Cooperation between the master and the student, cooperation within the construction industry, Italian Renaissance workshops, Rubens and Rembrandt's studios, WHUTEMAS, Pruszkowski's open-air painting workshops in Kazimierz Dolny, coworking for artists are just a few examples of close cohabitation of artists, which brought excellent results. It is similar in the case of Ryszard Hunger and Piotr Kotlicki painting together.
Conversations about art, visits to each other's studios and joint activities with students resulted in permeation also in the field of art. It has become an incredible area of exploration, a laboratory of ideas where the creative process is constantly ongoing and visions and concepts of artists following different paths emerge
– this is what Adriana Usarek (2023) writes about the Hunger-Kotlicki duo.
However, many of the differences are superficial. We encourage you to read the full curatorial text by Professor Aneta Pawłowska (go to the exhibition website - in Polish).
The event is under the patronage of the Lodz Scientific Society.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Ryszard Hunger
(born in 1940, Lodz)
He graduated from the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Lodz (now the Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz), where in 1990 he received the title of a Full Professor. He worked at his alma mater for many years, serving as Dean, Vice-Rector, and in 1987-1993, Rector. He was a long-time lecturer in the history of art at the University of Lodz. He belonged to the Konkret Group in Lodz in the years 1970-1973. In his painting works from the "Okna" [Windows] series (1973-1983) – he implemented the Albertian idea of a painting as an "open window". In the next series "Imago" he appears as an abstractionist; preferring geometric, rhythmic forms. Over time, he began to create figurative paintings, saturated with expression and metaphors. He also deals with artistic graphics. He is an author of 30 individual exhibitions. He has taken part in about 400 collective exhibitions in Poland and abroad. Ryszard Hunger's works are in the collections of many museums, galleries in Poland and abroad, as well as in private collections. In 1985, he was among fourteen Polish artists invited to Talla, the city of art, to leave their artistic works there. He then received the Premio Internazionale Apollo Musagete. In addition to numerous awards and distinctions, he is the winner of the City of Lodz Award in 2002. He received the Gold Medal "For Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis" in 2010.
Piotr Kotlicki
(born in 1972, Piotrków Trybunalski)
He is a graduate of the Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz. He obtained his diploma in 2000 in the Painting Studio of Prof. Ryszard Hunger. He has been a lecturer at the Directing Department at the Film School in Lodz since 2007. He has exhibited, among others, in Warsaw at the Zachęta National Gallery of Art (Poland); at the Ningbo Museum of Art (China), at the Videomedja Festival in Novi Sad (Serbia); at the MADATAC Festival in Madrid (Spain); at the Drei Ringe (Germany) and at the National Audiovisual Institute. Kotlicki is the Grand Prix Winner at the Interference Festival.
ABOUT THE CURATOR
Aneta Pawłowska (Dr hab., Associate Professor at the University of Lodz) is a historian and an art historian. She has been elected for another term as an active member of the Management Board of the Polish Institute of World Art Studies (http://www.world-art.pl/) since 2011, of which she is also a co-founder. Additionally, she has been an Expert of the European Commission (since 2016), member of: COST scientific network (since 2016), Lodz Scientific Society (since 2016; since 2019, Chairwoman of the 6th Division of Art and Art Sciences). She has held the title of Appraiser of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage since 2015. Since 2017 she has also been a member of the scientific research group Proxectos e Estudos Sobre Patrimonio Cultural = Project and Studies on Cultural Heritage (GI-1907), created at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela in Spain. She has been a member of the "International Visiting Faculty" of Chandigarh University Punjab India since 2017 and since 2018, she has been an "external scientific fellow" at the Faculty of History of the University of West Bohemia, Plzen. She is a manager of several grants supporting people with disabilities in their contact with art.
Prof. Pawłowska is the author and co-author of 8 books (including two publications financed by a grant from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education), editor of 6 multi-authored monographs. Additionally, he has authored over 140 articles in monographs and magazines (including several published abroad in English, Spanish and Ukrainian). Scientific interests of Prof. Pawłowska's research focus on three main research trends: Polish art of the 19th and 20th centuries, traditional art and culture of South Africa, and audio description and making works of art accessible.
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Edit: Bartosz Kałużny (Communications and PR Centre, University of Lodz)
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