Jerzy Kujawski Biography
Jerzy Kujawski was born in 1921 and was a painter, graphic designer and student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. After the Second World War he moved permanently to Paris where he came into contact with the Parisian avant-garde, in particular with André Breton, which led him to participate in the International Exhibition of Surrealism at the Maeght Gallery in Paris in 1947. He also played an important role in the history of the Krakow-Warsaw avant-garde, constituting an important bridge between the West and Poland after his departure. He was a member of the group Phases led by Edouard Jaguer. He maintained contacts with numerous artists in the country, including Tadeusz Kantor, Marian Bogusz, Alfred Lenica, Tadeusz Brzozowski and Jerzy Tchórzewski. His first solo exhibition in Poland took place in 1957 at the "Krzywe Koło" Gallery in Warsaw. In the second half of the 1940s his work is dominated by surrealism, compositions inspired by the world of dreams, surprising with organic forms. Characteristic for the artist were bold color combinations, achieving the effect of a rich material, despite the light and transparent application of paint. In the 1950s he turned to abstract art, creating mostly dynamic compositions inspired by the action painting trend, emphasizing chance, automatism, free arrangement of colors and shapes, and unbridled expression. He was a representative of the first generation that represented expressive abstract painting in the world. Little by little, however, lines and spots of color emerge, which lead him towards informal painting, which will reach full prominence in the years 1953-1957. In his art there were many references to physics and cosmology, the natural world and biology, logical and mathematical theories, as well as game theory, which overlapped with the visual experience of surrealism and the informal. At the beginning of the 1960s he became interested in material painting. His art was still abstract, but this time it was not the paint that flowed slowly and freely speaking to the viewer, but rather the rich texture of the paintings. In the mid-1960s another change occurred in his work, he abandoned abstraction and returned to referring to surrealist imagery, this time transformed into the context of the modern world, and returned to figuration. He often used monotype, decalcomania and silk-screen printing. He was fascinated by the human body, dismembered, elaborated pop culturally, with strong erotic motifs. Kujawski himself called this period metaphysical pornography. In the 1970s he stopped exhibiting, cut off most of his contacts and created for himself and a small circle of friends.
