Born on August 3, 1939, in Poznań, and died on December 16, 2012, in Warsaw. Polish painter, illustrator, graphic artist, photographer, and performer. He also created literary works, both fiction and concrete poetry.
From 1962 to 1968, he studied at the Faculty of Sculpture of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In 1968, he defended his thesis in the studios of Marian Wnuk and Oskar Hansen. From 1970, he taught at his alma mater. From 1980 to 1991, together with his wife, Emilia Małgorzata Dłużniewska, he organized exhibitions, lectures, and meetings of artists from Poland and abroad, including presentations of the Fluxus group in a private apartment on Piwna Street in Warsaw. In 1991, he was awarded the title of full professor. In 1997, he suffered a car accident, which resulted in the loss of his sight. Since 1998, his paintings have been created by his wife, Emilia Małgorzata Dłużniewska (with the assistance of his former student, Maciej Sawicki), and his son, Kajetan (since 2008). In 2003, he received the Katarzyna Kobro Award and, in 2006, the Jan Cybis Award. In 1991, he published the book “T.”—a literary work of his own, revealing the artistic connections between visual art, poetry, and reflection on simple yet important concepts. In 2000, he published a collection of philosophical short stories entitled Odlot. His works are in the collections of the National Museum in Warsaw, the National Museum in Wrocław, the National Museum in Poznań, the Museum of Art in Łódź, the Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw, the Museum of Contemporary Art MOCAK in Kraków, the Centre for Contemporary Art Elektrownia in Radom, the Museum in Bydgoszcz, the Museum in Chełm, the National Library in Warsaw, the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw, and many collections abroad. After the artist’s death, his unrealized painting projects continued to be executed by his wife Emilia and son Kajetan.
(Source: Galeria Esta).
These photographs were selected from several hundred photographs taken by the artist between 1991 and 1997. The back of the monument is a no-man’s-land. Everything that was meant to be said was placed on the front. But somehow this structure had to be closed… Dłużniewski was always a keen observer of strange content, so it’s no surprise that he was drawn to the void of meaning from the monument’s “back” side.
