Antoni Starczewski. The Idea of Linear Notation

1.04.2022-31.07.2022

Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź, 282 Piotrkowska St., building D, 2^nd and 3^rd floor

Signum Foundation Gallery  85 Piotrkowska St.

Curators  Marta Kowalewska, Grzegorz Musiał

Antoni Starczewski (1924–2000) is among the most fascinating artists of the Łódź postwar period. He was often a forerunner of world trends and art movements. He made pieces in ceramics, prints, and textiles, and also created in situ projects. He explored realms of the visual arts, music, and language. In every form he worked in, he explored the issues of rhythm, difference in repetition, and sign systems. He created his own rhythm-based alphabet of forms and brought it to bear on his projects in a natural way. This was how his visual scores came about. The repetition of signs and symbols was a source of numerous inspirations, pointing the way for his experiments.

Starczewski built systems. These were signs he called alphabets; linear sequences of gestures contained in dynamic ceramic forms; sound structures translated into visual forms. His compositions are always based on clear ideas, and every element has a precise function. The artist inclines the viewer to plunge deep into the details, both in the monumental pieces and in the smaller ones, made with printmaking techniques. The compositions of seemingly identical elements, upon closer inspection, reveal a wealth of nuances, urging us to reflect upon our individual standpoints in a world striving for unification.

Starczewski’s art was inextricably tied to life, owing to how his artistic ideas infiltrated his personal experiences. It was a continuous process, an unbroken creation. In every field of his work, we clearly see that Starczewski was following the path of his own thoughts, and that current trends in art were of secondary value to him. While carefully following developments in art contemporary to him, he took care to remain an individual.

The exhibition’s narrative has been built around four thematic strands:

– biological rhythm—this part of the exhibition shows inspirations from the world of organic forms, and analyzes the issue of difference in repetition;

– musical rhythm—these are works that are the results of formal efforts to depict the mutual relations between the abstract visual sign as an information bearer and sound;

– the alphabet—this part introduces a key motif in Antoni Starczewski’s work; fascinated by the rhythm of signs and print layouts, he transposed text into abstract compositions, where rhythm, and often its interruption, were the basic elements;

– mise-en-scène (directing)—this section has self-portraits, series of staged photographs and films taken with an 8 mm and 16 mm camera from the 1960s and 70s; these often recorded seemingly mundane situations, which nonetheless revealed the artist’s complex personality.

Antoni Starczewski was the winner of many awards around the world, such as the Grand Prix at the 8^th International Biennial of Prints in Tokyo in 1979, the gold medal at the 3^rd International Florence Biennial, the gold medal in Faenza, and the Targa d’Oro gold medal at the International Ceramics Competition in Perugia. The artist’s work can be seen at the National Museums in Warsaw, Krakow, and Wrocław, the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź, the Municipal Art Gallery in Łódź, the Polish Sculpture Center in Orońsko, as well as museums and galleries around the world: Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de Genève, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Tate Modern, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The exhibition is accompanied by an extensive publication edited by the curators, describing the main motifs in the artist’s work.

Signum Foundation Gallery, ul. Piotrkowska 85, Łódź