Edward Dwurnik

I have always fed on crowds. Even when I was a kid, I gave up the sky in my pictures to locate as many people there as possible.

Edward Dwurnik (1943-2018)

Edward Dwurnik was one of the most recognizable personalities of Polish contemporary art. He was also the only Polish artist who succeeded abroad before the political transformation in Poland (he took part in the prestigious display of contemporary art documenta 7 in Kassel in 1982). Apart from painting, he did drawing, collage and commercial design. He also created drawings and gouache for Andrzej Baranski’s animated films Warzywniak (Vegetable Stand), 360 degrees (2006) and Oasis (2009).

Edward Dwurnik studied at the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, in Professor Eugeniusz Eibisch’s painting studio and in the sculpture atelier of Professor Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz. He received his diploma from Professor Krystyna Lada-Studnicka’s painting studio in 1970.

Already during his studies, in 1965, Dwurnik saw an exhibition of Nikifor, a primitivist, which influenced his illustrating style. He started drawing and in 1966 painting his first pictures for the Hitchhiking cycle, which is the oldest and the most plentiful in Dwurnik’s output so far. In the 1990s the artist created a series of paintings which continued that cycle. They were: Blue Cities, Diagonal, Blue Ones, and Counting-out Rhyme. In each of them while presenting peculiar portraits of cities shown from bird’s eye view, the artist does not focus on accurate reconstruction of topography but accumulates architectural and social motifs characteristic for the place.

Between 1972 and 1978, the artist created 242 paintings in the Sportsmen series. He portrays people from the dregs of society, sly fellows and smokers of Sports cigarettes which were the cheapest cigarettes at that time. The portrayal of the human types characteristic for Poland at that time is merciless, though not devoid of humor. In 1980, Dwurnik combined the Sportsmen and Workers series emphasizing his solidarity with the portrayed people. The next series called Warsaw (1981) turned out to be prophetic in view of the introduction of the martial law in Poland. In the winter scenery of the capital, Edward Dwurnik placed crows in the snow, barbed wire fences and tanks in empty streets. The next series was dedicated to the memory of the victims of Stalin’s terror. This one was called The Journey to the East (1989-1994). In the series of 96 paintings titled From December to June (1990-1994), the artist commemorated the martial law victims. Influenced by wars waged in the Caucasus and the Balkans, the artist created the series Long Live the War.

The cycle Blue Ones belongs to the important series within a group of paintings that do not involve politics. It is an almost abstract series showing sea landscapes. Another series called The Twenty Fifth consists of colorful abstractions done in the action painting technique. The artist astonishes us with the ease with which he applies different styles: from miniatures to expressive and dynamic paintings. Dwurnik is consistent in developing his themes and he shows them in a unique way.

Dwurnik’s works attract with their vivid coloring and mood. It is often a coarse mood but it is thus closer to reality and draws the attention of the audience.

The artist has received numerous awards: the Cyprian Kamil Norwid Prize (1981), the Solidarity Prize of The Committee of Independent Culture (1983), Nouvelle Biennale de Paris (1985), the Prize of the Olympics of Arts in Seoul (1988), the Prize of Contemporary Art Foundation (1992), and the Prize of Coutts Contemporary Art Foundation (1992).

Edward Dwurnik was an extremely prolific artist. He painted over 4,500 pictures grouped in five series; 3,500 watercolor paintings and about 13,000 drawings. He had over 80 individual exhibitions both in Poland and abroad. His works have been displayed at over 90 collective exhibitions.

Dwurnik’s works can be found in numerous art collections: at the Albertina, Vienna; S.M.A.K. Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Gent, Belgium; Alvar Aalto Museum, Jyväskyla, Finland; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands; the Gemäldegalerie Neue Meister Albertinum, Dresden; Museum Junge Kunst, Frankfurt/Oder; Kunsthalle zu Kiel der Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Kiel; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart; Museum Villa Haiss, Zell a.H., Germany; Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia; Schaulager, Basel, Switzerland; Cleveland County Museum; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, USA.

He died in 2018 at the age of 75.

[image + text – source: DESA]

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