Zachęta – National Gallery of Art

curator: Michał Jachuła
production: Karolina Jezierska-Pomorska, Anna Muszyńska, Andrzej Bialik, Dariusz Bochenek, Remigiusz Olszewski, Grzegorz Ostromecki
cooperation: Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź

Jerzy Krawczyk’s exhibition at Zachęta — National Gallery of Art presents a multi-layered oeuvre based on the painter’s experiences and personal convictions, as well references to the canon of ancient art and art from the early 20th century. The exhibition features the artist’s mature works, including landscapes of Łódź painted from the second half of the 1950s, still lifes and portraits developing the concept of spatial realism, works from the Department of Normal Anatomy at the Medical Academy in Łódź, as well as works devoted to war and the Holocaust, created until the painter’s premature death in 1969. The two poles of art, i.e. ‘painting about painting’ and life experience — crucial for Krawczyk’s painting oeuvre — are reflected in the selection and arrangement of over eighty works shown in six Zachęta exhibition rooms.

Sensitive to the iconosphere of everyday life, Krawczyk took up the subject of consumerism, the overabundance of images and information, as well as the autothematic theme of ‘art about art’ in a pioneering way. He represented a critical approach to his contemporary reality and to himself, and in relation to art — to categories of originality and innovation. In his paintings, we recognise existential themes, reflections on death and intellectual constructions filled with humour, painted with technical skill and filled with love for painting. The artist juggled styles and visual languages, from collage to trompe l'oeil, he also wove fragments of texts into his oil paintings. Many of his works bear witness to the fact that he took motifs from his own paintings, repainted or painted them anew, reworked the composition and improved the concept. 

The Jerzy Krawczyk exhibition, organised in collaboration with the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, is the first such comprehensive presentation of the painter’s works in 35 years. It is accompanied by a Polish–English publication with texts by Anna Baranowa, Jarosław Lubiak, Karolina Zychowicz, Marcin Lachowski and Michał Jachuła. This selection of texts, as well as the selection of works shown in the exhibition, allow us to see Krawczyk’s complex and original work in a new light.