Edward Dwurnik

Edward Dwurnik is an artist born on April 19, 1943 in Radzymin, he died on October 28, 2018 in Warsaw - an outstanding Polish painter and graphic artist, one of the most recognizable personalities of Polish contemporary art. He is the only Polish artist who managed to achieve international success before transformation (including participation in "documenta 7" in Kassel in 1982). He is also the only artist who, regardless of recognition in professional circles, has become popular in all environments of art consumers. Insolent and provocative, changeable and unpredictable, full of devilish sense of humor, to this day raises extreme reactions and agitation, also among the creators of the youngest generation.

In 1963-70, Edward Dwurnik studied painting, graphics and sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Already in 1965 he began a series of drawings and watercolors independent of the course of study, and from 1966 oil paintings "Hitchhiking travels" - characteristic bird's-eye views of the cities (continued to this day). A dozen or so other painting cycles have been created since 1970, among others in 1972-1978 "Athletes" - one of Dwurnik's currently most-valued painting series, showing half caricatured, half comic heroes of ordinary everyday PRL. Among the subsequent series of paintings, two series are devoted to the tragic fate of people involved in history: in "Road to the East" (1989-1991) Dwurnik commemorates the victims of Stalinism, and in "From December to June" (1990-1994) the victims of martial law in Poland.

In Dwurnik's work you can also find uninvolved paintings, e.g. the series "Blue" (90s) are horizonless seascapes close to abstraction, and "Twenty-fifth" are colorful abstracts in the technique of action painting. Other series include "Portrait" (from the 70s), "Workers" (80s), "Long live the war!" (1991-1993), "Blue cities" (from 1993), "Diagonal" (from 1996), "Wyliczanka" (from 1996). In 2011, an album was created with all reproductions of the "Athletes" series.

In addition to painting, Dwurnik dealt with graphics and drawing (both autonomous series and illustrations). He liked to design monumental painting compositions in public space. He created drawings and gouaches for the animated films "Vegetable, 360 degrees" (2007) and "Oasis" (2009) directed by Andrzej Barański.

Several documentaries were made about the artist's work, including: "Fruits of the Earth" (1977), "Portrait of Nature" (1984) and "Polska Nike" (1987) directed by Andrzej Szczygel and "Travels of Edward Dwurnik" (1995) Grażyna Banaszkiewicz.