Ewa Kuryluk
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Ewa Kuryluk (born 5 May 1946) is a Polish artist. She is a pioneer of textile installation, painter, photographer, art historian, novelist and poet, and the author of numerous books, written in Polish and English, many of which have been translated into other languages. She has had over fifty solo exhibitions, participated in many group shows and created outdoor installations throughout the world. Her work can be seen in the National Museums in Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław and Poznań, as well as in public and private collections in Europe, USA, Latin America and Japan.


Biography

Ewa Kuryluk was born in
Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
,
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
, the first child of
Karol Kuryluk Karol Kuryluk (27 October 1910 – 9 December 1967) was a Polish journalist, editor, activist, politician and diplomat. In 2002, he was honored by Yad Vashem for saving Jews in the Holocaust. Biography Kuryluk was born on 27 October 1910 in Z ...
, editor of the ''“Odrodzenie”'' magazine, and Maria Kuryluk (born Miriam Kohany), writer and amateur pianist. In 1947 the family moved to
Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
and in 1950 Ewa's brother Piotr was born. In 1959, her father was appointed ambassador to
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
and they moved to
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
. In 1964, the artist finished Austrian secondary school and commenced her studies at
Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw ( pl, Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie) is a public university of visual arts and applied arts located in the Polish capital. The Academy traces its history back to the Department of Arts founded at the Warsaw U ...
, obtaining her Diploma in painting and M.A. in Art History in 1970. On 9 December 1967 her father died suddenly of a heart attack, and in March 1968 the family was further unsettled by the outbreak of anti-Semitism and the emigration of friends, with her brother showing the first signs of mental illness. Kuryluk's distinct style of painting and her rebellious nature brought her in conflict with her professors. In 1967 she was granted permission to organize an independent show of student work, including her own, in the staircase of the painting department. The unusual event drew crowds and was reported in the press. However the authorities did not like the stir and she was forbidden to continue. Kuryluk began to export her work clandestinely and to exhibit abroad. Her first solo show at the Woodstock Gallery in
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coincided with her final exams in
Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
, and she kept it secret. In 1976, the Year of the Political Prisoner, she donated work to
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
. In the late 1970s she and her friends, the painters Andrzej Bieńkowski, Andrzej Bielawski and Łukasz Korolkiewicz formed a group with the ironic name “Cream”. Taking advantage of some liberalization under Edward Gierek, she organized an independent international art exhibition, “The Garden of Knowledge” in June 1981, hoping to turn it into a biennial event. The opening of her first solo show in the United States on 12 December 1981 coincided with the imposition of martial law in Poland. In February 1982, with the aid of a small European Program Exchange grant sponsored by George Soros, she came to the
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at
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. Founded by Richard Sennett, the Institute counted
Susan Sontag Susan Sontag (; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, philosopher, and political activist. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on 'Camp'", in 1964. Her ...
, the Russian poet
Joseph Brodsky Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky (; russian: link=no, Иосиф Александрович Бродский ; 24 May 1940 – 28 January 1996) was a Russian and American poet and essayist. Born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), USSR in 1940, ...
, and the novelist
Edmund White Edmund Valentine White III (born 1940) is an American novelist, memoirist, playwright, biographer and an essayist on literary and social topics. Since 1999 he has been a professor at Princeton University. France made him (and later ) de l'Ordr ...
among its members. Appointed a Fellow, she conducted a seminar on shadows, mirrors and doubles in art and literature in 1982 and 1983. She also switched to writing in English and recounted her ludicrous fights with Polish
censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...
in “Who’s afraid of the little red mouse?” published in ''
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''. In March 1984 her first New York solo installation opened at Art in General and she kept exhibiting with the non-for-profit gallery until 1989. She taught at
New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSSR ...
, New York University and
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. In 1985 she was honored for her activity on behalf of free speech and human rights by the New York Fund for Free Expression. In July 1989, after a compromise had been reached between the Polish regime and
Solidarity ''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictio ...
, she visited with her family in Warsaw, renewed contact with her fellow artists and soon resumed her professional activities. 1992 she founded the association Amici di Tworki to support patients at the huge mental hospital near Warsaw. In 2012 she was awarded the Gloria Artis for merit to Polish culture.


Painting

By 1968 she found her own style and iconography with “Human Landscapes”, a series of grotesque paintings in uniform, vivid colors, described by the art historian Mieczyslaw Porebski in the following way: “In her pictures astonishing spaces open up or transform into mazes. Corridors branch out, tunnels cross, city blocks grow into each other, skyscrapers buzz with the hectic business of modern life—bringing to mind a contemporary Tower of Babel, greedy and restless as an anthill”. In her next series “Screens”, she contrasted TV screens with people watching it. In 1974 she moved on to
photorealism Photorealism is a genre of art that encompasses painting, drawing and other graphic media, in which an artist studies a photograph and then attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another medium. Although the term can be ...
, painting portraits and self-portraits after her own photographs. Figures were removed from their surroundings and set against flat abstract backgrounds, suggestive of a wall or open space with small silhouettes and vignettes sporting around. These paintings convey solitude, but they are also peppered with sarcasm, charade and allegory. A tiny king
Oedipus Oedipus (, ; grc-gre, Οἰδίπους "swollen foot") was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. A tragic hero in Greek mythology, Oedipus accidentally fulfilled a prophecy that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother, thereby ...
, for instance, cut from a reproduction of “Oedipus and the Sphinx” by
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ( , ; 29 August 1780 – 14 January 1867) was a French Neoclassical painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic orthodoxy against the ...
and painted yellow, is standing on the shoulder of
Leszek Kołakowski Leszek Kołakowski (; ; 23 October 1927 – 17 July 2009) was a Polish philosopher and historian of ideas. He is best known for his critical analyses of Marxist thought, especially his three-volume history, '' Main Currents of Marxism'' (1976). ...
as if addressing a question to the Polish philosopher. The self-portrait “Outlining my shadow” (1978,
National Museum, Poznań The National Museum in Poznań ( pl, Muzeum Narodowe w Poznaniu), Poland, abbreviated MNP, is a state-owned cultural institution and one of the largest museums in Poland. It houses a rich collection of Polish painting from the 16th century on, an ...
) refers to the legendary Corinthian maid who has become the first painter by outlining the profile of her departing lover in the light of the lamp. Shortly after finishing this symbolic self-portrait Kuryluk suffered a crisis. Her sense of color undermined, she abandoned painting on stretched canvas and left England. A temporary teaching job at the Film School in Łódź, then a textile center, made her discover the flexibility of fabric. She had been experimenting with drawing on loose cloth since 1977 but the idea of monumental textile installation, halfway between frescoed architecture and sculpture, crystallized as she looked at draperies in fabric store windows while walking to work.


Installation

Kuryluk's first installation was made of cheap lining cloth in white, pink and black covered with life-size drawings of the artist and her companion, showing a young couple, their morning on white, their day on pink, their night on black cloth, constituting together a textile room. Eager to play on words and the contrast between totalitarian architecture and private space, the artist titled her installation at the Eastern Wall Gallery (opposite the Palace of Culture, Stalin’s “gift” to Warsaw) “In the Four Walls”. It opened on 1 March 1979, creating a splash and barely escaping
censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...
. Her next Warsaw installation was the first in red and white, executed with rusty felt-pen and red and white paint on unbleached cotton, reminiscent of skin. In the spring of 1981 Kuryluk was invited to International Biennale in
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, Colombia, an enormous event with thousands of artists participating, though she was the only one from the
Soviet bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
. After having painted her cubicle black, she hung her cotton "skins" with naked body parts cut, sewn and burnt, on washing lines. The installation mirrored family drama but it was perceived as reflective of the situation in Poland, with Solidarity facing a crackdown, and in reference to human rights abuse in Latin America. Shortly after the opening,
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was shot in
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, his white dress splashed with blood. Suddenly, the artist's cubicle attracted such crowds that military police were posted to guard her “skins”. This was also the beginning of her career in the United States. Impressed with the installation, Helen Shlien invited her to
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
. "Room of Memories", made of "bloodied" cotton walls and shrouds draped on the floor and on chairs, was presented through January 1982 at the Helen Shlien Gallery in Boston, and in December it was chosen the best exhibit of the year by “
The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
”. In September 1982 “Interrogation”, twelve chairs draped with naked self-portraits, were shown at 12th International Sculpture Conference in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, and later recreated for "Villa dei Misteri" at Art in General, “Textile Sculpture” at the Musée des Beaux Arts in Lausanne, and “Membranes of Memory”, her solo show in
Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
. “Theater of Love”, her second Boston installation was supported by the
National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...
. The monumental cloth hall, her largest work to date, was made of cotton walls and columns suspended from the ceiling and bed sheets on the floor with depictions of a couple making love, their bodies larger than life and private parts showing prominently. There was a smell of scandal and Thomas Frick, reviewing the show for “
Art in America ''Art in America'' is an illustrated monthly, international magazine concentrating on the contemporary art world in the United States, including profiles of artists and genres, updates about art movements, show reviews and event schedules. It i ...
”, pointed out that exact rendition of private eroticism always borders on the political. While working on her first novel, Kuryluk developed the idea of "Drawritings" by adding script to drawing, and blue to red. "The Dreaming Head", a broken plaster cast covered with texts and placed on a pillow, was used as the cover illustration of her novel, "Century 21". "My Feet", a cotton path with imprints of her foot steps, the left in red expressing her female self, the right in blue acting as her male ego, "talked" to each other while “walking” to the sea on the coral sand beach in
Key West Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it cons ...
. Kuryluk's first American outdoor installations opened in 1982 in New York's
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. The 1984–5 Hodder Fellowship at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
gave her opportunity to live outside a big city for the first time. Taken with the campus and the landscape, she made full use of the scenery changing in seasons and documented her installations in hundreds of photographs, some of which were reproduced by
Joyce Carol Oates Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Her novels '' Bla ...
in her “Ontario Review”. The 1988–9
Rockefeller Fellowship The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carn ...
at
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in
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gave her another opportunity of working in outdoors. She was also commissioned by her class to produce a joint indoor installation with the poet Rita Dove, and designed a composition of two cotton scrolls, the vertical with drawings in red, the horizontal with a poem by Dove written in blue. Kuryluk was awarded a grant from the New York Asian Cultural Council in 1991 in recognition of her contribution to the understanding of the mythology of
Amaterasu Amaterasu, also known as Amaterasu Ōmikami () or Ōhirume no Muchi no Kami (), is the goddess of the sun in Japanese mythology. One of the major deities (''kami'') of Shinto, she is also portrayed in Japan's earliest literary texts, the ''Kojik ...
, the Japanese sun goddess, included in her “Veronica” study. The trip to Japan opened a world for her, and she returned many times, with exhibitions and lectures. Her Japanese outdoor silk installations differed from the cotton ones. Permeated with desire to restore lost harmony between humanity and nature, they were reflective of her affinity to Zen minimalism and
Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...
traditions. When hanging from blooming cherry trees in the Imperial Garden in
Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...
, white silk veils seemed to vanish in the air, while the yellow silk cut outs of her brother as small boy shimmered between stone foxes in the Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine in remembrance of his love for animals. When her retrospective in cameo was shown in
Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancie ...
, a visitor said to the artist: “You must have been Japanese in your former life”. In 2001 Kuryluk shifted to Yellow Installations, a more historical type of work based on childhood recollections, inspired by her mother's hallucinations of yellow birds and yellow snow, symbolic of the mass of Jews with yellow bands and stars destroyed during the
Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
. She discovered that her Jewish grandparents and other relatives had been among them only after her mother's death when she found letters and photographs stashed away in old winter shoes. She also found her own juvenile work, some of it dealing with the Holocaust, lovingly preserved by her mother and today in the
Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews ( pl, Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich) is a museum on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto. The Hebrew word ''Polin'' in the museum's English name means either "Poland" or "rest here" and relates to a ...
in Warsaw.


Photography

At the age of 13 Kuryluk embarked on an ongoing project of self-documentation, starting in 1959. Eager to catch fleeting moods and expressions, and to document the process of aging, she worked in series, up to a hundred photos per session. Since she considered her autophotographs a memory aid and a visual diary, she kept them secret for decades. The first small selection was shown only in 2000, a larger one in 2003 at her Retrospective “Air People”, at the Zachęta National Gallery, Warsaw. But only in 2009 when “Kangaroo with the Camera: Autophotography 1959–2009” was published that her nickname and the overall influence of photography on her work was revealed. Kuryluk's record of herself brings to mind the fluidity of identity and how the general is visible in the private.


Literature

Kuryluk's first poetry was written in
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
and published in the high school magazine she founded, which was subsequently banned by the school authorities because of being too “existentialist”. In 1967, she debuted in the Warsaw magazine “Ty i Ja” with a travelogue in the form of letters, and she published two collections of poems. Her M.A. thesis was published as “Wiedeńska apokalipsa” (Viennese Apocalypse) in 1974, her first collection of essays on Austrian art and literature around 1900, and her Ph.D. dissertation was released as “Salome albo o Rozkoszy” (Salome or on Voluptuousness) in 1976, a study of the grotesque focusing on Aubrey Beardsley. The book was published in 1986 as ''Salome and Judas in the Cave of Sex. The Grotesque: Origins, Iconography, Techniques'' by Northwestern University Press. In 1982 Kuryluk co-founded with her émigré friends "Zeszyty Literackie" (Literary Notebooks), a quarterly first published in
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, then from Warsaw with her as co-editor since 1982. She contributed to the "
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", the " New York Review of Books", and " The New Criterion", and was a contributing editor of "Formations". In 1986 she received the General Electric Award for Younger Writers for her essay on Hitler's Vienna. Her scholarly book ''Veronica and her Cloth: History, Symbolism, and Structure of a "True Image",'' the first modern study of the
Veil of Veronica The Veil of Veronica, or (Latin for sweat-cloth), also known as the Vernicle and often called simply the Veronica, is a Christian relic consisting of a piece of cloth said to bear an image of the Holy Face of Jesus produced by other than human ...
published by Basil Blackwell in 1991, explores the mythology of mimetic representation as concerns procreation, destruction and art, and leading to photography. The book is representative of her interests and work, but her "veils" and "shrouds", reminiscent of stained sheets and flayed skins, are a departure from Christian symbolism and belong to body art. Her first novel "Century 21" (1992), a time machine in literary form, was praised by Charles Simic as "a magnificent first novel by one of the best art historians of our time". After her return to Europe, she continued to write and publish in English, but gradually shifted back to
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
. From 1995 through 1999 her column “Art Mon Amour”, was published in the weekly cultural magazine of “ Gazeta Wyborcza”, and then as a book. Her latest autobiographical novels “Goldi” and “Frascati” were nominated for the Nike Literary Prize.Frascati—Instytut Książki: http://www.bookinstitute.pl/ksiazki-detal,literatura-polska,6379,frascati.html She is member of
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.


Theater

While teaching at the Institute for Applied Theater Science at Justus Liebig University in
Giessen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univers ...
in 1986, Kuryluk adapted "Faust" I and II by
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as trea ...
to a paper theater stage and directed her students performing " Die Faust" (the Fist) with their hands and tiny props. The performance was reflective of the
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and focused on the threat posed to life on earth by the human "fist". In 1988 she designed and directed "In the Little Manor" by
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at the off-Broadway Interart Theater in
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. In 2005 she adapted her novel "Encyklopedierotyk" (Encyclopaedia of Love) for the stage, and designed and directed the play as part of the Polish Festival at the Château de la Petite Malmaison.


Video & Movies

''Villa dei misteri'' (1984), directed and produced by Ewa Kuryluk, is a video featuring the artist's first New York installation at
Art in General Art in General was a non-profit contemporary art exhibition space known for its vibrant and ground-breaking projects as a formidable and longstanding New York City alternative space, focused on giving meaningful resources and opportunities to ar ...
. ''Na cetce zrenicy (On the pupil’s dot,'' 2004) by Andrzej Titkow is a documentary movie on Kuryluk's life and art made for the Second Program of Polish Television. ''Vera Icona'', Ewa Kuryluk (2009) by Cédric Schiltz is a 65-minute documentary film on Kuryluk's installation art.


Selected solo exhibitions

1970: ''Paintings and Prints,'' Woodstock Gallery, London; 1973: ''Paintings, Drawings & Prints,'' Christian M. Nebehay Galerie, Vienna; 1974: ''Tableaux,'' Galerie Lambert, Paris; 1976: ''Paintings,'' Galerie Länderbank, Graz, Austria; 1977: ''Paintings,'' National Museum, Wrocław; 1979: ''In the Four Walls,'' Eastern Wall Gallery, Warsaw; 1980: ''Human Landscapes,'' Art Gallery, Middlesbrough, England; 1982: ''Room of Memories,'' Installation, Helen Shlien Gallery, Boston; 1984: ''Villa dei Misteri,'' Installation, Art in General, New York; 1985: ''Seven Black Chairs in the Snow,'' Outdoor Installation, Princeton University campus, Princeton, NJ; 1986: ''Membranes of Memory,'' Centro de Arte y Comunicación, Buenos Aires, and ''Imprints,''
Justus-Liebig University University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von L ...
, Giessen, Germany; 1987: ''Theater of Love,''
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, Boston; 1988: ''September—Remember,'' Outdoor Installation,
National Humanities Center The National Humanities Center (NHC) is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities. The NHC operates as a privately incorporated nonprofit and is not part of any university or federal agency. The center was planned under the auspi ...
,
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, NC; 1989: ''Winter in North Carolina,'' Outdoor Installation, National Humanities Center, Research Triangle Park, NC; 1990: ''Skin/Sky—Red/Blue, Drawritings,'' Installation, Art in General, New York; 1992: ''Sunset for the Three Survivors,'' Outdoor Installation,
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...
, San Diego; 1995: ''Who’s This Mysterious Boy?,'' Manhattan Gallery, part of the 8th International Triennial of Tapestry, Łódź; 1996: ''Three Chairs and a Shroud,'' Installation, Gerlesborgsskolan, Hamburgsund, Sweden; 1997: ''Installations (1977–1997),'' Manggha, Center for Japanese Art and Technology, Kraków; 1998: ''The Secret Life of Clothes,'' Installation, Artium Gallery,
Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancie ...
; 2000: ''Trio for the Hidden, ''Installation & ''Autophotography,'' Artemis Gallery, Kraków; 2001: ''Cotton Skins,'' Installation,
Latitude 53 Latitude 53 Contemporary Visual Culture, more commonly known as Latitude 53, is an artist-run centre in Edmonton, Alberta. Founded in 1973 by a collective of Edmonton artists. As far back as 1991, Latitude 53 has been heralded as "''consistently b ...
,
Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
, Canada; 2002: ''A Woman Artist,'' Austrian Cultural Forum,
Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...
, Slovakia; 2003: ''Air People,'' Retrospective, Zacheta National Gallery, Warsaw; 2004: ''Bonjour, Rolo,'' Performance & Installation, Château de la Petite Malmaison; 2005: ''Taboo,'' Installation, Artemis Gallery, Kraków; 2009: ''Paris in Warsaw,'' reconstruction of Kuryluk's Painting Exhibition at the Galerie Lambert, Paris, 1974 ''& New Autophotographs,'' Art+on, Warsaw; 2011: ''Paintings, Installations & Autophotographs,'' BWA Gallery, Wrocław, and ''Pony, Yellow Installation, Paintings, Chairs & Autophotographs,'' Czytelnia Sztuki, Gliwice; 2016: ''Don't Dream about love,'' Kuryluk. Paintings 1967–1978, National Museum, Kraków; 2019: ''Cracow 1946, Yellow Installation,'' Artemis Art Gallery, Kraków; 2021: ''White Folds of Time,'' installations, National Museum, Wrocław; 2022: ''I, White Kangaroo'', Palazzo Querini, Venice. Official collateral event organized by the Starak Foundation at the 59t
International Art Biennale in Venice


Selected catalogues

* Ewa Kuryluk, W ''czterech ścianach'' (In the four walls), Galeria Ściana Wschodnia, Warsaw 1979 * ''The Fabric of Memory. Ewa Kuryluk: Cloth Works 1978–1987,'' with essays by Jan Kott,
Edmund White Edmund Valentine White III (born 1940) is an American novelist, memoirist, playwright, biographer and an essayist on literary and social topics. Since 1999 he has been a professor at Princeton University. France made him (and later ) de l'Ordr ...
, Elzbieta Grabska, Ewa Kuryluk, Wilmette, Illinois, Formations, 1987 * ''Rysunki i Instalacje 1977–1994 (Drawings and Installations),'' ZPAP, Warsaw, 1994 * ''Rysunki i Instalacje: Drawings and Installations 1974–1996,'' Center of Japanese Art & Technology Manggha & Galeria Artemis, Kraków, 1996 * ''The Secret Life of Clothes,'' Installation, organized and introduced by Nick Wadley, Artium Gallery, Fukuoka, 1998 * ''Trio dla ukrytych (Trio for the Hidden),'' Galeria Artemis, Kraków, 2000 * ''Ludzie z powietrza: Air People,'' Galeria Artemis, Kraków, 2002 * ''Tabus: Taboo My Cheri,'' Galeria Artemis & Jewish Culture Festival, Kraków, 2005 * ''Droga do Koryntu: On the Way to Corinth,'' Twój Styl, Warsaw, 2006 * ''Kangaroo with the Camera: 1959–2009, Autophotography,'' Artemis & Art+on & Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków & Warsaw, 2009 * ''Obrysować Cień. Malarstwo 1968–1978 (Outlining the Shadow. Painting 1968–1978),'' BWA Design Wrocław & Czytelnia Sztuki, Gliwice & Galeria Artemis, Kraków & Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2011 * ''Żółte Instalacje 2001–2011 (Yellow Installations 2001–2011),'' with commentaries by Ola Wojtkiewicz, Stowarzyszenie Inicjatyw Wydawniczych w Katowicach & Czytelnia Sztuki/Muzeum w Gliwicach, 2011


Selected public collections

National Museum, Warsaw; Zachęta National Gallery, Warsaw; National Museum, Kraków; National Museum, Poznań; National Museum, Wrocław; Museum of Modern Art, Łódź; Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw; Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna; Kettle's Yard Museum, Cambridge, England; Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL; National Humanities Center, NC.


Literary works


Poems and novels

* ''Kontur:'' ''Wiersze z lat 1972–1975'' (Collected Poems), Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków, 1979 * ''Pani Anima: ''Wiersze z lat 1975–1979 (Collected Poems), Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków, 1984 * ''Century 21'', novel, Normal IL,
Dalkey Archive Press Dalkey Archive Press is an American publisher of fiction, poetry, foreign translations and literary criticism specializing in the publication or republication of lesser-known, often avant-garde works. The company has offices in Funks Grove, Il ...
, 1992 * ''Grand Hotel Oriental,'' Wydawnictwo WAB, Warsaw, 1997 * ''Encyklopedierotyk,'' Sic!, Warsaw, 2001 * ''Goldi,'' Twoj Styl, Warsaw, 2004; second edition WL, 2011 * ''Frascati,'' Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków, 2009


Art history and essays

* ''Wiedenska Apokalipsa (Viennese Art and Literature Around 1900),'' Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków, 1974 * ''Salome albo o Rozkoszy (The Grotesque in the Work of Aubrey Beardsley),'' Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków, 1976 * ''Hiperrealizm: Nowy Realizm,'' WAiF, Warsaw, 1979 * ''Podróż do granic sztuki (Collected Essays),'' Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków, 1982 * ''Salome and Judas in the Cave of Sex. The Grotesque: Origins, Iconography, Techniques,'' Evanston, IL, Northwestern University Press, 1987 * ''Veronica & Her Cloth: History, Symbolism and Structure of a "True" Image,'' Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1991 * ''Art Mon Amour,'' Sic!, Warsaw, 2002


Fellowships & awards

*1964: Fellow of the Italian Institute in Vienna at the
University of Urbino The University of Urbino "Carlo Bo" ( it, Università degli Studi di Urbino "Carlo Bo", ''UniUrb'') is an Italian university located in Urbino, a walled hill-town in the region of Marche, located in the north-eastern part of central Italy. The ...
, Italy *1982: European Exchange Program Award, Institute for the Humanities at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...
*1982: Room of Memories, Installation at Helen Shlien Gallery in Boston, chosen as one of the Best 1982 art shows by ''
the Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' *1983–1985: Fellow at the Institute for the Humanities at New York University *1984–1985: Hodder Fellow,
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
, NJ *1985: Fund for Free Expression Award, New York City *1986: General Electric Award for Younger Writers *1988: Honorary Prize at the 4th International Drawing Triennale in
Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...
*1988–1989:
Rockefeller Fellowship The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carn ...
,
National Humanities Center The National Humanities Center (NHC) is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities. The NHC operates as a privately incorporated nonprofit and is not part of any university or federal agency. The center was planned under the auspi ...
, NC *1991: Asian Cultural Council Fellowship in Japan *1994: Cultural Foundation Award,
Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
*2005: The novel ''Goldi'' was a finalist of the Nike Literary Prize *2010: The novel ''Frascati'' was nominated for the Nike Literary Prize *2012: Gloria Artis Award for merit to Polish culture *2016: The Warsaw Book Premiere Prize for the book ''Manhattan and Little Venice'' *2021: The Tuwim Literary Prize for Life Achievement


References


Further reading

*Oswell Blakeston, ''Kuryluk, Woodstock Gallery,'' “Arts Review”, London, 20 June 1970 *Ewa Kuryluk, ''Cykl romantyczny: czlekopejzaze—Cykl realistyczny: ekrany'' (Romantic Cycle: Human Landscapes—Realistic Cycle: Screens), exhibition catalogue, Galeria Wspolczesna, Warsaw, May 1973 *Mieczyslaw Porebski, ''Tableaux de Ewa Kuryluk,'' preface to a catalogue, Galerie Lambert, Paris, November 1974 *Genevieve Bréerette, ''Ewa Kuryluk: Mélanges,'' “
Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
”, 24 November 1974 *Pawel Banas, ''Ewa Kuryluk,'' preface to catalogue, National Museum in Wrocław, July 1977 *Ewa Kuryluk, ''About My Work,'' "Skira Annual", 4, Geneva, 1978 *"Twój Wyraz", the October 1979 issue of the Warsaw art monthly was dedicated to Ewa Kuryluk's painting, with an introduction by Kinga Kawalerowicz *"Śmietanka" (Cream), exhibition catalogue, MDM Gallery, Warsaw, March 1977 *Stephen Bann, ''Ewa Kuryluk: “Human Landscapes”'', Middlesbrough Art Gallery, 28 April – 19 May 1979 *''Ewa Kuryluk, On My Artistic Development Leading To Drawing on Fabrics,'' "Leonardo", 14(4), 1981 *Christine Temin, ''Facing Our Common Fate. Ewa Kuryluk. A Room of Memories at Helen Shlien Gallery,'' "The Boston Globe", 8 January 1982 *''Ewa Kuryluk, Who’s Afraid of the Little Red Mouse,'' "The
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
", 28 December 1982 *Grace Glueck, ''Ewa Kuryluk,'' “The New York Times”, 13 April 1984 *Eva Hoffman, ''From Poland, a New Breed of Émigré,'' "
The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine Supplement (publishing), supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted man ...
", 20 May 1984 *Edmund White, ''Strong Stuff, Villa dei Misteri,'' Art in General, New York, 31 III–28 IV 1984; reprinted in "The Ontario Review", 1985, and "Textile Sculpture", catalogue, Musée des Beaux Arts,
Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...
, June–September 1985 *Cynthia Jaffee McCabe, ''Immigrants and Refugees: The Internationalization of American Art,'' "The American Experience Contemporary Immigrant Artists", New York: Independent Curators Incorporated, 1985 *Sally Moren, ''Painter Leaves Color for Line Drawing on Draped Cloth,'' "Princeton Weekly Bulletin", 15 April 1985 *Albion Dieguez Videla, ''Ewa Kuryluk: la impression del cuerpo'', “ La Prensa”, Buenos Aires, 12 October 1986 *Thomas Frick, ''Eva Kuryluk and Bart Uchida in Mobius,'' “
Art in America ''Art in America'' is an illustrated monthly, international magazine concentrating on the contemporary art world in the United States, including profiles of artists and genres, updates about art movements, show reviews and event schedules. It i ...
”, October 1987 *Helen Shlien, ''Ewa Kuryluk: Artist of Memory,'' “Fiberarts”, 1988 *Bozena Shallcross, ''Ewa Kuryluk: Skinscripts Chronicle the Body’s Journey'', "Fiberarts", 1991 *Agnieszka Morawinska, ''Polish Women Artists, Voices of Freedom: Polish Women Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1880–1990,'' exhibition catalogue, The
National Museum of Women in the Arts The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), located in Washington, D.C., is "the first museum in the world solely dedicated" to championing women through the arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay. Since openin ...
, Washington, DC, 1991 *Michael March, ''The Difference Between the Planet Venus and the Moon,'' "XXIst Century", 1992 *Janet Koplos, ''World Wide Webs,'' “Art in America”, 2 (1996) *
Anda Rottenberg Anda Rottenberg (born 23 April 1944) is a Polish art historian, art curator, art critic, and writer recognized for her contributions to recognizing Poland's art world. She was former director of the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw and m ...
, ''Sztuka w Polsce 1945–2005'' (Art in Poland 1945–2005), Warsaw 2006


External links


Homepage

Ewa Kuryluk—Akademia PWN

Ewa Kuryluk—Data BNF: Bibliothèque nationale de France

National Museum in Kraków

Culture.pl
Ewa Kuryluk, Secondary Archive
Villa dei MisteriEmbodiment / PersonificationInstallations: Part I
* On Culture.pl
culture.pl/en/artist/ewa-kuryluk
'' Zeszyty Literackie —Wikipedia, wolna encyklopedia'' * http://www.czytelniasztuki.pl/?p=1131 * http://www.czytelniasztuki.pl/?p=1085 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuryluk, Ewa 1946 births Living people Polish women writers Photographers from Warsaw Polish people of Jewish descent Photorealist artists 20th-century Polish painters Polish art historians Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw alumni Women art historians 20th-century Polish women