May 30, 2009 – July 12, 2009
The Władysław Hasior Gallery
ul. Jagiellońska 18 b, Zakopane
Władysław Hasior (1928-1999) is widely known as one of Poland's leading sculptors of the post-war era, who lived in Zakopane for most of working life. He was the author of many significant monuments, "banners", objects and installations, assemblages, collages and outdoor events. However, little is known about his passion for photography. It was an art form, which accompanied him throughout his creative life. He organized his slides, put them into thematic series and continually worked on them: analysing them, collating and rearranging sets - based on a theme, on a chosen aspect of reality or on a linking element.
Sharing the observations and reflections which accompanied Hasior's photography was as important for him as taking photographs. In his flat, he organized a "cinema" - slide shows with original commentary (which he also called jokingly "a small-town club"). He presented them to his friends and acquaintances, and also invited art enthusiasts and art-school students.
While showing the photos, he spun stories not only about his work and its inspirations, but also about old and modern European and Polish art, artistic events and about a variety of what he thought were interesting manifestations of reality.
Hasior's collection of over 20,000 slides says much about the artist. He appears to us as a sensitive aesthete with an extensive cultural knowledge, a historian of art with a huge ability for associating phenomena, as well as a man with a passion for popularizing and sharing knowledge, thoughts and experiences.
The exhibition shows only a small part of the artist's photographic legacy and tries to reunite photos with Władysław Hasior's original commentary. It is divided into two parts. The first features sources of the artist's inspirations, and the displayed photographs are selected from the "Inspirations" cycle. The second part is "a photographic notebook", showing the artist's interests and his artistic sensitivity, while indirectly referring to his inspirations. The photos in this part come from the series: "Rhythms", "Scares", "Straw," "Earth", "Rock", "Water", "Nature and...", Matter", "Constructions "and "Concrete ".
Helena Pitoń
