Edward Dwurnik, PARIS, 2011

114,0 x 146,0 cm - oil, canvas signed l.d.: PARIS, p.d.: 2011 E. DWURNIK

signed on the reverse on canvas p.g.: 2011 | E. DWURNIK | >>PARISE<< | NR: IX [in circle] - 1586 [in frame] - 4444 [in frame].



Urban views "from a bird's eye view" make up Edward Dwurnik's oldest and most numerous series of paintings entitled Hitchhiking. The artist began it in 1966 under the influence of strong inspiration from Nikifor Krynicki's work and continued it until the end of his life. In addition to the predominant depictions of Polish locales, it also included foreign vedutas. The landscapes - including those of Münster, Vienna, Florence, Vilnius or London - were generally not created "from nature." They were a painterly record of travel impressions composed on the basis of plans and aerial photographs of individual cities, postcards and photographs of monuments. Among them, a special place is occupied by landscapes of Paris, which the artist chose as the destination of his first student trip abroad in 1967: I cared about Paris because I wanted to confront reality with what I had seen in beautiful black and white albums (...). I wanted to experience live what I knew from books. I also looked over and over again at the lithographs of Bernard Buffet, who often drew Paris, and I wanted to draw like him, to pore over his motifs, such as the cathedral from behind (...). Besides, a trip to Paris is a tradition, an obligation - all artists both before and after the war went there, it's their mecca (Malgorzata Czyinska, My Kingdom. A conversation with Edward Dwurnik, Wolowiec 2016, pp. 130-131). The result of his stay in the French capital was a group of dozens of works painted in the open air on paper and a series of four canvases based on them from 1968 (cycle VII Paris). The artist later returned to the Parisian theme in the 1990s, showing it in a new, blue version in the so-called Blue Cities. These were monochromatic panoramas of European metropolises, shown without the typical street crowds entangled in various generic scenes of earlier paintings - cities without people - extinct, divine metropolises. Pure ideas of cities (E. Dwurnik, On sadness in the blues, interviewed by K. Bik, "Gazeta w Krakowie" supplement to "Gazeta Wyborcza," October 25, 1994). The tonality of the painter's "beloved" color is also maintained in Paris, presented in the 2011 catalog. The center of the composition is occupied by the Notre Dame Cathedral located on the Seine island of Île de la Cité. Shot from the west side, the temple towers over the neighboring buildings with its spire and massive facade. The architectural and historical symbol of France is not merely a projection of a vision of an ideal, "heavenly" city. On the contrary, it is teeming with life. Apparently, any moment a celebration will begin in it, to which a number of people are heading. The artist has returned to depicting urban hustle and bustle, but conventionally, without the reporter's flair and added stories familiar from the Hitchhiking Journeys of the communist era. The free treatment of topography, the mixing of scales and perspectives, the lack of a horizon line and the presence of fantastic elements (elephants walking on one of the bridges), make up a complete definition of landscape according to Dwurnik. Offered at auction, one of his Paris versions - in light of the recent restoration of the cathedral and its reopening - also rises to the status of a document of a previous era.



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

Edward Dwurnik (Radzymin 19 IV 1943 - Warsaw 28 X 2018) studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (1963-1970), but cites Nikifor as his "master." It was his works, seen for the first time in 1965, that inspired the then third-year student to draw the first works of the "Hitchhiking Journeys" series, which he continued in the following years. In 1972-1978 was created the series "Sportsmen", which portrayed, add bitingly, typical figures of the 70's. In parallel from 1975 was created the series "Workers", which culminated in the period of "Solidarity" 1980-1981. For the works of this series Dwurnik received in 1981 the Art Criticism Award of Cyprian Kamil Norwid. Cyprian Kamil Norwid Art Criticism Award, while for his paintings from the series "Warsaw" (1981), prophetically foreshadowing martial law - he received the Cultural Award of the "Solidarity" underground in 1983. In the 1980s Dwurnik's painting took on expressive and dramatic expression. The paintings created in this decade often had a political meaning, they also took on a historical costume, in one way or another referring to contemporary issues and realities. The series "Road to the East" (1989-91) commemorated the victims of Stalinism, while the series "From December to June" (1990-94) - the victims of martial law. Both the ideological and purely painterly qualities of these works brought the artist great recognition, both at home and abroad. Its expression was the prestigious award of the Coutts & Co Foundation in Zurich (1992). In the 1990s, series are created as a continuation of "Hitchhiking Journeys": "Blue Cities" (from 1993) and "Diagonals" (from 1996), as well as compositions of a new type, such as sea views (the "Blue" series, 1992-93) and the "Enumeration" series (1996-99). The artist has exhibited extensively, has had about 100 solo exhibitions in Poland and abroad, and has participated in numerous national and international exhibitions and festivals, including: the 10th Biennale of Contemporary Art, Menton 1974, Documenta 7, Kassel 1982, the 5th Biennale, Sydney 1985, the 19th Art Biennale, Sao Paulo 1987; the Olympics of Art, Seoul 1988. In parallel with painting, he practiced drawing, collage, printmaking (lithography, metal techniques, xerography, stamps) and applied graphics (illustration, posters for his own solo exhibitions).