matters considerably without providing sufficient guarantees. It is much simpler to take the works with me when travelling abroad. This method has worked very well in the past, and I hope you will view it favourably, particularly as I can arrive a few days early. That would not hinder preparations before the opening.To make it easier for me to arrange my passport here, I would be grateful if you could send me a formal letter on the gallery’s letterhead stating that you have agreed to hold an exhibition of my works at Galerie S:t Petri in Lund, inviting me to participate, and specifying its dates: 11–24 May 1973. The letter should omit any other obligations. Those are matters for us to settle personally, and I trust there will be no misunderstandings, certainly not on my part.In light of all this, please reply as soon as possible and let me know whether you agree and whether you have any comments. I am confident that, with time passing so quickly, we will soon meet in Lund, where I will have the honour of exhibiting my works at your gallery. — — — Category: letters — — — Category: letters — — — Category: docs — — — Category: docs — — — Category: docs — By contrast, Grabowski’s prints appeal more to the intellect than to the sense of beauty, although these sheets, made using a highly unusual linocut technique, are also extremely appealing aesthetically. To help explain their geometric visual language, Dr Gnichwitz drew a comparison with the painter Mondrian. But the young Polish artist’s prints are more rigorous still: their compositions are based on serial arrangements calculated with computer-like precision, creating the effect of themes and counter-themes developed along linear paths. Signals of colour are placed on embossed, relief-like paper, producing a sense of three-dimensional space and structure. These remarkable prints incorporate ways of thinking drawn from philosophy, mathematics, physics and music. — — — Category: docs — — — Category: docs — — — Category: docs — <p><em>Four Contemporary Polish Artists</em>. Exhibition catalogue, Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven, 5–28 August 1977.</p> — — — Category: letters — Jerzy Grabowskiul. Gimnastyczna 3802-632 Warsaw, PolandTo Sven SandströmHantvegagatan 29 ALund, SwedenWarsaw, 10 June 1973Dear Mr Sandström,I was very pleased that you were able to visit my exhibition at Galerie S:t Petri in Lund.I am currently working on an exhibition scheduled to take place at the Warsaw Art Gallery in January 1974. I would be grateful if you could write a short introduction to it in English. Would you please let me know whether this would be possible?Best regards,Jerzy Grabowski — — — This document is written in English. Please refer to the image to read the original text. — — — — — — — — — Category: docs — — — Category: visual — — — Category: visual — — — — — — — Category: docs — — — Category: visual — — — Category: press — <p><span style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">Polish artist presents computer art</span></p> — LUND: The prints that Jerzy Grabowski from Warsaw is exhibiting at Galerie S:t Petri from 11 to 23 May can be described as computer art.For several years, the artist has been concerned with the question of objectivity in visual art. As early as the late 1950s, he took a critical stance towards the idea of art as something essentially subjective.By means of mathematics, physics and computer technology, he has sought in his artistic practice to integrate science, art and technology.Grabowski has exhibited his works in many parts of the world: the USA, Japan, France, Denmark, Italy and Poland.Last year, he was represented at Moderna Museet and Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, as well as at Landskrona konsthall. The exhibition in Lund will be his first solo exhibition in Sweden. The artist will be present at the opening on Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. — — — Category: visual — — — —
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JERZY GRABOWSKI
TECKNINGAR GRAFIK
11-23 May 1973
JERZY GRABOWSKITECKNINGAR GRAFIK11-23 May 1973
galerie s:t petri s:t petri kyrkogata 5 lund 046 / 14 78 00
Datakonst kan de grafiska blad kallas – som JERZY GRABOWSKI från Warszawa visar i Galerie S:t Petri under tiden 11 – 23 maj.
Sedan flera år har denne konstnär sysslat med objektivitetsproblemet i bildkonsten. Redan i slutet av 1950-talet ställde han sig kritisk till tesen om konstens subjektiva väsen. Med hjälp av matematik, fysik och datateknik har han i sitt konstnärliga skapande sökt integrera vetenskapen, konsten och tekniken.
Över praktiskt taget hela världen har Grabowski visat sina verk: USA, Japan, Frankrike, Danmark, Italien samt naturligtvis i Polen. Moderna muséet och Nationalmuseum i Stockholm hade förra året besök av honom liksom Landskrona konsthall. Lundautställningen blir den första separatutvisningen i Sverige.
Konstnären är närvarande vid vernissagen fredagen den 11 maj kl 17 – 20.
galerie s:t petri s:t petri kyrkogata 5 lund – sweden 046 / 14 78 00
JERZY GRABOWSKI 11 – 23 May 1973
Born in 1933 in Poland. Completed his studies at Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts. The diploma conferred upon him in 1962. Member of the Polish Plastic Artist Union (ZPAP), and of the International Association af Art.
Individual exhibitions: Warsaw 1963, 1964; Copenhagen 1968; Stockholm 1968, 1969; Gdynia 1973. Participat in international, and special art exhibitions.
Works included in collections of the National Museum–Poster Museum at Warsaw/Wilanów, the National Museum in Szczecin, the Nationalmuseum and the Moderna Muséet in Stockholm, Landskrona Museum. More work can be found in Art Societies and private collections in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, Poland, Switzerland, Sweden, USA.
Opposing the influence and criteria of aesthetics and subjektive trends, has been for years occupied with problems of objective phenomenon in plastic art with mathematics and physics involved. Examining the integration of art with technical science.
galerie s:t petri s:t petri kyrkogata 5 lund 046 / 14 78 00
JERZY GRABOWSKI – born 1933 in Gutki, Poland 11–23 May 1973
“During my final years at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, my critical attitude toward the art movements in Poland was shaped. I became aware of the influence of the ‘academists’ on me and grew skeptical toward the thesis of art’s subjective essence.
By analogy I came to the conclusion that science, technology, and especially mathematics could assist me in my search, facilitating my liberation from emotionally subjective art and from aesthetic academism. I checked the rules and laws that apply in art to color, surface, picture composition, perspective, legibility. Nature studies, though not impressionistic-emotional, clarified the close affinity between the appearance of constructions of certain elements and those same elements themselves in relation to matter and the world of thought (symmetries, diagonals, axiality, etc.). The whole is integrated—therefore art must be extracted from the developmental totality that builds upon the artist’s subjective experiences. Beauty does not exist only within us; it also exists outside.
Nature and technology are changing at a rapid pace. Everything people do changes. This is expressed in certain structural patterns in my compositions. Sometimes I tear them apart, cut them into strips—like a landscape intersected by motorways, railways, runways. The high-rise buildings of the streets are torn to pieces, erased, and assume a different content—at least artistically.
I would like my production to become generally accessible, a mass article like books, records, TV, cars, irons, bread. Then the workplace must be radically altered—moving from the painter’s studio to the factory hall and the data center, where one can produce a number of identical and equivalent paintings. It is not reproduction I am after. The shift of the workshop is a way to win back lost time in the realization of the task. The events of today and their criteria are not the same as those of the past.
Beyond mathematics and technology, folk art has provided inspiration. I feel especially close to the art of the Białystok region. There I have found many concrete examples of objective creation of an objective aesthetics. Folk art has the characteristic that it is less affected by academism and modern directions, and it preserves an original approach. The most varied compositions and structural elements in my work consciously connect with folk art. The elements themselves are often aggressive in nature, though unconsciously and without claims to any special meaning. They are simply corresponding mathematical units, code elements. The coloristic composition is primarily the effect of calculation.
I advocate the integration of science, art, and technology.”
