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Edward Krasiński At Tate Modern Until 1 April 2013

Edward Krasiński’s installation Untitiled (from 2001) with 12 mirrors and tape is currently presented by Tate Modern. His work is a part of a group exhibition: A Bigger Splash. Painting after Performance (until April 2013).
The exhibition explores the impact of performance on painting since 1950s.  Curators of the exhibition trace relationships between performance and painting through familiar and less familiar body of work. The show  features pivotal post-war Western European artists: David Hockney, Jackson Pollock, Niki de St Phalle, Ives Klein, Cindy Sherman. Next to their works, there are less known experimental works of artists from Korea, Japan and Eastern Europe: Yayoi Kusama, Ewa Partum, Ei Arakawa and Edward Krasiński’s installation along with Eustachy Kossakowski’s Photographs. Chris Dercon, Tate Modern Director called A Bigger Splash.. an exhibition that reflects Tate Modern’s interest in weaving major and minor histories together. Calling the exhibition a partial story rather than a comprehensive survey. (Catalogue, p.6, 2012).

Exhibition at Tate Modern in London until April 2013

Krasiński’s installation presents a series of 12 mirrors suspended from the ceiling. The single strip of scotch tape across them is stuck horizontally. The tape expands beyond mirrors’ surfaces on walls of the room. The photographs of Eustachy Kossakowski complement Krasiński’s installation. The photographs documented the artists’s explorations of space and actions in his atelier and home where living space was incorporated into artworks. Furthermore, we can see how Krasiński incorporated even family members and friends in his environmental work by binding them with scotch tape. Krasiński’s actions could be compared to “total artwork” where real space overlapps with his artistic space bound by blue tape. Additionally, in this installation, mirrors’ reflections multiplies the sensation of the space, highlighting the relationship between object, spectator and gallery space.
Krasiński’s installation was acquired by Tate collection in 2007. Interestingly, this acquisition is a part of a broader strategy. Since 2000, Tate has been extending the collection by adding works from beyond Western Europe and North America. To built the collection from as wide geographical reach as possible. The exploration of art in Eastern Europe continues. In November 2012 a new Acquisitions Committees focusing on Russia  and Eastern Europe (REEAC) was launched. Tate collection comprises nearly 70,000 works spread across Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St. Ives.

Edward Krasinski, Untitled 2001, installation with 12 mirrors and tape, each 500 x 600 x 4 mm. Presented by Tate Modern at the group exhibition A Bigger Splash. Painting after Performance. (November 2012 –April 2013). © The estate of Edward Krasinski, Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw.

About The Author

Sylwia
Krasoń

Founder of Contemporary Lynx (2013). Editor-in-chief of the Contemporary Lynx in print and online. The art historian with a Master of Arts degree in Arts Policy & Management (the University of London, Birkbeck College) and Master of Arts in History of Art (Jagiellonian University in Cracow).

About the Artist:

A photograph of Henryk Stażewski, with blue-taped tie. Edward Krasiński’s studio apartment, Warsaw, Poland, 2016 PrevNext

Edward
Krasiński

Born in Łuck in the Ukraine,  studied Applied Arts and Fine Arts in Kraków, and began his career in the 1960s as a surrealist painter. In the early 1970s, he moved into Henryk Stażewski’s studio where they lived together, and remained there after Stażewski’s death in 1988. In 1966, Krasiński was one of the founders of the Foksal Gallery  in Warsaw, which acted as a focal point for experimental conceptual artists. (info Tate Modern)

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