BWA Contemporary Art Gallery in Katowice

“Andrzej Pawłowski is one of the most outstanding Polish artists of the post-war period.In the fifties he became famous because of his Cineforms, the improvised light motion pictures, later turned into films. Critics haveconsidered Simulators of Inadequate Impressions, his tangible sculptures created in the beginning of the sixties as unprecedented in art history. He formulated an original idea of naturally shaped forms. In his research studies he came to the conclusion that a shape was generated in result of an authentic process conditioned with the laws of nature. In the natural world it is obvious, e.g. plant growth. In artificial circumstances it is also possible ‘when we burden the nature’ with our action. He preferred active use of intellect in creative processes and thinking the assumptions and ideas of a work to their persistent materialisation. This makes him a precursor of conteptual art. In effect of his artistic research and as the result of the idea of the naturally shaped form, a dozen or so cycle have been made. They use various techniques often included into traditional areas of photography, as Luxographs, Heliographs, Hallucinations, Genesis and Discovery, painting, as Naturally Shaped Forms and Naturally Shaped Surface, and sculpture, as Mannequins and Sarcophagi.

Creative activity of Andrzej Pawłowski has olso come true in the field of industrial design, arranging interiors and exhibitions, making fils, organising the pioneer Faculty of Industrial Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, and in the pedagogic, research and theoretical work.

The exhibiion presents Andrzej Pawłowski's route mainly as the artist. All his known works including those not saved are documented in this catalogue for the first time. You can also find here the informative calendar review of the versatile activity of the artist.

The intention of the catalogue would be satisfied when it became a useful guide and a starting point for further investigations. (…)”

Czesława Małgorzata Panek
(fragment of the text from catalogue)

• Organizers