Adoration of Sweetness

20.12.2014 – 01.02.2015 Adoration of Sweetness

Zachęta – National Gallery of Art

artists: Izabella Gustowska, Zuzanna Janin, Katarzyna Józefowicz, Krystiana Robb-Narbutt Małgorzata Dmitruk, Kijewski/Kocur (Marek Kijewski, Małgorzata Malinowska), Edmund Monsiel, Maciej Osika, Dorota Podlaska, Magdalena Shummer, Wisława Szymborska, Bogdan Ziętek
curator: Krystyna Piotrowska
cooperation on the part of Zachęta: Jacek Świdziński
exhibition design: Paulina Tyro-Niezgoda

The exhibition presented in Zachęta was inspired by the work of Krystiana Robb-Narbutt, a painter, drawer, and author of installations and ephemeral objects who died in 2006, and the title of her never realized idea for an exhibition, The Adoration of Sweetness. In her works, the artist made use of banal, transitory objects that could easily be destroyed. She painted on matchboxes, small pieces of wood and Christmas eve wafers. In her art is present a tenderness to the passing of things, whatever they may be, a refusal of the disregarding of the world which stumbles along unnoticed at the fringes. From 2000, sweets started to appear in Robb-Narbutt’s work. She attached to little boards and placed in small exhibition cupboards cakes from religious rituals, sweets and glazed gingerbreads. It was to them that was to be dedicated the exhibition she planned.

The Sweetness of the artist’s works has a bitter, and sometimes even dramatic aftertaste. The Adoration of Sweetness shows works of artists who, like Krystiana Robb-Narbutt explore an apparently pastoral, but in reality provocative and often painful vision of the world.

At the exhibition appear different types of sweetness, as in the works of Zuzanna Janin, Marek Kijewski or Dorota Podlaska. Alongside them are to be found the time-consuming, almost ornamental drawings of Edmund Monsiel and the subtle Obrus (Table-cloth) by Katarzyna Józefowicz. Małgorzata Dmitruk’s coloured clothes are made out of yarn that has fallen from the sweaters of members of her family. In Wisława Szymborska’s old illustrations, photographs and cut-outs from newspapers create a world of subtle references, absurd jokes and commentaries. Affection and a desire for happiness are to be found in Magdalena Shummer’s poetic paintings, Maciej Osika’s self-portraits, Bogdan Ziętek’s women sculpted out of the wood of lime-trees or Izabella Gustowska’s film

Amongst these works is also to be found Krystiana Robb-Narbutt’s Memory Fugue, the title of which refers to Paul Celan’s famous poem Death Fugue and is a history of the death of members of the artist’s Jewish family. In seven little exhibition cases, innocent, sometimes kitsch objects, present the drama of the holocaust.

Artists' works in the Zachęta collection

  • Zdjęcie pracy Untitled (Belly), from the Follow Me. Change me. It's Time series
    Untitled (Belly), from the Follow Me. Change me. It's Time seriesZuzanna Janin1995
  • Zdjęcie pracy from the Follow Me. Change me. It's Time series
    from the Follow Me. Change me. It's Time seriesZuzanna Janin1995
  • Zdjęcie pracy Zobacz mnie w czerwieni 4
    Zobacz mnie w czerwieni 4Izabella Gustowska1975
  • Zdjęcie pracy Zmieniam się I
    Zmieniam się IIzabella Gustowska1978
  • Zdjęcie pracy Zmieniam się II
    Zmieniam się IIIzabella Gustowska1978
  • Zdjęcie pracy Zmieniam się III
    Zmieniam się IIIIzabella Gustowska1978
  • Zdjęcie pracy Zmieniam się IV
    Zmieniam się IVIzabella Gustowska1978
  • Zdjęcie pracy Względne cechy podobieństwa I
    Względne cechy podobieństwa IIzabella Gustowska1979
  • Zdjęcie pracy Względne cechy podobieństwa IX
    Względne cechy podobieństwa IXIzabella Gustowska1980
  • Zdjęcie pracy Względne cechy podobieństwa X
    Względne cechy podobieństwa XIzabella Gustowska1980
  • Zdjęcie pracy Względne cechy podobieństwa XIII
    Względne cechy podobieństwa XIIIIzabella Gustowska1980
  • Zdjęcie pracy Względne cechy podobieństwa XIV
    Względne cechy podobieństwa XIVIzabella Gustowska1981
  • Zdjęcie pracy Względne cechy podobieństwa XVI
    Względne cechy podobieństwa XVIIzabella Gustowska1981
  • Zdjęcie pracy
    Izabella Gustowska1996
  • Zdjęcie pracy
    Izabella Gustowska1995
  • Zdjęcie pracy
    Izabella Gustowska1996
  • Zdjęcie pracy One sick day from the life of my father
    One sick day from the life of my fatherKrystiana Robb-Narbutt2005
  • Zdjęcie pracy Mountain
    MountainKrystiana Robb-Narbutt2005
  • Zdjęcie pracy In Memory of Louise Bourgeois
    In Memory of Louise BourgeoisKrystiana Robb-Narbutt2005
  • Zdjęcie pracy Kiss
    KissKrystiana Robb-Narbutt2005
  • Zdjęcie pracy Nest 1
    Nest 1Krystiana Robb-Narbutt
  • Zdjęcie pracy Nest 2
    Nest 2Krystiana Robb-Narbutt
  • Zdjęcie pracy Wspomnienie czarnej góry
    Wspomnienie czarnej góryKrystiana Robb-Narbutt
  • Zdjęcie pracy Transition
    TransitionKrystiana Robb-Narbutt2003
  • Zdjęcie pracy Wspomnienie spotkania z górą
    Wspomnienie spotkania z górąKrystiana Robb-Narbutt2003
  • Zdjęcie pracy Between Words
    Between WordsKatarzyna Józefowicz2018
Related media
  • mediateka / audio
    Art and social life. Krystiana Robb-Narbutt and Wisława Szymborska
    Lecture (in Polish)
  • Grafika obiektu: Zachęta. December 2014, January, February 2015
    mediateka / folders / Texts
    Zachęta. December 2014, January, February 2015
    Magazine
  • Grafika obiektu: Workshop accompanying the  exhibition "Adoration of Sweetness"
    mediateka / photo gallery
    Workshop accompanying the exhibition "Adoration of Sweetness"
  • Grafika obiektu: Adoration of Sweetness
    mediateka / posters
    Adoration of Sweetness
  • Grafika obiektu: The Adoration of Sweetness
    mediateka / video-documentation
    The Adoration of Sweetness
Related events
  • Grafika wydarzenia:
    13.01.2015 (Tue) 17:30
    Zachęta – National Gallery of ArtZachęta
  • Grafika wydarzenia:
    13.01.2015 (Tue) 18:00
    Zachęta | cinema room (entrance from Burschego street)cinema room
  • Grafika wydarzenia:
    14.01.2015 (Wed) 18:00
    Zachęta – National Gallery of ArtZachęta

Information

Adoration of Sweetness
20.12.2014 – 01.02.2015

Zachęta – National Gallery of Art
pl. Małachowskiego 3, 00-916 Warsaw
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Godziny otwarcia:
Tuesday – Sunday 12–8 p.m.
Thursday – free entry
ticket office is open until 7.30 p.m.

sponsor of the gallery: Kei.pl
sponsors of the opening ceremony: Chocolissimo, DeLonghi, Freixenet
media patronage: The Warsaw Voice, Stolica, Artinfo.pl