Einstein and Tagore plus Macuga

/ 11/20/2013 /
Einstein playing guitar 
When was Modernism? is an installation, which was presented for the first time at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp. Now it is recreated and remodelled at Iniva`s space in London where it applies the pioneering ideas of the art school established by Tagore in India, which was developed, along with the utopian ideas of the Bauhaus school.

Goshka Macuga isnt`t 'bitter mace' the meaning of the words of her name in Polish her art is something incompatible or different to the genetically modified artefacts of the contemporary art. Once I heard about her I was surprised at her perspectives. Her observations, her atypical solutions, pointed my attention towards new ideas.
Macuga has placed a tree inside the gallery space; somehow it isn`t just a prop, whose provenance is known only by the curator. This tree is coming into leaf despite the unfriendly environment. Although taken out from nature this tree is still real.   

Goshka Macuga, When was Modernism? photo Iniva
Organic-totemic forms of sculptures placed on the shelves around the tree incarnate the show`s own interpretation of the tree growing calmly in the middle of the display.
Those artefacts are abandoned student`s work, found by Macuga on Tagore`s school campus at Kala Bhavan. Their anonymous 'speechless comment', creates added value to Modernism as a theory. They would show us that we never learn our opinion of Modernism, know or understand its its references to twentieth Avant-garde or postmodernism. 

Macuga inspirits all that others just gloss over. Her work is not about abstraction in the creative process. Its about materializing it The. artist`s intention and the interest which she puts into her objects turns trash into meaningful objects. Thanks to this process the abandoned sculptures have spoken as a prophetic choir to us.

Her method is to work with the artefacts of other artists. It could be a student`s work, Einstein`s word or Picasso`s Guernica. Her approach is always different from superficially using other`s people work
She wouldn`t judge them by the important, more important and the most important label. She is aware that the seemingly unimportant objects speak surprisingly explicitly as in this case.

The performance curated by Macuga Parentheses on Truth, Beauty and Humanity played part its role in the installation. She invited two musicians to translate words onto sounds based on few talks between Tagore and Einstein. 

The background of this performance was a big glass which appeared to let not only the light in, but also cyclists, pedestrians, dogs and cars. When the musician` s explanations began to overrun, causing my inner disturbance and forcing my inner voice to sing the moon, the other narration was developing behind the glass. As the musician tried to control the situation giving us more and more details, all the strands from behind the glass became a cheeky yellow sticker placed on his back with short but powerful words 'bite me'.
When the musician`s ego was flaying about above our heads, for the sake of the balance in the universe multi-track actions were started with the appearance of a few girls, wearing pink dresses and carrying balloons. One of them performed a short dance with the cartoon groom. Then a homeless man arrived to listen or to watch the talkative musician with huge admiration.

Chill out, Saturday afternoon in East London brought also a few couples and a five person family, probably Americans. The great final belonged to two adorable dogs, who announced their presence with wee and poo.     

The performance was ended with music and although the sounds was quite amusing I don`t know how to relate them with the great thinkers word? 


Monika Waraxa 18/11/13, London
Edited by Helen King 

Jurry`s tongue

/ 11/14/2013 /
There is no Jurry without Jan Cybis. There are no paintings by Gruppa and Wilhelm Sasnal without Jurry's paintings in red and green.
The monograph  The Return of Jurry  wouldn’t have been published and Jurry wouldn’t have re-entered the galleries and museums if it wasn’t for the stubbornness and determination of Marta Tarabuła – the director of  Zderzak Gallery  in Cracow. Jurry`s meeting with Warhol and Wasselmann would’ve never taken place. Julian Schnabel would’ve never had the chance to recognise his own reflection in Jurry’s paintings. Fortunately, the white curtain of oblivion has fallen.
Julian Schnabel   
in front of Jerzy ”Jurry” Zielinski’s painting Polish Act of Marriage(1974),  
at Oko, courtesy of Oko, New York
Every single artist wishes to be a part of such a story; wishes to be discovered. It's usually the curator who plays the role of a saviour and arrives on a white horse, to take an artist and his works on a great adventure around the art world. The fantasy hardly ever becomes reality, especially if one takes into account market mechanisms and speculation. On the other hand, the art world is the world of unexpected turns and exceptions to the rule. So anything can happen.
In this particular scenario, the knight on a white horse is Alison Gingeras, the curator who stumbled across the  The Return of Jurry  monograph in Warsaw. Next, she visited Marta Tarabuła at the Zderzak Gallery in Cracow to see the paintings. It was love at first sight. As the result of their cooperation, Jurry’s paintings were featured for the very first time outside the Polish borders – at Oko  curatorial space in New York, conceived by Gingeras. Finally, the paintings from the exhibition were bought to become a part of Pinault’s collection at Palazzo Grassi, in Venice.
Very personal point of view
My meeting face-to-painting with Jurry took place in 2006, at the small show held by the currently non-existent Oficyna Malarska Gallery in Warsaw. Somehow the exhibition was both grand and intimate. I was wondering what would Andy Warhol say meeting those paintings? My essay written on that show was later included in the Jurry`s monograph alongside the pieces written by Anda Rottenberg, Jarosław Modzelewski and Ryszard Woźniak. From then on, I could witness the process of bringing Jurry to the light.
In autumn, 2010 the National Museum in Cracow held the exhibition  The Return of Jurry  comprising the artist’s romantic paintings with political and erotic touches. Obviously, sex means power.
Helsinian Period, the parallel display at the Zderzak Gallery, presented the portraits of talking head that were found in the artist’s studio after his fatal accident. The very important part of Jurry`s coming out was the monograph. This comprehensive album published by Zderzak Gallery has collected the opinions of people he met; his drawings and sketches that enable us to retrace his creative process; the texts written by art historians and artists inspired by Jurry; and – last, but certainly not the least – full collection of paintings – all these elements were gathered for the monograph.
Jurry and paintings
“Cherishing the post-impressionist, or Bonnardesque, to be exact, charm permeated us with boredom” – Jurry says. The message of Jurry’s paintings is concise; based upon the compression of meaning, references to politics, passions, weaknesses and dilemmas. Needless to say, Jurry drew an inspiration from the equally concise messages of the poster-designers, e.g. those by Henryk Tomaszewski though he was a genuine painter.
Jerzy “Jurry” Zieliński,Usmiech Czyli “Trzydziesci” – lac. “Cha Cha Cha”, (The Smile, or Thirty Years, Ha, Ha, Ha), 
1974,  Oil on canvas, 58.5 x 70 cm,  collection of Polish Modern Art Foundation, 
Warsaw, image  courtesy of Galeria Zderzak, Krakow
 
Jerzy “Jurry” Zieliński, Witajcie Kochani, 1977, courtesy of Galeria Zderzak, Krakow
In October, Jurry`s romantic paintings were on display in London, both at the  Luxembourg & Dayan Gallery  and  Frieze Art Fair  where Jurry was presented next to American pop artists: Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Tom Wesselmann and Jasper Johnes. This acquaintance seemed both magical and surreal, considering the times in which Jurry`s paintings were done; the times in which the Iron Curtain separated West art world from the East. Jurry`s paintings creates the new context for the Western pop art regarded in itself only as a closed period in the art history. Jurry's works allow for the re-interpretation of the movement and adoption of a fresh perspective on it.
Luxembourg & Dayan where paintings by Jurry were presented next to American pop artists 
Frieze Masters, October 2013, photo courtesy of Zderzak Gallery
Posthumous surge of interest in Jurry’s works can be a matter for pride, or rather astonishment. I’m not sure whether any artist dreams of being discovered after their death. If I were one, I would rather dream of those paintings.
Monika Waraxa 13/11/13 

The Jerzy “Jurry” Zieliński: The Polish Phoenix was published on: Contemporary Lynx
More info on Jerzy Jurry Zieliński: http://contemporarylynx.co.uk/?p=750

 
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