Technique: acrylic on canvas, dimensions: 50 x30 cm, 2009; signed ldr Krzysztof Skarbek 2009
"Rhinoceros"- the first version of the painting, large format, was purchased by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Wroclaw, Strzegomski Square, and thus the presented work, item 1, is a smaller version of a museum work no longer available. Permanently, the first version of "Rhinoceros" was placed in the permanent exhibition of the office of the Mayor of Wroclaw.
Prof. Krzysztof Skarbek in IV 2017 wrote about his work present in the current auction as follows:
"MY FAIRY TALE IN PAINTING ALSO PHOTOGRAPHIC".
In the current proposal I would like to present paintings, inspired by various narratives of cinema, the 1960s, as well as primitive, tribal culture. This peculiar cluster of ideas and aesthetics, located at opposite poles, allows me to see the desires of man in his eternal and ever-present aspirations, expressed in symbols and also unchanging archetypes. The 1960s gave pop culture a peculiar shape, presenting an admiration for technological development and its impact on culture and everyday life. I try to depict, often with positive irony, emphasized with humor ever-present antinomies such as love and death, friendship and struggle. My paintings can trigger questions about the future of our civilization. I intend to reveal a reflection full of optimism, related to the contemporary conditions of life, often using the tool of persiflage.
When creating, I activate events from the borderline of everyday life, dreams, colloquial activities and fairy tales. The content and structure of fairy tales reveals a basic wisdom that is readable to all in many cultures. It goes back to the roots of familiar human desires, as well as providing a kind of puzzle that can be solved personally. In my fairy tale, banal everyday life is transformed into the realization of desires for an unforced life, in accordance with the projections of unfettered fantasy. We can also see here the new myths and symbols of our time. Some of today's objects-symbols to which mythological meanings have been given are the car, the television, the computer or the cell phone. Nowadays, these devices are more than just things to shape man's environment. Being an addition to his environment, they often become an end in themselves.
By painting them in compositions where people are in an overriding role, interacting with each other, I change their utilitarian activities, serving a now more interesting and better reality.
The formal means used are to emphasize the idea of the message. I use strong color and also contrast in stable and jittery planes. The structure of the paintings is open to multiple approaches to the figurative-painting problem.
You can also see the variety of the applied method of expression in the form of combining distant events into new, fantastic scenes, as well as the introduction of painterly structures and textures on the surface of the canvas. The optimistic content of my work, combined with the methods of artistic expression, strive to indicate positive emotional states. Most important for me is the expression of rebellion against hypocrisy, changing stereotypes, Promethean struggle for values, humor and love.
Krzysztof Skarbek
BIOGRAPHY
Obtained a diploma in painting in the studio of Professor Zbigniew Karpinski at the State Higher School of Fine Arts, now the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, in 1985.
He has been a full professor since 2012.
He runs a graduate painting studio at the Faculty of Painting.
Deputy dean of the Faculty of Painting and Sculpture from 2008 to 2012, he works in easel painting, video art, actions and installations. He has participated in 400 group exhibitions and presented his works in 60 solo exhibitions. His paintings and films are in many private and museum collections at home and abroad .His works include about 40 author's films, 45 art and music actions, including those within the framework of the art groups Swallowers of Pearls from the Oder and Plastic Operations Cabinet, which he founded.
http://youtube.com/krzysztofskarbek
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Individual exhibitions
1987III- Painting, The ordinariness of today is sunny on, collages, photographs, Promocyjna Gallery, Warsaw, catalog-folder, placard;
1990X - Painting, The disenchanted world of everyday life, WAAG City Gallery, Leiden, Netherlands, catalog, poster;
1993X-Cabinet of Plastic Operations and Renewal of Feelings, para-sculptures from military parts, Zachęta Gallery (Small Salon), Warsaw, poster, postcard;
1995 I- Painting and video show, Branch of the National Museum, Królikarnia Palace, Warsaw, catalog, folder;
2008 IV- Monographic Exhibition of Painting, Town Hall - City Museum, Wroclaw, catalog, poster, banners;
2009 IV - Krzysztofas Skarbekas - Taryba ir Video Darbai, Meno parksas Gallery, Kaunas, Lithuania, folder, placard;
2015 VII - Painting, Love Wins, Wrocław Congress Center, exhibition accompanying the opening of the exhibition of photographs of Marilyn Monroe, Wrocław, catalog, poster;
2016 X - Painting, Strangers Want to Be Good and Musical Performance by the author's group, Swallowers of Pearls from the Oder River, City Gallery, Wroclaw, catalog, poster, banner;
2018 VIII - Painting, Strangers Want to Be Good 2, Festivall del Arte, Palace in Wojanow, Catalog;
2020 VIII - Exhibition of mural painting and art and music performance, Original Antinomies of our Era, Bunkers, Międzyrzecz Fortification District, Międzyrzecz;
2022 X - Unveiling of a new statue of the Berlin Buddy Bear, symbolically depicting the ties between Wroclaw and Berlin, developed in painting by Krzysztof Skarbek at the Consulate General of Germany in Wroclaw;
Group exhibitions
1985 V - Film outside the cinema, III International Non-commercial Film Festival, Wroclaw (film "Change"), Award, catalog, poster;
1986 VI-VII - "Expression of the 80's", painting, films, BWA Sopot Gallery, catalogue-folder, poster;
1990 III - Exhibition of five artists from Wroclaw, painting, Gallery Camden Art Centre, London, catalog, poster;
1992 IV-V - Image Forum Festival, videos, Tokyo and Osaka, catalog, poster;
1991 I-II - Polish Chic, painting, Zachęta Gallery, Warsaw, catalog, poster;
XI - XII - Confrontations of European art of the 1980s, painting, Town Hall, Tumult Foundation, Torun, album, poster;
2001 IX - X - International painting exhibition Spontaneous Synthesis, Andre Zarre Gallery, New York;
2005 V - Polen kommt. 12 Maler aus Polen, Galerie Am Kino, Kulturbrauerei, Berlin, catalog, poster; as part of the Polish Year in Germany and the German Year in Poland;
XII 2006 - II 2007 - Polish Painting XXI w., Zachęta National Art Gallery, Warsaw, album, poster;
2015 VI - Art Exhibition, Wild Fields. History of Avant-Garde Wrocław, exhibition prepared by the Contemporary Museum Wrocław within the framework of the European Capital of Culture, Wrocław 2016, Zachęta - National Art Gallery, Warsaw, catalog, poster,
2017 III- Exhibition of Painting, Wrocław Now, Casa Matei Gallery, Cluj-Moca, Romania, catalog, poster;
VIII- Exhibition of Painting from Wroclaw, City Gallery, Beijing, China, catalog, poster;
X - Three decades of expressive painting in Wroclaw, URANIA Foundation, AN der Urania, Berlin, catalog, poster;
2018 IV - Exhibition from Witkacy to Recent Art, And Why We Need Freedom, Center for Contemporary Art, Torun, poster, catalog;
2021 V - Festival of Painting, Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, Exhibitions in galleries in Wroclaw;
2023 IV-V "Fairy Tale Worlds in Our Paintings" by Prof. Zw. Krzysztof Skarbek and Dr. Piotr Saul - WorldartB Gallery.
A group exhibition is currently underway at the Zachęta National Gallery in Warsaw, featuring a 5m painting by Krzysztof Skarbek from the series Myths of Olympus vs. Modernity, and from November 26, 2023 the exhibition Masters at the St. Gierowski Foundation and the museum's 1990 painting Pistachio Ice Cream are on view
Prizes and awards
1985 V- Award for the film "Change Yourself" at the 3rd International Non-Commercial Film Festival - Film Beyond Cinema, Wroclaw;
1987- Annual scholarship from the Minister of Culture and Art;
1989 XI- Distinction for the video Our Concrete-Aront at the l International Festival of Visual Surrounding Realizations - WRO '89., Wroclaw;
1990 VII- Award for collective painting by Franciszek Starowieyski, Jerzy Gumieli, Zdzisław Nitka and Krzysztof Skarbek at the 15th Festival of Polish Contemporary Painting, Szczecin;
1993 X- Second Degree Award of the Rector of the State Higher School of Fine Arts, Wroclaw;
1998 II- Order with a star bestowed for charitable work by the Knights and
Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem;
2002 X- Award of l degree from the Rector of the Academy of Fine Arts, Wroclaw;
2005 IX- Award of the Rector of the Academy of Fine Arts, Wroclaw, for 20 years of work;
2008 XI- Nomination for the ZPAP Wrocław Award of the Year, for Monographic Painting Exhibition, Town Hall, Wrocław;
2012 V- Bronze Medal - Meritorious for Culture Gloria Artis;
2014 X- Distinguished Service to Polish Culture;
2015 X- Award of the Rector of the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw for lifetime artistic, scientific and didactic achievements;
2017 I- Distinction to the Award of the Year 2016 of the Association of Polish Artists of Wrocław District;
2022 X: Golden Cross of Merit ,President of the Republic of Poland;
Descriptions of Activities in Selected Books
Collection of Contemporary Art of the Second Half of the 20th and 21st Centuries, Barbara Ilkosz, Museum of the Four Domes, Museum of Contemporary Art Branch of the National Museum in Wrocław, Wrocław 2016;
Wild Fields, a history of Wrocław's avant-garde, edited by Dorota Monkiewicz,
Zachęta - National Gallery of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Wrocław 2015;
2011 - The Great Encyclopedia of Polish Painting, edited by Aleksandra Górska, Kluszczyński Publishing House, Krakow;
"Poland. History of civilization and the nation - Poland of the 20th century", edited by Marek Derwich, Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie, Wroclaw - Warsaw 2004,
"Słownik malarzy polskich. From the interwar period to the end of the 20th century", vol. 2, entry: Krzysztof Skarbek, author: Maryla Sitkowska, Arkady Publishing House, Warsaw 2001,
"Encyclopedia of Polish Culture of the 20th Century. From Avant-Garde to Postmodernism," edited by Grzegorz Dziamski, chapter "Nowa Ekspresja, czyli polska transawangarda," by Krzysztof Stanisławski, Institute of Culture of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw 1996,
Paintings and video art works in the collection
Paintings in museum collections:
National Museum in Warsaw;
National Museum in Szczecin;
Museum of Contemporary Art in Wroclaw, in the permanent exhibition of the Secretariat of the Mayor of Wroclaw;
Museum of Contemporary Art, Pavilion of the Four Domes, Branch of the National Museum in Wroclaw, Painting in the permanent exhibition Collection of 20th Century Polish Art;
Ossolineum Museum in Wrocław;
Painting in the permanent exhibition of the Department of Contemporary Art, Museum of the City of Wroclaw;
Archaeological and Historical Museum in Głogów, Głogów;
Museum of Kujawska I Dobrzyska Land in Włocławek;
Bank Zachodni currently Santander in Wroclaw;
BWA in Legnica;
Center for Contemporary Art in Toruń;
Private collections in Poland, France, Greece, Germany, Sweden, Canada
and USA;
Video art in the collection of the International Center for Video Creation - Montbeliard, France;
Video art in the collection of the WRO Art Center - Polish Video Art, Wroclaw, Project, Hidden Decade 1985 - 1995;
