Tadeusz Mysłowski – lifestory
Tadeusz Myslowski, born 1943. Polish-born American artist sculptor, painter, graphic aritist. Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. Since 1970 has been living and working in the USA.
Index
[Collapse]Biography
Myslowsky's formation comes from the Eastern European abstract traditions, especially Russian and Polish Constructivism and American Minimalism. He has been involved in variuos multimedia installations, light and sound projections, film animations and photography: "Shirne for an Anonymous Victim" at Majdanek Concentration Camp and "Cross Over" – searing mediation on the events of September 11th.
His work has been influenced by the European constructivism while owing also much to his fascination with the art of Malevich, Mondrian, Strzemiński, as well as to his delight with the architecture of New York. Using simple signs: a point, line, cross, square developed into a cube e shows a relation between the geometry"s precision and the metaphysics, the universality of the laws of nature.
His career has gone through several stages by then: study at Cracow and for a while in Kiev (where he developed an intrests in the post-revolutionary avantgarde and Malevich's Suprematism), then he lived in Łódź, where he learned the alphabet of Abstract art by going to the Art Museum to see the classic works of new art, several trips to Paris somehow completed the development of his artistic consciousness.
Settling in US meant the beginning everything anew. Myslowski found himself fascination a cultural and psychological barrer – starting a different life, revising his system of ideas, values and habits was painful. For Myslowski, bidding farewell to his old life meant new experiences, above all of an intellectual nature, and a new spatial reality do different from what he had left on the other side of Atlantic. Upon his view of a city with its structure growing over the centuries, was now superimposed another: a geometrical, linear organisation, an evidence of dynamic life of the city with a short history. It made a strong impression on the newcomer, almost shocked him, but it also simulated him to a fruitful, artistic reconsideration of space. To make things clearer, let us try to sketch the spatial configuration that Myslowski found in Manhattan.
On his first visit to Manhattan's Avenue of the Americas/Sixth Avenue, Mysłowski was overwhelmed by the myriad glass boxes/skyscrapers, that become the inspiration for his work. For him, these skyscrapers, in their minimalism, where simply sets of building materials – stone slabs – embodying the spirit of the new age.
Myslowski comes from he European geometric and abstract traditions – especially the disciplines of Bauhaus and De Stijl, Russian and Polish Constructivism, American minimalism and Mandelbrot's fractonal geometry.
Over 22 years Myslowski created 10.000 images.
Chronology
Chronology includes selected events (1943-1998) from the artist's biography.
1943
May 7: born in a small farming village, Piotrków, District of Lublin, Poland, to Genowefa Tarasinska and Franciszek Mysłowski, a blacksmith. Named after Tadeusz Tomaszewski, a relative who, as an officer, was murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1941 at Katyń.
1945
Moves with parents and older brother, Stanisław, to Lublin. Returns every summer to Piotrków, where he has contact with nature and wildlife. Mysłowski does not remember particularly much about the important events of his early childhood.
1954–1955
Mysłowski became interested in art at an early age. He reveals it was his mother's positive attitude towards art that served as his primary motivating force. His mother enrolls him in a specialized arts and crafts class taught by Karol Piórkowski at Dom Kultury Kolejarza.
1957–1963
Mysłowski attends Państwowe Liceum Sztuk Plastycznych w Lublinie (Fine Arts High School, Lublin).
1957–1962
He naively observes Lublin the provocative activities of the avant-garde artists, Grupa Zamek.
Does not excel at school, except in drawing and painting; repeats second class
Sculpture teacher Eugeniusz Baranowski takes an interest in him and his talent, and they develop a close friendship until Baranowskie death.
Early formative influences are rooted in the spirit of Classical and Romantic Polish tradition; attends the museum in Lublin, and is inspired by nineteenth century native artists Józef Chełmoński, Piotr Michałowski, Stanisław Wyspiański, Tadeusz Makowski, Jacek Malczewski and Jan Stanisławski.
1963
Mysłowski takes, and passes, the entrance exam to the Academy of Fine Arts, Cracow.
1963–1969
Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts.
Formative influences are rooted in the European tradition and include the work of Cezanne, Monet, Bonnard and Matisse. Studies under Professors Wacław Taranczewski (painting) and Konrad Srzednicki and Włodzimierz Kunz (graphics) and Janina Kraupe (monumental wall painting). Is disturbed by the 1963 chaos "Anti-Exhibition" of Tadeusz Kantor, the intemationally renowned avant-garde artist and theater director, held at the Krzysztofory Gallery in Cracow, and amazed by Edward Krasinski's radical exhibition, Blank not Books. Is impressed by the tactile, sensual sculptures of Andrzej Pawłowski – member of Grupa Krakowska, specifically "Luxogramy," "Heliogramy," "Somnamy", "Mulacie" and "Organie Sculpture."
By 1965, practicing semi-abstract, semi-figurative painting influenced by Frank Kupka, Andrzej Wróblewski and Maria Jarema.
1964
Awarded a five-year govemment scholarship grant for painting under Professor Wacław Taranczewski.
Makes notes about the work and the meaning of art.
For the first time visits the international collection of abstract art at the Muzeum Sztuki, Lodź. Considers his new perception of geometrie abstract art to be a turning point.
1966
Attends numerous concerts at the Cracow Philharmonic Hall; amazed by Bogusław Schaffer's "Atonal Musie for Strings: Nocturn", a dodecaphonic work for orchestra, and Krzysztof Penderecki's "The Passion According to St. Luke".
1963–1966
Lives in both Cracow and Lodź, finding inspiration in the work of such Constructivists as Władysław Strzemiński, Katarzyna Kobro, Henryk Stażewski and Marja Jarema.
1966
Still a student, Mysłowski holds first exhibition of paintings and prints at the Pałac pod Baranami, Cracow.
In summer, meets Irena Hochman in Kazimierz.
Is awarded a Russian and Polish exchange grant, and spends the summer at the Institute of Art in Kiev; (Russian and Polish exchange grant) for the first time experiences the wilderness of the Russian tundra. Encounters, in Kiev, Russian Constructivism in the works of Malevich, Goncharova and Rodchenko.
Begins to question his own subject matter and reasons for painting.
1968
Mysłowski travels abroad for a summer of independent study in Dresden and Paris.Takes a particular interest in the study of architecture past and present, visiting museums and historic sites.
Encounters the work of Art Nouveau architect, Hector Guimard, for the first time, and the architecture of Le Corbusier: the Maison-Atelier Ozenfant; the Villas La Roche and Jeanneret; the Brazilian and Swiss Pavilions; the Cite Universitaire.
Awarded first prize for painting at the National Student Biennial Competition, Cracow.
Develops friendship with artist Jan Pamuła and art critic Andrzej Sawicki.
1969
Mysłowski shares an apartment / studio with Jan Pamuła.
April 16: graduates from the Academy of Fine Arts, receiving Master of Arts with Distinction.
1969–1970
April 27, 1969 – May 14, 1970: Mysłowski lives and works in isolation in Paris, partially supported by Irena Hochman.
Works for editor of Magazine "Przekrój," Marian Eile, creating serial comic with the dog "Fafik" for the French newspaper "France Soir."
Investigates critically the main currents of European art.
The Paris Salon d"Automne rejects his painting "Przestrzeń Owalna".
Receives a one-time support fellowship from Wydawnictwo Kultura Paryska, a publishing house dedicated to the preservation of Polish culture abroad.
July 21, 1969: the first moon-walk by Armstrong; one month later, still uplifted by the significance of this event, Mysłowski receives a visa to travel to the NEW WORLD.
1970
Mysłowski holds one-man exhibition at the Lambert Gallery, Paris, which is reviewed in Art Internationale, Opus, Le Figaro, Le Nouveau Journal and Galerie des Arts.
Meets Casimir Romanowicz, Joanna Bialozorka, Jozef Czapski and Jan Lebenstein.
May 14: emigrates to the USA at the invitation of a longtime friend, Irena Hochman, herself an immigrant in 1968.
Settles in New York, where new avenues to Western art are opened, along with new means of liberation from old structures. His arrival is at a time when New York is beginning to be regarded as the center of Vanguard art. Conceptual and Minimal art were asserting themselves as an American art movement of international magnitude.
Stays in the then Hotel Nassau on 59th Street (now The Four Seasons Hotel), across the street from Mondrian's last studio (the building has sińce been destroyed by "Urban Renewal"), where Mondrian left on his easel his finał painting "Victory Boogie-Woogie" and the environmental installation "Wall Works 1943–1944".
Is introduced to Artur Lejwa of the Galerie Chalette.
Meets Alex Bert Chasky, owner of a textile factory, who introduces him to a technique of silk-screen printing.
Begins work at Textile Creators Ltd., an industrial studio in Long Island City, first as a worker and later as a technician and photographer.
Receives a six-month artistic fellowship from Alex Bert Chasky.
1971
April 2: Mysłowski marries Irena Hochman.
Lives at various locations in New York: 219 Echo Place, the Bronx; East 52nd Street; West Greenwich Village; West 72nd Street; Kew Gardens, Queens.
May 14: participates in 22nd National Exhibition of Prints, held at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
End 1971: begins to create new work, mainly in graphic media. This represents a major transformation exploring the technique of photography.
Begins to experiment with the grid form, which is characterized by its flatness, the anti-natural and anti-real – the qualities which he now wishes to incorporate into his own work. As he stated: "My work is an extension of Constructivism, using new tools and materials, shifting from a metaphysically based structure to a systematic and logical structure."
1972
Mysłowski experiments with techniques of photography: "The camera has allowed a great deal of systematization in my work. As a research tool it establishes a particular logic derived tom its mechanical/optical nature; allowing me to rearrange available information in such a way that it escapes from its primary visual formation".
1973–1974
Mysłowski obtains and is deeply influenced by "The Last Whole Earth Catalog" (1971) – which had become the bible of the COUNTERCULTURE.
Introduced to the work of visionary architect Buckminster Fuller.
Introduced to the writing about the fourth dimension by Claude Bragdon, P. D. Ouspensky and C. Howard Hinton.
Mysłowski meets artist Ilya Bolotowsky.
1974
Mysłowski begins to experiment with computer photography.
Creates "New York Faces", computerized images of people from various geographical areas of the city.
Enrolls in a silk-screen printing course at The New School for Social Research, New York.
Continues to work for Textile Creators Ltd., in order to use the workshop and tools; creates his portfolio of prints entitled, "The Avenue of the Americas", the fulcrum of his artistic career; all subsequent work relates to it. "Since 1974 paintings, prints and sculpture have taken architecture as a vanishing point - the most important one. Architectural ideas as the mater atrium received new impetus in the 70s."
His painting, developing from an architectural concept, becomes abstract; his work does not reflect visual reality, but refers to a more profound inner and higher knowledge.
1975
His father receives the Krzyż Kawalerski Odrodzenia Polski, country's highest honor, for his life's work.
Participates in the 5th International Biennale of Prints, Cracow, and receives the "Acąuisition Prize" from the Modern Art Museum, Lodź.
1976
Mysłowski begins to work with the cross as an archetype of fundamental visual form.
Becomes deeply interested in Japanese modern dance, as performed by Sankai Juku, and the drum music of the group Kodo.
Travels to Canada: in Montreal is impressed by Habitat, Israeli artist Moshe Safdie's experimental housing project of 1967. Visits Niagara Falls.
1976–1979
Mysłowski continues with the "New York Faces" project, focusing on Times Sąuare. The project is a compilation and cross-section of the people passing through this specific Manhattan site.
1977–1978
Mysłowski is deeply influenced by Charles and Ray Eames' film "Powers of Ten" (1968, revised 1977), which documents a journey from Chicago into the Universe and the return trip into a microstructure of a carbon atom in the human body.
1978
Mysłowski leaves Textile Creators Ltd., and is refused unemployment benefit because (as indicated on the notice of determination from the New York Department of Labor): "...You quit your job without good cause. Your resignation was for a personal and non-compelling reason – to pursue your painting full-time."
1979
Mysłowski is awarded National Studio Space in the Institute for Art and Urban Resources at PSI, Long Island City, New York. Begins full-time work on his art.
Develops contacts with socially-conscious artists.
Returns to the study of the national heritage of Polish Constructivism. Being an EXILE always heightens the search for identity. Mysłowski tries to establish what he inherited, both positive and negative, connecting eastern art with western art.
Meets last member of Constructivist movement, Henryk Stażewski, in Warsaw.
January: meets Harry Holtzman at the opening of the Neuberger Museum's Bridget Riley exhibition. Mysłowski develops a friendship with Holtzman and feels that, through Holtzman's reminiscences, he "meets" Mondrian. (In 1930, Holtzman had helped to found American Abstract Artists and, a decade later, sponsored Mondrian's immigration to America. Holtzman contributed to Mondrian's support until the artisfs death in 1944 and became the sole heir ofthe Mondrian estate.)
Acquires building with Irena Hochman in Long Island City, and begins renovating it for a home and studio.
Begins producing photographs on film based on "Avenue of the Americas", and makes a large-scale, 12-panel oil painting based on the photo imagery.
Irena Hochman publishes a portfolio entitled "Avenue of the Americas", comprising work from 1974–1979.
In collaboration with photographer Luca Vignelli, creates "The Beginning ofthe Expanding Series", a light projection, related to the photo imagery of "Avenue of the Americas".
Together with Irena Hochman goes to the Hahn Brothers Warehouse for examination of Mondrian (unfinished painting) "New York–New York City", 1941–1942. Extremely moved by the opportunity to have spiritual and physical contact with the masterpiece.
1980
December: Mysłowski participates in a major group show, held at the John Weber Gallery,
SoHo, New York. According to its organizers, the intention of this group show is: "...To make the viewing public aware of the strong undercurrent of constructivist-geometric related object-making which is being done today."
Re-awarded studio space at PSI.
Meets Claude Picasso, Renę Błock, Joseph Beuys, Richard Serra, John Cage, Joseph Kosuth, James Turrell, Denise Renę and Merce Cunningham at PSI.
Meets and develops friendship with Szymon Bojko, the distinguished Polish scholar and art critic.
Meets and develops friendship with Andrzej Mroczek, director of Labirynt Gallery in Lublin.
After a period of reviewing past and present art, and paying homage to it, he quickly finds his own direction in abstract geometry.
Participates in an important group show at the Queens Museum, organized by the curator, Robert Pincus-Witten, Annual Juried Exhibition '80.
1982
December 14: Mysłowski is granted United States citizenship, a new chapter in his life.
1983
Mysłowski meets Rita Reinhardt, wife of Ad Reinhardt.
Travels to Egypt (Nile cruise) and Mexico.
1984
Curator Dr. Irena Jakimowicz of the National Museum in Warsaw introduces Mysłowski to Dr. Dorota Folga-Januszewska, with whom he develops friendship and ongoing professional collaboration.
Mysłowski visits California and is impressed by Simon Rodia's Wart Towers in Los Angeles; visits Frank Lloyd Wrighfs Villas; also visits the Frank Gehry house in Santa Monica.
October: Mysłowski organizes, with Harry Holtzman and Irena Hochman, an exhibition of late work by Mondrian entitled, "The Wall Works: 1943–1944", at the Carpenter + Hochman Gallery in New York and Dallas.
1985
Mysłowski is invited to participate in an exhibition, "Geometrie Abstraction: Selections from a Decade, 1975–1985", held at the Bronx Museum of Art, New York, organized by Philip Verre. Other participants include: James Biederman, Ilya Bolotowsky, Jackie Ferrara, Al Held, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Louise Nevelson, Leon Polk Smith, Dorothea Rockburne, Joel Shapiro and Jack Tworkov.
Spends summer with Harry Holtzman in Boąueron, Puerto Rico.
Visits Man Ray's studio in Paris; meets his wife Juliet ManRay.
Meets environmental artists Jeanne-Claude and Christo.
Establishes friendship with the avant-garde photographer Zbigniew Dłubak in Mendon, France.
Travels to Tokyo; meets Aiko Miyawaki, Arata Isozaki, Tadao Ando and Issey Miyake.
Visits Katsura Imperial Palace in Kyoto, a masterwork from the 17th century and the ultimate proto-modem building, and is impressed with the purity of the space.
Visits the Tsukaba Expo '85.
Encounters Frank Lloyd Wrigh's concept of "organic architecture."
Meets artist Francois Morellet in New York.
1986
May 22: Mysłowski writes to mathematician and scholar Benoit Mandelbrot about an article by James Glieck in the New York Times Magazine, December 8, 1985, The Man who Reshaped Geometry. (Mandelbrofs theorized.about fractal geometry, which is the new way of thinking about complex natural patterns.)
Travels extensively through Europe, visiting France, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Spain and Greece and documents his trip with photographs.
These photographs serve as artistic notes (memoirs) and inspire him in his work on the meaning of form in relation to man, space and time - past, present and future.
Meets Denyse Durand-Ruel, critic Pierre Restany and French artist Jean-Pierre Raynaud.
Spends summer at the home of sculptor Takis in Athens
1987
Mysłowski travels to Brazil and Uruguay.
Forms friendship with artist Gerhard (Jurgen) Blum, who is also Director of the Museum of Modem Art in Hunfeld, Germany.
Meets artists Edward Kienholz and Nancy Reddin in Berlin.
Meets Donald Judd and introduces him to Polish avant-garde, and exchanges print of Henryk Stazewski for promised print by Donald Judd, who died before the promise was realized. Gives Judd the book, "Constructivism in Poland 1923–1936, Blok Praesens, A.R".
Sculptor Jose Pedro Croft invites Mysłowski to create a sculpture in stone for the Fundacao Luso Americano, Lisbon.
Begins working in Portuguese stone quarries, and exhibits a series of marble and granite works at the Gallery EMI-Valentim de Carvalho, Lisbon.
1988
July: Mysłowski travels to Moscow for Sotheby's historic auction and purchases Rodchenko's photograph, Pole Vault, 1926, over-bidding the Science Museum of Washington, D.C.
Goes with Professor John Bowlt, the distinguished scholar of Russian art, to Moscow.
Around this time, re-focuses on the processes of natural genesis and metamorphosis.
Investigates biomorphic form in the medium of photograph, which he feels corresponds to these processes. His interest is in nature's state of constant transformation and growth as a process which encompasses death and decay, as well as birth, development and maturation.
"Towards Organic Geometry" becomes the nucleus of his work.
Begins using freely-rendered organic forms in his work, which are strongly based on positive-negative, figure-ground relationships; these concerns will continue to characterize subsequent imagery.
Meets the artist Jan Ziemski, member of Lublin Grupa Zamek.
1989
Mysłowski is invited by curator Bozena Kowalska to participate in Science or Mysticism, the 6th Summer School of Artists Employing the Language of Geometry, Okuninka, Poland.
Visits the Rietveld-Schroder House, Utrecht, an icon of modern architecture because of its economy of space.
Invited by Petra Schilcher, Director of Edition Artelier, Graz, Austria, to create an intaglio multiple on metal, entitled New York Crisscross. Mysłowski travels for the first time to Vienna, Austria, and investigates Vienna Secession Architecture by Joseph Maria Olbrich, Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos.
October 14: participates in International Festival of Chaos and Order in Graz.
December 7–11: Edition Atelier shows Mysłowski's work at the Los Angeles Art Fair.
1990
Mysłowski participates in the Konstantin Melnikov International Architectural Festival in Moscow at the invitation of Fre Ilgen, editor of Pro Magazine, a Dutch foundation dedicated to Constructivist art.
Meets Benoit Mandelbrot.
Introduced to phenology by Polish biologist and professor Sergiusz Riabinin.
Collaborates with Jagoda Przybylak and Janusz Bakowski on a video project.
Visits Donald Judd at the Chianti Foundation, Marfa, Texas.
1991
Irena Hochman publishes a limited edition set (35) of eight transfer-printed stoneware plates by Mysłowski, "New York Composite":, executed by the Porcelit-Pruszkow Company, Poland.
At the invitation of Gerhard (Jurgen) Blum, he participates in an international exhibition "Redukta" at the Center for Contemporary Art in the Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw.
Is invited to participate in "Jestesmy", an international exhibition of work by emigrated Polish artists, held at the Galeria Zacheta, Warsaw.
Berlin Wall comes down: travels with Blum into East Germany, visiting Bauhaus sites: Weimar, Dessau and Berlin; admires the work of the Belgian architect, van de Velde.
Travels with Blum to France: in Dijon, visits Andrzej Turowski, scholar and critic of 20th century avant garde; also visits conceptualise artist Roman Opalka, at his home at Bazerac Thezac.
1992
Irena Hochman publishes a limited edition set (35) of twelve transfer-printed stoneware plates by Mysłowski, "Towards Organic Geometry", executed by the Porcelit-Pruszkow Company, Poland.
1993
June 28: Genowefa Mysłowska, his mother, dies in Lublin.
1994
Mvslowski is invited to participate in the Faret Tachikawa art project in Tachikawa, Japan, and makes a four steel column sculpture (permanent installation), "New York Cross Section".
March 1994: Irena Hochman Fine Art Ltd. publishes his book; "Towards Organic Geometry: 163 Selected Photographic Images, 1972-1994".
Is introduced to Michio Kaku, professor of Theoretical Physics and author of "Hyper space" (1994), at the New York Open Center.
Visit to Europe marks his 35th trans-Atlantic crossing.
August 1994: is invited by Leonardo Clerici, the grandson of the father of futurism, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, to visit his country house. Chateau Eyzerac, and prehistoric caves and grottos in Dordogne, France.
December 1994: visits the Faret Tachikawa Project in Japan with Irena Hochman. Spends time with Joseph Kosuth, Jean-Pierre Raynaud, Richard Wilson, Stephen Antonakos and Menashe Kadishman.
December 1994: fulfills desired visit of the reconstructed German Barcelona Pavillion by Mies van der Rohe, which housed the World Exhibition in 1929, and is considered a paradigm of modern rationalist architecture.
December 1994: visits for the first time Barcelona, Catalonia. Known for modernism of Art Nouveau movements in Europe. Also visits Temple de la Sagrada Familia, Pare Guell, originally planned as Garden city, La Pedrera House, Batllo House.
December 1994: visits China"s Great Wall, The Forbidden City. The Summer Palace, The Winter Palace, The Temple of Heaven. Tiananmen Square, also visits the burial site of the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, the terra-cotta warriors at Xian.
1995
Invited by Sam Hunter, former curator of painting and sculpture at the MoMA in NYC and currently Professor Emeritus at Princeton University, to participate in the exhibition "Transformations" at Apex Art Gallery, New York City.
Invited by art critic Peter Frank to participate in the exhibition "Reconstructivism: New Geometric Painting" in New York at Space 504, New York City.
Invited by curator Dr. Dorota Folga-Januszewska to have a one-man exhibition at the National Museum in Warsaw.
Invited to Holy Land-Israel by artist Shalom Sechvi.
Travels with Gerhard (Jurgen) Blum, architect Karl Muller and artist Heinz Kasper, visiting Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv and Haifa. Mysłowski is impressed by Bauhaus International Style architecture, especially that of Erich Mendelsohn.
Permanent realization for Tashikawa City, Tokyo, Jaapan
Telewizja Polska in Łódź, director and producer Michal Fajbusiewicz realized part 1/30 min. film "Tadeusz Mysłowski".
1996
Invited to Heming, Denmark, by Heming Art Museum, where he views latest works by Piero Manzoni.
Mysłowski has an exhibition at Galerie Renos Xippas in Paris in February 1996.
IBM asks him for permission to use his exhibition as part of their new commercial: "Solutions for a small planet". The advertisement was inaugurated at the Oscar Award Ceremony in Los Angeles in March 1996. On that day, Mysłowski's work was seen by several million viewers.
Permanent realization for Yokohama City, Japan
1997
Invited by Marlena Novak to participate in "Expanding Tradition" at DePaul University Art Gallery, Chicago, with artists Richard Anuszkiewicz, James Juszczyk and Julian Stanczak. Mysłowski delivers lecture: "Journey Into Non-Objectivity".
Permanent realization for Yokohama City, Japan.
Polvision TV - Chicago realized film "Tadeusz Mysłowski", director and producer Małgorzata Blaszczuk.
1998
Telewizja Polska in Łódź, director and producer Michal Fajbusiewicz realized part II / 30 min. film "Tadeusz Mysłowski / Between Heaven and Earth". Permanent realization for Sapporo, Japan
Invited by curator Andrzej Szczepaniak to the Nieborow Palace Museum and Arcadia to realize ceramics at the Radziwillow Manufacture.
Selected exhibitions
Selected one-person exhibitions
1967
Pałac Pod Baranami, Cracow, Poland
MPiK Gallery, Cracow, Poland
1969
Arkady Gallery, Cracow, Poland
1970
Lambert Gallery, Paris, France
1979
P.S. 1 Institute for Art and Urban Resources, Long Island City, New York
Desa / Galeria Fotografia-Video, Cracow, Poland
P.S. 1 Institute for Art and Urban Resources, Long Island City, New York
1980
Galeria Labirynt, Lublin, Poland
Foto Medium Art Gallery, Wrocław, Poland
1982
Galeria "GN", Gdansk, Poland
1983
The American Center, Belgrade, Yugoslavia
1986
Carpenter Hochman Gallery, New York City, USA
1987
Galeria EMI Valentim de Carvalho, Lisbon
1989
Portugal Galerie & Edition Artelier, Graz, Austria
1990
Irena Hochman Fine Art Ltd., New York City, USA
1991
Irena Hochman Fine Art Ltd., New York City, USA
1992
Chicago International Art Exposition, Chicago, USA
Irena Hochman Fine Art Ltd., New York City, USA
NICAF '92, Yokohama, Japan
1993
Irena Hochman Fine Art Ltd., New York City, USA
1994
Irena Hochman Fine Art Ltd., New York
City, USA
NICAF '94, Yokohama, Japan
1995
NICAF '95, Yokohama, Japan
Orangerie and Coach House Gallery, Polish National Sculpture Center, Orońsko, Poland
National Museum in Warsaw, Poland
1996
Museum of Modem Art, Hunfeld, Germany
Galerie Renos Xippas, Paris
Art Chicago 1996
1997
Galeria Awangarda BWA, Wrocław, Poland
9-Październik Galeria Stara BWA, Lublin, Poland
NJCAF97, Tokyo, Japan
1999
PLSP, Lublin, Poland
2001
Mondriaanhuis Museum voor Constructieve en Concrete Kunst, Amersfoort, Holand
2002
BWA, Lublin, Poland
Ground Zero, WTC, New York, USA
2004
Taller Boricua Gallery, Harlem, New York, USA
2006
BWA, Lublin, Poland
2011
Międzynarodowe Centrum Kultury, Kraków, Poland
Muzeum Lubelskie, Lublin, Poland
Muzeum Architektury, Wrocław, Poland
Muzeum Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, Toruń, Poland
2017
Dom Słów, Lublin, Poland
2018
Muzeum Lubelskie, Lublin, Poland
2020
Muzeum Narodowe, Lublin, Poland
2023
Muzeum Narodowe, Lublin, Poland
Selected group exhibitions
1967
Galeria Jaszczury, Cracow, Poland
Fine Arts Academy, Kiev, USSR
1968
Students'Biennale in Painting, Cracow, Poland (First Prize)
1969
Group A, Cracow, Poland,
Young Generation, Contemporary Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
1971
22nd National Exhibition of Prints, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, USA
9th International Biennale of Graphics, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia
51st Exhibition of the Society of American
Graphic Artists, Kennedy Gallery, New York, USA
1972
3rd International Exhibition of Original Drawings, Rijeka, Yugoslavia
4th International Biennale of Graphics, Cracow, Poland
18th National Print Exhibition, The Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA
California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, California, USA
1973
Boston Printmakers' 25th Annual Exhibition, Boston, USA
DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts, USA
10th International Biennale of Graphics, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia
1974
5th International Biennale of Graphics, Cracow, Poland
1975
llth International Biennale of Graphics, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia
1976
6th International Biennale of Graphics, Cracow, Poland
1977
Photo Process in Printmaking, The Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
12th International Biennale of Graphics, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia
1978
7th International Biennale of Graphics, Cracow, Poland
Christchurch Arts Festival /International Exhibition ofDrawings, Robert McDougal Gallery, Christchurch, New Zeland
La VIIIBienal de Ibiza, Museo de Arte Contemporanea, Ibiza, Spain
1979
The Studio, Studio of Professor Waclaw Taranczewski, BWA, Cracow, Warsaw, Poznan, Poland
1980
Artists' Prints, Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York City, USA
13th International Biennale of Graphics, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia
Invitational, John Weber Gallery, New York City, USA
Annual Juried Exhibition, The Queens Museum, New York (Robert Pincus-Witten, curator)
Paper Works '80, The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York, USA
National Artists from PS I, PS 1, Institute for Art and Urban Resources, Long IslandCity, New York, USA
Mid-America Art Exhibition, The Museum of Fine Art, Owensboro, Kentucky, USA (Hilton Kramer, juror)
1981
Terra 2, Exposition of International Architecture, Wroclaw, Poland
Perspectywa, Iluzja, Iluzjonism, The National Museum, Warsaw, Poland
MappedArt: Charts, Routes, Regions, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado,USA (Peter Frank, curator)
Petits Formats de Papier, Centre Culturel, Ville de Couvin, Belgium
International Impact Festival "81, Kyoto Municipal Museum, Kyoto, Japan
1982
New Work in Black & White, The Museum of Modern Art, Art Lending Service, New York City, USA
International Impact Festival "82, International Art Center, Kyoto, Japan
1983
Grafica Polacca Contemporanea, Scheiwiller a Milano 1925–1983, Museo de Milano, Milan, Italy
1985
Geometric Abstraction: Selections from a Decade 1975–1985, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, USA
1986
Sculpture on the Wall, Inaugural Exhibition, New Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut, USA
1987
Graflca Polacca Contemporanea, Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy (Alina Kalczynska & Vanni Scheiwiller, curators)
Polska Sztuka Wspolczesna w Zbiorach Museum Narodowego, Warsaw, Poland
Freiraum, Vier Generationen Konstruktivistischer Stromungen in der Polnischen Kunst, Kunststation Kleinsassen, Germany
Thousand Cubic Centimeters: Geometric Miniatures in Dimensions, Galerie de Sluis, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Invitational International Art Exhibition: Null Dimension, Galerie New Space, Fulda, Germany
1988
Thousand Cubic Centimeters: Geometric Miniatures in Dimensions, Galerie de Sluis, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Art 1988, Basel, Switzerland
1989
Invitational International Art Exhibition: Freiraum 2-Polnische Konstrucktive Kunst, Galerie Kongresshaus Gmunden, Villa Toscana, Gmunden, Austria
Invitational International Art Exhibition: Nulldimension 1, Galerie Hip-Halle, Gmunden, Austria Tape, Light, Paint Constructive 2d-3d, a Choice, Flushingen-Oost, Souberg, Netherlands
Systematic and Constructive Art, Centra Culturel de la Villa de Madrid, Spain
Constructivism versus Computer, World Trade Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands
1990
Invitational International Exhibition of Geometrical Miniatures: 1000cm3, Wilhelm-Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany
Zur Eroffnung Des Museums Zeichen der Zeit, Galerie New Space, Fulda, Germany
Universal Progression, Konstantin Melnikov International Architectural Festival, Central Exhibition Hall, Moscow
1991
Invitational International Exhibition: Jesteśmy, Zachęta, Warsaw, Poland
1992
Collection Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, Musee d'Art Contemporain, Lyon, France
Reducta, Invitational International Contemporary Art Exhibition, Centrum Sztuki Wspolczesnej, Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw, Poland
Galeria Labirynt 1974–81, Lublin, Poland
Kunst in der Landschaft, Fahner Hohen, Erfurt, Germany
Polen 1952–92: konstruktiv undkonkret aus der Sammlung Museum of Modern
Art,, Hiinfeld, Osteuropaisches Kulturzentrum, Cologne, Germany
1993
NICAF '93, Yokohama, Japan
Konstruktiv und Konkret, Kleine Galerie, Ilmenau, Germany
Forum Konkrete Kunst Erfiirt Museum der Kunstler Reduktion Zeichen Haltung, Germany
1994
Contemporary Classics from the Collection of the National Museum in Warsaw, The National Museum, Warsaw, Poland
The Sign of Time Museum: the Museum of Modern Art, Hiinfeld – Germany
Gerhard Jurgen Blum-Kwiatkowski's Collection, Galeria Stara – BWA, Lublin, Poland
Faret Tachikawa Project, Tachikawa, Japan
Labirynt 1974-1994 Galeria BWA Lublin, Poland
1995
Reconstructivism: New Geometric Painting in New York, Space 504, New York City (Peter Frank, curator)
Poetry and Concrete Exhibition, Accademia Cingnaroli, Archive Francesco Conz, Verona, Italy
Postcontemporary Art Festival, Kitchen Gallery, Warsaw, Poland.
Transformations, Apex Art, New York City, USA (Sam Hunter, curator)
International Exposition of Concrete-Constructive Art from the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, Hiinfeld, Germany, Habani Gallery, Nes Ziona, Israel
1996
Tapeart, Marc Chagall Museum, Witebsk, Bialorus
ArtFax '96, Marc Chagall Museum, Witebsk, Bialorus
Aus der Sammlung, Museum Modern Art Hiinfeld, Gesellschaft fur Kunst und Gestaltung, Bonn, Germany
1997
Spojrzenia, Wystawa z okazji jubileuszu 680 rocznicy nadania praw miejskich Lublinowi
V Wieków Grafiki Polskiej, Muzeum Narodowe, Warszawa, Poland
1998
Printmakers Polonia 2000, Zachęta Gallery, Warsaw
2000
KonkretNeu-12 Positionen, Dresden Germany
Selected Works
Towards Organic Geometry
interpretation of the growth and radical alternation of Manhattan's skyline along the Avenue of the Americas. His images of the Avenue of the Americas' rigid grid structures are transformed by chemical means into asymmetrical, organic, curvilinear forms. In Towards Organics Geometry he venture into new zone – the infrastructure of photography – to observe and question the transmutations of the photographic process.
Avenue of the Americas
proved that the method of space modeling developed by the founder of Neoplasticism was still valid. It was an obvious continuation of the beginning of the century – Suprematism and Constructivism. Myslowski began a graphic record of the spatial code at the point where his predecessors had stopped. A significant factor in this study on the diffusion of architectural structure was the fact that he used special cameras and high-tech equipment, that enabled him to make the range of visual perception incomparably wider. The essence of his visual investigations was philosophical in nature, concerned with eternal oppositions in nature and in the life of a community – lasting and passing by, growth and decay, creation and destruction.
Cross
Myslowsky's spatially modeled cross is, so it seems, far from the cosmogony of Suprematism, but it is somehow connected with its philosphy – through the artist"s origin, his biography, and artistic tastes, For this reason, one tends to draw irritional associations and thinks n terms of concepts from the language of religion and music. But the work id still rooted in the topographic reality of Manhattan. The cross, now seen and photographed at an angle, reached various degrees of deformation. Such deformed crosses, presented at first individually and then combined into groups of eight – in various configurations and arrengements, streched in all directions, asymmetrical, shaped freely without any center of gravity, building a new imaginary space – belong both to the domain of structure and to the language of poetry. Apart from that, the cross has symbolic connotation within a city, within its specific, compact structure, the archetype of a city is circle with a cross within it – the way in which a city was denoted in ancient Egipt. The cross in the grid of Avenue of the Americas – both are the products of the same civilization.
The article is based on collected documents
from Irena Hochman and Tadeusz Myslowski's private archives, New York City.
Literature
1967
Hodys, Wlodzimierz, Palace Pod Baranami, Cracow, Poland (exhibition catalogue).
1969
Pamula, Jan, Arkady Galeria BWA, Cracow, Poland (exhibition catalogue).
Gotowski, Maciej, "W Galerii Arkady", Dziennik Polski, Aug. 3-4, p. 5.
Sawicki, Andrzej, "Malarstwo T. Myslowskiego", Gazeta Krakowska, Sept. 9-10, p. 5.
1970
Domanski,Tadeusz, "Tadeusz Myslowski w Paryzu", La Semaine Polonaise, Feb. 22, p. 14
Leveque, J.J., "Les Galeries", Nouvelles Litteraires, Feb. 19.
Leveque, J.J., "Le Theatre de la Demence", Le Nouveau Journal, Feb. 21.
Applegate, Judith, "Paris", Art International, Vol. XIV, no. 4, April.
Geneau, Anne, "Actualites", Opus International, No. 17, p. 48.
Gauthier, Paule, "Regulski et Myslowski", Les Lettres Francoises, Mar. 4, p. 30.
Megret, Frederic, "Deux Jeunes Cracoviens", Le Figaro Litteraire, No. 1240, Feb 23, p. 29.
1979
Kramer, Hilton," 18 in the Constructivist Tradition", New York Times, Dec. 14, p. 17.
1980
Foster, Hal, "Reviews", ArtForum, Vol. XVIII, No. 6, Feb. p. 100.
Cohen, Ronny H, "Reviews", ArtForum, Vol. XVIII, No. 8, Apr., p. 79.
Voswinckel, Ulrike, "Kunst Forderungs Modelle", Interview with Bavarian TV ARD.
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1981
Folga-Januszewska, Dorota, Perspective, Illusion, Illusionism, National Museum, Warsaw, (exhibition catalogue in Polish and English).
Kahlen, Wolf, Jahresring 80-81, p. 75, ill. 39.
1984
Folga-Januszewska, Dorota Concepts of Space in Contemporary Art, National Museum, Warsaw, cover page, frontispiece, back cover, pp. 106-109 (in Polish and English).
Bojko, Szymon, "Tadeusz Myslowski jego Przezycie Manhattanu", Miasto, No. 7, ROK XXXIV, pp. 36-37.
1985
Kaminski, Ireneusz J., "Wszak Mamy Socjalism", Kamena, No. 23 (843).
1986
Kaminski, Ireneusz J., "W Strukturze Manhattanu", Zycie Literackie, XXXII, 2-23, pp.10-11.
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1987
Maasz, Helmut, "Raumempfinden durch die Kunst", Fulder Zeitung, Jul. 3.
Portfirio, Jo.se Luis, "Myslowski: do desenho ao volume", Expresso, May 23.
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1989
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1990
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1991
Ripley, Deborah, "Snob Appeal", Artscribe, Mar.-Apr., pp. 94-95.
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1992
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1993
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1994
Analogies III. Service de la Culture de la province de Namur, Bruxelles, May 29, p. 47-48.
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1995
Szymon Bojko, "Prawa, Sztuka Nie Zna Praw", "W Sztuce Sa Prawa".
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1996
Turowski, A., "Miedzy Metafizyka Przestrzeni a Organika. Transformacje Kwadratu", Exhibition Catalogue, Museum of Modern Art, Hiinfeld, Germany
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IBM commercial: Solutions for a Small Planet, showing Selected Cross Drawings from 1976 in the background.
The Litterature is based on collected documents
from Irena Hochman and Tadeusz Myslowski's private archives, New York City.
