Ryszard Winiarski, SET A, B PROBABILITY 50% WHITE AND BLACK, 1972

47.0 x 85.0 cm - acrylic, pencil, wood, relief, fiberboard 30 x 30 x 10 cm (dimensions of each of the two works), 47 x 85 x 14 cm (frame)
both parts signed on the back on the lower strip: Winiarski 1972, on the g. strip respectively: SET A and SET B

On the reverse of part A on the plate sticker of the author in English: SET A, B PROBABILITY 50% WHITE AND BLACK | MUTABLE LOT - DICE, WOOD, ACRYL, 30 x 30 x 10 | YEAR 1972, below the description instructions for the creation of the game record, on the reverse on both plates export stamps



Ever since Ryszard Winiarski made his first appearance at the Symposium of Artists-Artists and Scientists in Pulawy in 1966 with works inspired by the calculus of probability using modules of black and white squares, he consistently developed this idea in his later work. In doing so, he realized not only compositions on a plane, but also introduced the third dimension, creating reliefs - as in the composition we present in our auction. Winiarski's reliefs rarely appear at auction, constituting a rarity for collectors. In the case of such works, as in objects realized on a plane, by drawing lots (including using dice) Winiarski selected those squares in the painting that were to receive relief. The artist pasted blocks of a size corresponding to the grid of divisions in these places. He also determined the height of these blocks (e.g., from one to six centimeters) by relying on a random result.

Winiarski himself recalled the beginnings of his creative path as follows: I believed that I could bring something different and important to art if I offered an analytical and formal attitude towards its subject. What I meant was to make an effective attempt to get rid of mystification and to rely on something other than my own vision. The alternative was objective processes and the desire to bring them into the field of art. (...) There is a very simple mechanism, well known to mathematicians, which seems to create unlimited possibilities - it is called CAUSE. (...)Even with a small number of elements used, subjected to chance, it is possible to obtain a great variety of events. (...)All my work, to this day (...) is built on these two objective mechanisms, on order and chance.

Despite the apparent objectivity of Winiarski's activities, however, his compositions always remain the work of the artist. This was pointed out by Jerzy Olek: It is easy to imagine a situation when Winiarski hands over his assumptions to a programmer, the programmer sits down at the computer keyboard and achieves the results of all the game sequences, which were created for years, in a few minutes, finalizing the operation in the printer. In a formal sense, the results obtained would be the same as those counted and drawn or painted "on foot." Only, they would not be equal in artistic terms. The computer prints would lack what is extremely important in art: the trace of the touch of the human hand, that unique imperfection. Unlike cold and indifferent ideal forms, the author's forms would breathe with the personality of a human being, and would thus be open to metaphysical contact.

Bożena Kowalska, in her text for the catalog of Winiarski's exhibition at the "Zapiecek" Gallery in 1975, wrote: (...) if Winiarski's works give the impression, despite such a large role of chance in them, of being orderly and logical in their structure - then one can find in them an adequate reflection of the image of the cosmos, microcosm or nature, where the "programmed" governing laws, in a constant clash with chance, inscribe the superior key of their order in the apparent chaos.

♣ to the auctioned price, in addition to other costs, will be added a fee resulting from the right of the creator and his heirs to receive remuneration in accordance with the Law of February 4, 1994 - on Copyright and Related Rights (droit de suite)

Ryszard Winiarski (Lviv 1936 - Warsaw 2006) graduated from the Warsaw University of Technology in 1959 and took up painting studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (1960-1966). At the end of his studies, in 1965, he formulated his own artistic program and realized his first works in a series entitled. "Attempts at visual presentation of statistical distributions". He received the first prize for them at the Symposium of Artists and Scientists in Pulawy in 1966. He adopted squares in black and white as the permanent modules of his works, the order and arrangement of which are governed by chance - a throw of the dice, a draw or a selection of random numbers. In 1970 he introduced the third dimension to his works in the form of spatial images or as an illusion of space obtained by plotting linear perspective. In 1971 the first paintings with incorporated mirrors were created. Since 1972, the artist also arranged "games" with the participation of viewers, who, using his means and method, filled a plane or room with their own "exhibition." From around 1983 Winiarski incorporated meaningful, symbolic and emotionally appealing elements into his works, such as the shape of the cross, natural materials and treatments on them, such as bending (installations: Geometry in a state of tension, 1984, Black Square or Flying Geometry, 1984, Hommage for Henryk Stażewski, 1989). At the same time, since 1960 the artist practiced stage design, being the author of dozens of realizations in this field in theaters throughout Poland. He participated in a great number of exhibitions in Poland and abroad, including: Sao Paulo Biennale 1969, I and II Biennale des Konstruktivismus, Nuremberg 1969 and 1971, Construction in Process, Lodz 1981 and Munich 1985. He died on December 4, 2006 in Warsaw.