Edward Krasiński. Les mises en scène

Edward Krasiński (1925 Łuck–2004 Warsaw, PL) is one of the most important protagonists of the Polish neo-avantgarde of the 1960s and 1970s. His unique exhibition designs, grandiose settings for his works for which he transformed the respective spaces into completely new spatial situations, were at the center of this first retrospective after the artist’s death. The exhibition also featured a comprehensive display of the (self-)representations that Krasiński created in collaboration with renowned photographers such as Eustachy Kossakowski. For the first time some of his legendary exhibitions were reconstructed, among others from Foksal Gallery in Warsaw—one of his main venues, which he helped establish in 1966—and from the 1970 Tokyo Biennial.

Rooted in Surrealism and Constructivism, in the mid 1960s Krasiński developed sculptures that are virtually reduced to a line. Quite early he employed conceptual strategies: At the end of the 1960s, he discovered for himself a commercial and standardized blue “scotch tape” that he henceforth attached to various surfaces, gallery walls, art objects etcetera, always at a height of 130 centimeters. When the artworks for his exhibition in Tokyo did not arrive, he sent the word “BLUE” per telex 5000 times and exhibited the long and punched paper strip. In Paris, accompanied by Concept art pioneer Daniel Buren, he pasted the blue tape on the walls of the municipal Museum of Modern Art and on the windows of the nearby art galleries.

An important place of work was his studio, which Krasiński took over from the Constructivist Henryk Stażewski after first sharing it with him. From 1988 on, he turned it into his own artistic environment, making it the subjects of his works. In the studio Krasiński carried out an intensive exchange with colleagues and critics and, beginning in the 1990s with an increasing number of young international artists. With humor and irony, Krasiński created an oeuvre that oscillates between painting, sculpture, and installation, also covering conceptual and performative aspects.