FYDRYCH WALDEMAR MAJOR (b. 1953), Dwarf from Madalińskiego Street, Warsaw, 1983-2015, ex. 5/20

Own technique, canvas (handwritten edition on the backing of the Orange Alternative work); 70 x 60 cm, signed on the back 'KRASNOLUDEK | Z MADALIŃSKIEGO | WARSAW | 1983/2015 | 5/20 | MAJOR WALDEMAR | FYDRYCH'.

The work is accompanied by an album:
SURREALISM. 50 Works of Art You Should Know
Brad Finger, published by Prestel, 2013, language of publication: English, 114 pp., 24.5x19.5 cm,
in which the work is reproduced.

WALDEMAR MAJOR FYDRYCH This is an image-symbol of the leader of the Orange Alternative
-a social and artistic movement, which in the breakthrough years of the 1980s and 1990s constituted a
colorful manifestation of the young generation of artists and ordinary citizens. happenings
members and thousands of participants of the movement, in a mocking manner referred to the
communist authorities and the reality of the time. The apparent approval of the system (for example, by
"celebration" of holidays introduced by the authorities), led to caricatured
situations of destroying the system with its own weapons. The group was founded in Wroclaw, and was active
also in Lodz, Warsaw and Lublin. The dwarf symbol was invented by
Fydrych as a kind of "synthesis." As slogans opposing the
authority, blank spaces appeared in their place, which over time began to be filled with
with images of dwarves as an alternative form of resistance ("the thesis is the inscription, the antithesis - the stain, and the
synthesis the dwarf," Major explained). The motif first appeared on June 1, 1987, on Children's Day, during one of the group's actions. The dwarf has a famous Scottish art patron Richard Demarco in his collection. Works from the series are in the collections of the
Upper Silesian Museum and the National Museum in Warsaw.
Bibliography: Brad Finger, "Surrealism. 50 works of art you should know," Prestel Publishing,
2013, pp. 120-121 (color ill.)

Waldemar Fydrych (born April 8, 1953, alias Major; surname sometimes misspelled
as Frydrych) - happener, leader of the Orange Alternative.
He was raised in Toruń. He studied history and art history in Wroclaw, where he was one of the
of the initiators and leader of the happeners movement Pomarańczowa Alternatywa. He is known
mainly due to this activity in the 1980s, during which time he used the humorous title of
commander of the Fortress of Wroclaw.
In the parliamentary elections of 1989 Waldemar Fydrych ran for the Senate.
He won 10,000 votes, which was not enough to win a seat. Shortly thereafter
he left for Paris. There he worked casually, including as a room painter.
In 1999, he returned to Wroclaw, inspiring the formation of the ephemeral Southwest Front
West Front, which carried out several happenings targeting the city authorities. W
2002 he ran for mayor of Warsaw. In December 2004, together with a group of students
visited Ukraine in support of the Orange Revolution.