Ryszard Wasko
Encyclopedia
Ryszard Wasko is a Polish
artist, who has worked in multimedia, including photography, film, video, installation, painting, and drawing. He is also known as a curator and organizer of art events.
He lives and works in Berlin
.
. As a child he took painting-classes planning to become a painter and wanting to study at the Art Academy
in Cracow. But instead of making his childhood dream come true, he made up his mind and went to Lodz
, where he studied cinematography at the Film School between 1970 and 1975. During that time he became a member of Workshop of the Film Form, one of the most important artistic groups in Poland in the 70s. Workshop was an avant-garde collective of painters, filmmakers, critics, poets, philosophers and scientists, working with experimental film and multimedia. Later on Ryszard Wasko became a lecturer in the departments of experimental media and photography at the Film School in Lodz.
, documenta
6, the Third International Festival of Indepdendent Avant-garde Film in London, the Sydney Biennale, the XI Biennale de Paris
, the V Biennale of Spatial Forms among others. He also created the Archives of Contemporary Thought (1979), a forum for symposia and art events.
, Ryszard Wasko: Bedtime Stories, The Brooklyn Rail, January, New York 2004 He left the Workshop of the Film Form and came to prominence as a conceptual artist. "After studying film-making at the Academy in Lodz in the late sixties, Wasko went on to become one of Poland's leading conceptualists, working as a pioneer in the media of video and photography. Much of this work focused on dense mathematical structures involving sequences of time and reality." His artistic output should be actually seen as a connection of two main fields: photography&film and painting. "(...) the character of Ryszard Wasko's work in general, as well as the character of his individual works, is often defined by inter-generic, inter-media relations. Those works set in motion a whole net of intertextual relations on the level of general structural and ontological determinants, and on the level of different types of perception and rules of interpretation. In other words, in order to grasp a work which belongs to a certain artistic genre in its specificity, one should refer to its non-specific features which are characteristic for another kind of art."Ryszard Kluszczyński, Trans-media Art. On the Art of Ryszard Wasko in: Ryszard Wasko, Galeria FF, Lodz 1995 (catalogue)
In 1981 in Lodz, Wasko initiated and organized Construction in Process
, a series of exhibitions featuring works of art created on site. "(...) it was an important, and in fact crucial, event in the Polish arts scene of that era." Artists who were invited to participate in Construction in Process invite in turn, another group of participants, giving the project a dynamic, open character. " The event became a symbolic alternative to larger institutional art events, including high-powered state and corporate-sponsored biennials and market-driven art fairs." The participating artists were Richard Serra
, Sol LeWitt
, Brian O'Doherty, Dennis Oppenheim, Lawrence Weiner
, Richard Nonas and others. After the first event in 1981 The Solidarity Collection (which includes works by the artists created for that event) came into existence. "Wasko continued to produce international events into the nineties, including two additional projects in Lodz (1990 and 1993), one in Israel (1995), one in Australia (1997), and another,(...) in the small town of Bydgogosz in north central Poland (2000)." 2006, 25 years after the opening of the first exhibition, Wasko established the Construction in Process-Museum (also in Lodz). Unfortunately, a waterdamage forced him to close it down (2008) and to devolve the collection to the Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz.
was brought on in Poland, Wasko decided to leave for Germany
(1983). He received there a DAAD
scholarship in Berlin among other residencies. In the 80s he improved as a painter. Besides numerous one-man-shows Wasko took part in several international exhitbitions e.g. at Centre Georges Pompidou
, Kunsthalle Hamburg
and the Venice Biennale
(1991, 1999, 2001, 2007). At the same time he lectured extensively in Europe, including St. Martin's School of Art in Wimbledon, Hochschule der Künste in Berlin and Freie Kunstakademie in Essen
.
The Pollock-Krasner Foundation
has awarded Ryszard Wasko three times (1988,1993,1998).
is still standing at its original place."His paradoxical brand of conceptual humanism has always been toward developing a better world and more spiritually-oriented environment for artists in which they can produce work outside of marketing restrictions, and thus communicate ideas that will benefit common people." Unfortunately, his ideas were never understood by the authorities.
and in 1997 he was chosen President of the International Artists Forum (IKG). At the same time he still handled the International Artist's Museum in Lodz. That town became Wasko's new home for over 15 years. The Valand School of Fine Arts in Göteborg invited him to give lectures as a Professor for two semesters (2004–2005).
His artwork has been shown mostly in Europe (e.g. Tate Modern
Gallery) and the United States (e.g. The Museum of Modern Art in New York).
Recent solo exhibitions include a retrospection at the Museum of History of the City of Lodz (Ryszard Wasko, Lodz – Berlin, works 1971-1996) in 2008 and at the Haus am Lützowplatz in Berlin (Contemporary Portrait, Checkpoint Charlie Hypothetical) in 2009: "Ryszard Wasko zeigt in seiner gleichnamigen Malereiausstellung Bilder von Personen, die ihre Identität verbergen. Farbenfroh in Warhol'scher Plakativität verschwinden hier auch die letzten Details. Doch sind es Armeen oder vervielfältigte Individuen? Die Persönlichkeit wie das Anliegen bleiben bei Wasko auf der Strecke und der Hintergrund verschwimmt zu einem psychedelischen Farbenmeer."Im Westen nichts Neues? w: Tageszeitung, Berlin, 24.06.2009
"The entire trajectory of Ryszard Wasko's career has comprised a substantial, in many ways risk-taking and innovative, extension and enlargement of the role of the artist. (...) He is, in fact, one of those figures who consistently shakes things up and pushes the borders of the possible, certainly with a sense of mission, but also with humor and verve.
"
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
artist, who has worked in multimedia, including photography, film, video, installation, painting, and drawing. He is also known as a curator and organizer of art events.
He lives and works in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
Workshop of the Film Form (1970-1977)
He was born in Nysa, PolandNysa, Poland
Nysa is a town in southwestern Poland on the Nysa Kłodzka river with 47,545 inhabitants , situated in the Opole Voivodeship. It is the capital of Nysa County. It comprises the urban portion of the surrounding Gmina Nysa, a mixed urban-rural commune with a total population of 60,123 inhabitants...
. As a child he took painting-classes planning to become a painter and wanting to study at the Art Academy
Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts
The Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, or Kraków Academy of Fine Arts , located in Kraków, Poland, is the oldest Polish fine-arts academy, established in 1818.It is a state-run university that offers 5- and 6-year Master's degree programs...
in Cracow. But instead of making his childhood dream come true, he made up his mind and went to Lodz
Lódz
Łódź is the third-largest city in Poland. Located in the central part of the country, it had a population of 742,387 in December 2009. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is approximately south-west of Warsaw...
, where he studied cinematography at the Film School between 1970 and 1975. During that time he became a member of Workshop of the Film Form, one of the most important artistic groups in Poland in the 70s. Workshop was an avant-garde collective of painters, filmmakers, critics, poets, philosophers and scientists, working with experimental film and multimedia. Later on Ryszard Wasko became a lecturer in the departments of experimental media and photography at the Film School in Lodz.
First accomplishments
In the 70s he took part in the XII São Paulo Art BiennialSão Paulo Art Biennial
The São Paulo Art Biennial was founded in 1951 and has been held every two years since. It is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennial , which serves as its role model....
, documenta
Documenta
documenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau which took place in Kassel at that time...
6, the Third International Festival of Indepdendent Avant-garde Film in London, the Sydney Biennale, the XI Biennale de Paris
Biennale de Paris
-History:The 'Biennale de Paris' was launched by Raymond Cogniat in 1959 and set up by André Malraux as he was Minister of Culture to present an overview of young creativity worldwide and to create a place of experiences and meetings.-Presentation:...
, the V Biennale of Spatial Forms among others. He also created the Archives of Contemporary Thought (1979), a forum for symposia and art events.
Early works
After dealing with experimental film and photography, Wasko started to develop his painting skills again. "Wasko discovered himself as an artist and learned how to cope with everyday life with a greater vision of the world than simply the provincial circumstances of life. "Robert C. MorganRobert C. Morgan
Robert C. Morgan is an American art critic, art historian, curator, poet, and visual artist.-Background:Robert C. Morgan received his M.F.A. in Sculpture from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1975 and his Ph.D. in contemporary art history from New York University in 1978...
, Ryszard Wasko: Bedtime Stories, The Brooklyn Rail, January, New York 2004 He left the Workshop of the Film Form and came to prominence as a conceptual artist. "After studying film-making at the Academy in Lodz in the late sixties, Wasko went on to become one of Poland's leading conceptualists, working as a pioneer in the media of video and photography. Much of this work focused on dense mathematical structures involving sequences of time and reality." His artistic output should be actually seen as a connection of two main fields: photography&film and painting. "(...) the character of Ryszard Wasko's work in general, as well as the character of his individual works, is often defined by inter-generic, inter-media relations. Those works set in motion a whole net of intertextual relations on the level of general structural and ontological determinants, and on the level of different types of perception and rules of interpretation. In other words, in order to grasp a work which belongs to a certain artistic genre in its specificity, one should refer to its non-specific features which are characteristic for another kind of art."Ryszard Kluszczyński, Trans-media Art. On the Art of Ryszard Wasko in: Ryszard Wasko, Galeria FF, Lodz 1995 (catalogue)
Construction in Process (1981)
"It is impossible (...) to separate his activities as an artist (as a maker of installations, as a creator of paintings and works on paper) from his other endeavors as a curator, organizer, teacher, writer, agitator (...)."Gregory Volk, Meal for the Rich and the Poor in: Ryszard Wasko. Selected works 1986-2000, The International Artists' Museum, Many H. Gallery, Tel Aviv (catalogue)In 1981 in Lodz, Wasko initiated and organized Construction in Process
Construction in Process
Construction in Process was a series of international exhibitions organized by artists in the 80s and 90s all around the world. The originator of this idea was Ryszard Wasko. Artists who were invited to participate in "Construction in Process" invite in turn, another group of participants, giving...
, a series of exhibitions featuring works of art created on site. "(...) it was an important, and in fact crucial, event in the Polish arts scene of that era." Artists who were invited to participate in Construction in Process invite in turn, another group of participants, giving the project a dynamic, open character. " The event became a symbolic alternative to larger institutional art events, including high-powered state and corporate-sponsored biennials and market-driven art fairs." The participating artists were Richard Serra
Richard Serra
Richard Serra is an American minimalist sculptor and video artist known for working with large-scale assemblies of sheet metal. Serra was involved in the Process Art Movement.-Early life and education:...
, Sol LeWitt
Sol LeWitt
Solomon "Sol" LeWitt was an American artist linked to various movements, including Conceptual art and Minimalism....
, Brian O'Doherty, Dennis Oppenheim, Lawrence Weiner
Lawrence Weiner
Lawrence Weiner was a central figure in the formation of conceptual art in the 1960s His work often takes the form of typographic texts.- Life and career :...
, Richard Nonas and others. After the first event in 1981 The Solidarity Collection (which includes works by the artists created for that event) came into existence. "Wasko continued to produce international events into the nineties, including two additional projects in Lodz (1990 and 1993), one in Israel (1995), one in Australia (1997), and another,(...) in the small town of Bydgogosz in north central Poland (2000)." 2006, 25 years after the opening of the first exhibition, Wasko established the Construction in Process-Museum (also in Lodz). Unfortunately, a waterdamage forced him to close it down (2008) and to devolve the collection to the Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz.
Artistic career abroad
After Martial LawMartial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...
was brought on in Poland, Wasko decided to leave for Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
(1983). He received there a DAAD
German Academic Exchange Service
The German Academic Exchange Service or DAAD is the largest German support organisation in the field of international academic co-operation....
scholarship in Berlin among other residencies. In the 80s he improved as a painter. Besides numerous one-man-shows Wasko took part in several international exhitbitions e.g. at Centre Georges Pompidou
Centre Georges Pompidou
Centre Georges Pompidou is a complex in the Beaubourg area of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, near Les Halles, rue Montorgueil and the Marais...
, Kunsthalle Hamburg
Kunsthalle Hamburg
The Hamburger Kunsthalle is an art museum in Hamburg, Germany. The art museum focuses on painting in Hamburg in the 14th century, paintings by Dutch and Flemish artists of the 16th and 17th centuries, French and German paintings of the 19th century, modern, and contemporary art...
and the Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
(1991, 1999, 2001, 2007). At the same time he lectured extensively in Europe, including St. Martin's School of Art in Wimbledon, Hochschule der Künste in Berlin and Freie Kunstakademie in Essen
Essen
- Origin of the name :In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it is commonly known as the German infinitive of the verb for the act of eating, and/or the German noun for food. Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of...
.
The Pollock-Krasner Foundation
Pollock-Krasner Foundation
The Pollock-Krasner Foundation was established in 1985 for the purpose of providing financial assistance to individual working artists of established ability. It was established at the bequest of Lee Krasner, who was an American abstract expressionist painter and the widow of fellow painter Jackson...
has awarded Ryszard Wasko three times (1988,1993,1998).
The International Artists' Museum
Wasko went to Poland in 1989 and founded The International Artists' Museum in Lodz. It had developed into a worldwide network of locally run art centers, linking artists and intellectuals from diverse backgrounds, locations, and disciplines. It was " (...) an on-going alternative space that shows the work of international artists." The Museum has organized and sponsored over 60 major international events, exhibitions, meetings, panels, concerts, readings, and projects focusing on art, culture, borders, community, and identity. Due to political changes in the city government the building of the International Artist's Museum at Tylna Street 14 has been sold to a private Bank (1998). The artistic community was not able to gather the vast sum of money the city of Lodz wanted for the property. The beautiful sculpture garden has been destroyed by the new owners. Only the work of Sol LeWittSol LeWitt
Solomon "Sol" LeWitt was an American artist linked to various movements, including Conceptual art and Minimalism....
is still standing at its original place."His paradoxical brand of conceptual humanism has always been toward developing a better world and more spiritually-oriented environment for artists in which they can produce work outside of marketing restrictions, and thus communicate ideas that will benefit common people." Unfortunately, his ideas were never understood by the authorities.
Growing up and experimentalizing
"For many years, austere, yet gorgeous, works on paper have been a big part of Wasko's oeuvre." The drawings brought him to artpieces on canvas. In that time Wasko acted mainly as a painter. He started working with different materials lik soot, was, fat, zinc, fire, and others. "(...) the most important modification was the use of different materials than before. (...) Wasko turned to the simplest, 'poor' means of natural origin."Grzegorz Sztabiński, The Berlin Period in Ryszard Wasko's Career, in Ryszard Wasko, Lodz – Berlin; works 1971-1996, Museum of History of the City of Lodz, Lodz 2008 (catalogue)Curator, director, teacher
Between 1990 and 1992 Wasko became Program Director at the P.S.1 Museum and Institute of Contemporary Art (today called P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center) in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and in 1997 he was chosen President of the International Artists Forum (IKG). At the same time he still handled the International Artist's Museum in Lodz. That town became Wasko's new home for over 15 years. The Valand School of Fine Arts in Göteborg invited him to give lectures as a Professor for two semesters (2004–2005).
His artwork has been shown mostly in Europe (e.g. Tate Modern
Tate Modern
Tate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year...
Gallery) and the United States (e.g. The Museum of Modern Art in New York).
Lodz Biennale
In 2004 Wasko amplified a new idea: the Lodz Biennale, to be the first international Biennale in Eastern Europe.Exploring new territories
Being successful as a director and curator he managed also to work creatively as an artist. In the 90s he worked mostly with primary painting materials like soot. He explored also the field of performance (Meal for the Rich & Poor, 1993) and installation (Child Territories, 1996). Around 2000 Wasko made his turn back to film and photography, but one should not think, he is an artist, who jumps from media to media, from material to material. His is an intermedial artist: "Wasko's works are not limited to any of the artistic genres he uses because they easily cross the borders between them: And his individual realizations, even if they remain - due to the materials used and some general genre manifestations - within a certain kind of art, they still cannot be explained by referring to the characteristics of that branch of art which is realized in them. On the contrary, quite often the fundamental principles which make up the structure of the artefacts come from a different branch of art than the one in which the works were actually created and where we would be inclined to place them."Back in Berlin (2008)
In 2007, together with his wife Maria Wasko, he decided to move back to Berlin. They live there since 2008.Recent solo exhibitions include a retrospection at the Museum of History of the City of Lodz (Ryszard Wasko, Lodz – Berlin, works 1971-1996) in 2008 and at the Haus am Lützowplatz in Berlin (Contemporary Portrait, Checkpoint Charlie Hypothetical) in 2009: "Ryszard Wasko zeigt in seiner gleichnamigen Malereiausstellung Bilder von Personen, die ihre Identität verbergen. Farbenfroh in Warhol'scher Plakativität verschwinden hier auch die letzten Details. Doch sind es Armeen oder vervielfältigte Individuen? Die Persönlichkeit wie das Anliegen bleiben bei Wasko auf der Strecke und der Hintergrund verschwimmt zu einem psychedelischen Farbenmeer."Im Westen nichts Neues? w: Tageszeitung, Berlin, 24.06.2009
"The entire trajectory of Ryszard Wasko's career has comprised a substantial, in many ways risk-taking and innovative, extension and enlargement of the role of the artist. (...) He is, in fact, one of those figures who consistently shakes things up and pushes the borders of the possible, certainly with a sense of mission, but also with humor and verve.
"
Further reading
- Ryszard Wasko, Lodz – Berlin; works 1971-1996, Museum of History of the City of Lodz, Lodz 2008 (catalogue)
- 1,2,3…Avant-Gardes Film / Art between experiment and archive, edited by Ł. Ronduda, F. Zeyfang, CSW Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw 2007
- G. Dietmar: Concrete Art in Europe after 1945, Ostfildern 2003
- Żywa Galeria. Łódzki Progresywny Ruch Artystyczny 1969-81, edited by J. Robakowski, ŁDK - Galeria FF, Lodz 2000
- A.L.Rees: A History of Experimental Film and Video, Bury St Edmunds 1999
- Ryszard Wasko, Galeria FF, Lodz 1995 (catalogue)
- Emmett Williams: My life in flux – and vice versa, Stuttgart 1994
- History of The Artists' Museum, edited by Muzeum Artystów - International Artists' Museum, Lodz 1998
- Ohne die Rose tun wir's nicht für Joseph Beuys, edited by K. Staeck, Heidelberg 1986
- Ryszard Wasko: discontinuity, edited by R. Block, I. Lindemann, Berlin 1986 (catalogue)
- Construction in Process, Thousand Secretaries Press, New York 1982 (catalogue)
- Elementary Works by Wasko, Folkwang Museum, Essen 1981 (catalogue)
External links
- Ryszard Wasko, Lodz – Berlin; works 1971-1996 Retrospection at the Museum of History of the City of Lodz
- Ryszard Wasko: Bedtime Stories article by Robert C. Morgan
- Ryszard Wasko. Retrospection 1970-1990 critical text by Ryszard Kluszczyński
- Constructing the Process: Ryszard Wasko Looks Back interview for Art in America
- Construction in Process history of the exhibition-series
- Lodz Biennale 2004