Wanda Cze\u0142kowska was born in 1930, Brest, formerly Poland, now Belarus. She was a key figure of the Polish avant-garde. She studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow between 1949 and 1954, at a time when socialist realism was the prevailing artistic doctrine. Cze\u0142kowska was a member of the seminal Second Krak\u00f3w Group (1968\u20131982), whose other members included Tadeusz Kantor, Erna Rosenstein, Maria Jarema, and Maria Pini\u0144ska-Bere\u015b. In 1963, she participated in the III Biennale de Paris, where she resided for a month with Alina Szapocznikow and Roman Cie\u015blewicz until her departure for a cultural fellowship in Rome.<\/p>\n
Her oeuvre was defined by an investigation of the limits of different artistic forms and disciplines, encompassing sculpture, installation, painting, drawing, and photography. She placed particular emphasis on the intellectual and analytical dimensions of the artistic process. Thus, the central motif in Cze\u0142kowska’s work was the head, initially reflecting the stylistic conventions of Etruscan sculpture and later developing into an abstract form in her remarkable Heads<\/i> series (1968-75). From the 1970s, her work moved towards conceptual realisations, of which Table<\/i> (1968\u20131971) and Absolute Elimination of Sculpture as a Notion of Shape<\/i> (1972) are the most significant examples. In 1972, Cze\u0142kowska was invited to Edinburgh by Richard Demarco to participate in the exhibition Atelier ’72<\/i>. Due to technical difficulties, in place of Table<\/em>, she presented Conceptual Information about the ‘Table’<\/i>. In lieu of an actual installation, the artist situated the plaster heads directly on the ground between two panels, illustrating the initial concept of the piece.<\/p>\n Despite her pioneering body of work, Cze\u0142kowska’s oeuvre remained underrecognized for much of her career, gaining wider recognition only in her later years. In 2016, the National Museum in Warsaw organised a comprehensive exhibition of her work, entitled Retrospection<\/i>, which was followed by an international symposium. In 2023, her first major exhibition outside Poland, Art Is Not Rest<\/i>, was held at the Muzeum Susch in Switzerland.<\/p>\n Her works are part of numerous institutional collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, the National Museum in Krakow, the Silesian Museum in Katowice, the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Oro\u0144sko, and the Zamoyski Museum in Koz\u0142\u00f3wka.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Selected solo and duo exhibitions:<\/p>\n 2024<\/p>\n Geta Br\u0103tescu, Wanda Cze\u0142kowska<\/i>, Galeria Monopol, Warsaw, PL (with Geta Br\u0103tescu)<\/p>\n 2023<\/p>\n Posthuman Abstraction<\/i>, Double Q Gallery, Hong Kong, CN (with Zuza Goli\u0144ska)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Art Is Not Rest<\/i>, Muzeum Susch, Susch, CH<\/p>\n 2019<\/p>\n Betwixt, <\/i>Piktogram, Warsaw, PL (with Paul Czerlitzki)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 2016<\/p>\n Wanda Cze\u0142kowska: Retrospection<\/i>, Xavery Dunikowski Museum Of Sculpture\u00a0<\/span>in Kr\u00f3likarnia, National Museum, Warsaw, PL<\/p>\n 1996<\/p>\n Wanda Cze\u0142kowska<\/i>, Centre for Polish Sculpture, Oro\u0144sko, PL<\/p>\n 1990<\/p>\n Elegy. Reminder After<\/i>, Zderzak Gallery, Krakow, PL<\/p>\n 1969<\/p>\n Galeria Wsp\u00f3\u0142czesna, Warsaw, PL<\/p>\n 1963<\/p>\n Wanda Cze\u0142kowska<\/i>, Galeria Krzysztofory, Krakow, PL<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Selected group exhibitions:<\/p>\n 2024<\/p>\n The Plastic Body<\/i>, Stavanger Art Museum, NO<\/p>\n 2023<\/p>\n Obsession I<\/i>, ECHO, Cologne, DE<\/p>\n 2020<\/p>\n Sour Cherries<\/i>, Arsenal Gallery, Bia\u0142ystok, PL\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Theft and Destruction<\/i>, Arsenal Gallery, Bia\u0142ystok, PL\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On the Politics of Delicacy<\/i>, Capitain Petzel, Berlin, DE<\/p>\n 2019<\/p>\n Under the Radar: Contemporary Masters from Central & Eastern Europe<\/i>,\u00a0<\/span>Q Contemporary, London, UK<\/p>\n 2018<\/p>\n Land of Lads, Land of Lashes<\/i>, Thaddeus Ropac Gallery, London, UK\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Meditations of Fibonacci. The Corduroy Bunny | Facing Katarzyna Kobro (1898\u20131951)<\/i>,\u00a0<\/span>Wroc\u0142aw Contemporary Museum, Wroc\u0142aw, PL; National Art Gallery, Sopot, PL<\/p>\n Shapeshifting: Eisenstein as Method<\/i>, Museum of Art, \u0141\u00f3d\u017a, PL\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 2016<\/p>\n Around the Edge<\/i>, Broadway 1602, New York, US\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 121 Street<\/i>, Broadway 1602, New York, US<\/p>\n 2013<\/p>\n From the Darkness<\/i>, BWA Sok\u00f3\u0142 Gallery of Contemporary Art, Nowy S\u0105cz, PL<\/p>\n 2011<\/p>\n Resistance<\/i>, Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw, PL\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 2010<\/p>\n The State of Dydo. Polish Contemporary Sculpture<\/i>, National Art Gallery, Sopot, PL<\/p>\n 2008<\/p>\n Pink Intuition<\/i>, Xawery Dunikowski Museum of Sculpture in Kr\u00f3likarnia,\u00a0<\/span>National Museum, Warsaw, PL\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 2000<\/p>\n Utopia and Vision<\/i>, Zach\u0119ta \u2013 National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, PL<\/p>\n 1996<\/p>\n The Figure in Polish Sculpture of 19th and 20th Century<\/i>, Centre of Polish Sculpture, Oro\u0144sko, PL; Zach\u0119ta \u2013 National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, PL<\/p>\n 1995<\/p>\n Generazioni e Tendenze dell Arte Contemporanea a Cracovia<\/i>, Palazzo Sinibaldi, Sant’Elpidio a Mare, IT<\/p>\n 1993<\/p>\n Modern Polish Sculpture 1955\u20131992<\/i>, Centre of Polish Sculpture, Oro\u0144sko, PL\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Artists from Krak\u00f3w<\/i>, Zach\u0119ta \u2013 National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, PL<\/p>\n 1981<\/p>\n 16th Show of Krakow Group<\/i>, Galeria Krzysztofory, Krakow, PL\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 1975<\/p>\n Hommage \u00e0 Xawery Dunikowski<\/i>, Zach\u0119ta \u2013 National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, PL<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[],"class_list":["post-7119","artist","type-artist","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/galeriamonopol.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist\/7119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/galeriamonopol.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/galeriamonopol.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/artist"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/galeriamonopol.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galeriamonopol.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}