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The Plural Vision.

Krzysztof Pruszkowski tells us about the saturation of pictures in the modern world and the short-sightedness they create. A world where pictures are at the same time over-represented and fleeting, very talkative and restrained. Pictures always competing with each other, ending up stacked upon each other and finally dissapearing in the daily stream of information issued by the media.

Although the advent of Modern Art was generally considered as being the demise of pictures, there have never been so many since then and this bulimia overwhelmed our "Gutenberg Galaxy". However, the addition of all these pictures does not formulate or provide more sense to the world. On the contrary, not only do they tend to eliminate each other, but they also seem to create an additional distance, caused by their short-life.


Krzysztof Pruszkowski
Krzysztof Pruszkowski - 60 passagers de 2e classe
du metro. Ligne: Clignancourt-Orleans. Paris
'
8 juin 1985. Entre 9h et 11h

Krzysztof Pruszkowski
Krzysztof Pruszkowski - 18 Samothrace Victories. Louvre.Paris. 1988.

By subjecting his photographic topics, wether they are taken from the media or not, to "multiple superimpositions", Krzysztof Pruszkowski demonstrates the limits of the new reality. A reality which disolves the notion of time picture by picture and, in a way, accounts for the speed which characterizes some videoclips, the instant circulation of information and pictures around the world. We are no more in the order of the snapshot.

His process: to subject the picture to up to sixty or seventy superimpositions. He names it "photosynthesis" - the gathering of information which could not be covered in one shot. The process is often limited to six or seven superimpositions. The picture doubles, triples, reaches the edge of fuzziness, and provokes a conflict between global and individual, between singular and plural.

Therefore, when Krzysztof Pruszkowski addresses one of todays most difficult artistic concepts, which is the portrait, he does not provide a cohesive picture of the model, but rather the search and formulation of an individuality composed by superimposing different faces. For example Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir (1984), or sometimes more generic, as if he was slowly building up a photofit (portrait-robot), like "Miss Europe" or as with "The President"(1984), with the merged portraits of six American presidents.

This is in fact the new representation of the individual within the present social code, commonly named the typical profile for job selection (profil-type des offres d'emploi). The notion of individual has gone from specific to generic, from unique to interchangeable, like the objects which have changed from original to reproduction. A plural vision of a world where "production" is a key word, and where the stock exchange is the new identity, the institution on which everything relies. "The Paris Stock Exchange" (1986), this place of urgency par excellence where everything is evaluated, is also probably a metaphor for the circulation of money around todays artwork.

The artist does not interpret the world by establishing its apparent form but rather restors its complexity and places it in a context which reveals the richness of its metamorphosis.
A brilliant concept.

Jerome Sans
(Director Tokyo Palace, Paris)

Krzysztof Pruszkowski

Krzysztof Pruszkowski was born in Kazimierz nad Wisla (Poland) in 1943. After architecture and town planning studies at the Warsaw Polytechnic University he moves to Paris where he stays until 1988. He continues his studies in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts (Art Academy) and at the Institut de l"Urbanisme (Town Planning Institute).

Since 1970 his interest in photography develops, first fashion and publicity, then press photography. In the same time he is looking for his own "visual language" and he publishes a photo book "Barriers" which deals with human mass manipulation within urban space and holds an exhibition at the Paris Centre Pompidou (1978).

From 1975 Pruszkowski works on developing a new method of photography called "photosynthese".

In 1981 he makes series of reports about the young, independent peasant union "Solidarnosc" which were published in the French daily Liberation. The images were made into posters, drawing attention to occupied Poland under marshal law.

Between 1981-1986 he creates his big project about the disappearance of Parisian tramp (clochard) Alexander wich was shown in Poland and France.

In 1986 he produces synthesis portraits of 60 first and second class passengers of the Parisian metro in which he brings to attention the class related character of racism.

1988 - the Musee de l'Elysee in Lausanne presents the retrospective exhibition "Monopose - No. Photosynthese - Si" accompanied by the book "Pruszkowski - Photosynthese".
Soon after that he receives the Leonardo de Vinci grant to stay and study in Egypt, granted by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In 1989 he returns to his home town Kazimierz nad Wisla where he publishes his portofolio - A Manifest on Architectural Form: K.M.K. (Konstrukcja Materializacji Konceptu).

In 1993 the National Museums of Warsaw and of Wroclaw (Poland) devote themselves to a large Pruszkowski exhibition, where his photsyntheses are exhibited in confrontation with the corresponding objects borrowed from various Egyptian museums. These exhibitions are accompanied by the book "Photology Egypt, Pruszkowski's Light and Photosynthesis" (Fotologia Egipt - Swiatlo i Fotosynteza, Pruszkowski).
1994 - Pruszkowski is invited to take part in the exhibition "Europa - Europa - 100 years of Central and Eastern European Avant-Garde""

In 2000 Pruszkowski receives a grant from the Polish Ministry of Culture. He is currently working on monumental objects relating to historical events.


Krzysztof Pruszkowski
Krzysztof Pruszkowski - 22 chairs.
Bourges Cathedral
. 1985

Krzysztof Pruszkowski
Krzysztof Pruszkowski - La bourse de Paris.


Works in Public Collections

M.N.A.M. Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Muzeum Narodowe, Worclaw, Poland
Musee de la Photographie, Charleroi, Belgium
F.R.A.C. Languedoc Rousillon, France
Fond National d'Art Contemporain, Paris, France
Parma University Museum, Italy
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France
Bibliotheque Historique de la Ville de Paris, France
B.W.A. Lublin, Poland
Artotheque de Nantes, France
Artotheque de Vitre, France
J.I.P.A.M. Montpellier, France
International Polaroid Collection
Musee Carnavalet, Paris, France
Metropolitan Museum, New York, U.S.A.
Musee d'Aurillac, France
Musee de l'Elysee, Lausanne, Switzerland
Musee Arthur-Batut, Labruguiere, France
Cabinet des Gravures et des Estampes, Dresden, Germany
Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany
Paris-Audiovisuel, Paris, France
Muzeum Nadwislanskie, Kazimierz nad Wisla, Poland
Muzeum Okregowe, Konin, Poland
Liechtensteinische Landesbibliothek, Vaduz, Liechtenstein
Museum of Fine Art, Houston, U.S.A.
Maison Europeenne de la Photographie, Paris, France
Fondos del Centro Andaluz de la Fotografia, Almeria, Spain
Collection de la Ville de Castres, France
Collection de la Ville de Frouard, France
Moravska galerie v Brno, Check Republic
Musee Pierre Noel, Saint Die-des-Vosges, France
Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland
Collection INSA, Lyon, France
Collection QPN, Nantes, France


  Krzysztof Pruszkowski - Price List to Exhibition
  Title Size (cm) Price
1 Jean-Paul Sartre et Simone de Beauvoir. 1984 65x50 2000
2 De Gaulle, Pompidou, Giscard, Mitterand. Le President de la Veme 65x50 1200
Republique Francaise.1984
65x50 1200
3 La solitude du coureur de fond traversant le pont du jardin. Givermey 40x50 700
4 12 ducs d'Anjou. Angers. Portrait. 1984 65x50 1000
5 Tous les rois de Pologne. Poznan. 1993-95 65x50 1000
6 Rynek. Kazimierz Dolny. 1989 40x50 700
7 Manes Sperber, 7 ans apres sa naissance et 20 ans avant sa mort. 1983 40x50 500
8 Manhattan - Brooklyn. Subway. N.Y.C. 1988   1800
9 152 voyageurs de "Nouvelle Frontiere" attendant un avion pour Paris 65x50 1000
en retard de 2 heures, a l'aeroport J.F.K. New York. 1984
65x50 1000
10 12 ducs d'Anjou. Angers. 1984 65x50 1000
11 18 victoires de Samothrace. Louvre. Paris. 1988 65x50 1000
12 Konsrtuction de la Materialisation du Koncept. KMK. 7857/67. 1991 65x50 1000
13 Konstruction de la Materialisation du Koncept. KMK. 7847/39. 1991 65x50 1000
14 Konstruction de la Materialisation du Koncept. KMK. 7847/95. 1991 65x50 1000
15 After Lunch. New York - Houston (Texas). 1988 40x50 700
16 La Cathedrale de Rouen. 4/6. 1999 40x50 400
17 Rouen. La Cathedrale. 6/8. 1999 40x50 400
18 Arc de Triomphe. Paris. 2000 40x50 400
19 Rockefeller Center. NYC. 1988 100x45 (panoramic) 1200
20 60 passagers de 1ere classe du Metro. Ligne: Vincennes-Neuilly
Paris. 9 juin 1985. Entre 9h et 11h
109x79 8000
(twin)
21 60 passagers de 2eme classe du Metro. Ligne Clignancourt-Orleans Paris, 8 juin 1985. Entre 9h et 11h 109x79
22 Doloreze. Nue. 1984 65x50 1000
       
  VAT 6% included in prices/ prijzen incl. 6% BTW
Transportation / freight costs not included

Above mentioned prices valis until year end 2003

   

Gallery WM, Elandsgracht 35, 1016 TN Amsterdam
tel: 020-4211113, fax: 020-6391931
Open donderdag tot en met zaterdag, 1e zondag vd maand 14-18 uur
Email: gallery@gallerywm.com
Website: www.gallerywm.com