Antoni Mikołajczyk (1939)
Poland


Biography :

"Polish intermedia artist, made photography, painting, video and installations.

In the years 1962-67 he studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń (diploma in painting in the studio of Bronisław Kierzkowski). Until 1969 he worked at the university. In 1963, he was a co-organizer of the Rytm photography group, competing with the Zero 61 group. He was also active in the Student Creative Film Club "Pętla" (1963-69), where he made experimental films, and later in the Krag group, which operated interdisciplinaryly. Mikołajczyk exhibited oil paintings and photographs at Circle shows. From 1966/67 to 1969 he was active in the Zero 61 group, taking part in their last exhibition in the so-called "old forge" in Toruń (1969). The damaged items found on site were used together with prepared photos, or rather photographic objects, to confront the concept of "artistic photography", which was attacked and questioned.

At that time, Mikołajczyk specialized in color photography of a metaphorical ("Multiple Portrait", 1967) and documentary ("Wiatrak"), as well as reportage ("Grey Day"). His paintings were made in the concept of allusive abstraction. In 1970, the Film Form Workshop was established in Łódź, of which Mikołajczyk was one of the members, and he also participated in various interventions and scandals. At the Seeking Photographers exhibition, he presented several objects ("Shirt", "Nude", "Outgoing") for which he used the traditional photographic form, while pushing its boundaries. In 1973, he took part in Action Workshop (Museum of Art in Łódź, 1973), where he presented "Construction" - a spatial installation using light, which became a determinant of his further creative path.

In the 1970s, he carried out analytical work examining the issues of the relationship of the image, its relationship to lines and the borderline of the photographic and film medium ("Anatomy", 1974). He also made video installations ("Vertical Registration", 1976). He was interested in the concept of total registration in photography and the definition of a given place and the transmission of the reality of one medium (e.g. photography) into another (sculpture), as well as the so-called records of light, which he explored in a geometric and, less often, expressive version (also in the form of colorful photos), which was a report on the recording of the road. He took part in the famous exhibition Construction in Process (Łódź 1981) organized by Ryszard Waśko. He was the commissioner of the exhibition accompanying Breakwater - Polish Art 1970-1980."
(Source, website, Monoskop)

Works :
lien
Country