Andrzej Dluzniewski

Born 1939 in Poznan/Poland

Andrzej Dluzniewski studied architecture from 1957 to 1959 at the department of architecture at Wroclaw Polytechnic Institute. The following years he attended lectures at the Philosophy Faculty of Warsaw University. In 1961 Dluzniewski started working for Polish Television where he stayed for two years – first as a stage master and afterwards as an editor for the editorial board of Polish Language and Literature. In 1962-68 he studied in the department of sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts (ASP) in Marian Wnuk’s sculpture studio and in Oskar Hansen’s studio. In 1968 he completed his studies with the – at the time – controversial work Piaski, a sculpture made of sand, documented with photographs and text.

In 1970 he started to work as an assistant in the faculty of interior architecture at the ASP in Warsaw, where in 1991 he was awarded assistant professorship. In 1971-73 he was a lecturer at the State College of Visual Arts (PWSSP) in Lódz. In 1974 he ends finishes lecturing at the PWSSP and becomes a senior assistant at the ASP in Warsaw. Since 1978 he also lectures at the ASP.

Starting in 1980, he opens a gallery together with his wife Emilia Malgorzata in their own apartment, organizing exhibitions, lectures, meetings of artists from Poland and abroad (including many Fluxus artists). The gallery operates for thirteen years.

In 1984 Andrzej Dluzniewski becomes an assistant professor and the head of the Institute of General Artistic Education at the department of interior architecture of ASP and in 1987 lectures in art history at the University of Warsaw. In 1991 he receives the title of professor from the ASP in Warsaw and the post of the head of the Intermedia Workshop.

In 1997, on November 15th, Dluzniewski loses his eyesight after a severe car accident. Since 1998 his paintings and objects are created by his wife, a former student, a graduate of the ASP, Maciej Sawicki and his son Kajetan.

Andrzej Dluzniewski not only worked within the areas of painting and drawing, but also in the field of photography, installations as well as with various forms of literature from fiction to concrete poetry. In the late 1970s he becomes increasingly interested in linguistics. In his works such as the piece Etc / 16p (1978), punctuation marks seem to be more important than the written words.

In the middle of the 1980s he advances this thought and concentrates his interest on examining the relations between the meaning of words and their grammatical gender in various languages, as for example in his series Rodzaj i cien (eng.: The Meadow and Death), (1984–1994), where he applies the symbolism of color and outlines of human figures.

Selected exhibitions: »Skok«, Galeria Adres, Łódź (1972); Information, perception, reflexion, Konsthall, Södertälje, Sweden (1972); »DO.DO.DO«, Galeria Repassage, Warsaw (1973); »55 ikonogramów«, Galeria Akumulatory, Poznań (1976); 16 Contemporary Artists from Poland, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield USA (1977); »Obraz nieobecnego obrazu. Jednorazowe ujawnienie. Zapis fotograficzny«, Foksal 13 m 1, Warsaw (1979); »Rodzaj i cień«, Galeria Piwna 20/26, Warsaw (1985); Kunst uit Polen, (cat.), Nouvelle Images, Den Haag (1986); »Das Buch doch doch, Moltkerei«, Werkstatt, Cologne, Niemcy (1987); »Łąka i śmierć«, BWA, Lublin (1988); Drawing beyond categories, Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal (1990); »Słowa i rzeczy 1965-1991«, Center for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (1991 with the catalog T, including numerous texts by A.D.); »Rodzaj i cien«, Galeria Stara, Lublin (1995); »Andrzej Dłużniewski 98,99«, Center for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (2000); »Z pamięci« (Center for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (2005).

Honors: In 2002 he was awarded the »Artysci Artysom« Award and in 2004, during the 100th anniversary celebrations of the ASP in Warsaw, the Golden Cross of Merit (Zloty Krzyz Zaslugi) by the Minister of Culture, Waldemar Dabrowski.

Andrzej Dluzniewski is a participant of the exchange program between Akademie Schloss Solitude and the Center for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw.