The Artist and his City. New York in the Works of Tadeusz Mysłowski

Abstract

Tadeusz Myslowski, born in 1943 in the village of Piotrkow near Lublin, a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, left Poland in 1969. His first destination was Paris and then, in 1970, the United States. From that moment on, he has been living and working in New York, a city that has become an inexhaustible source of inspiration for him. Fascinated by the urban layout of Manhattan, its astounding network of streets, he abandoned traditional painting techniques in favour of a black-and-white series of drawings, prints, collages, photomontages and installations, created in the spirit of geometric abstraction and Constructivism, the art trends that were particularly dear to him. His works display transformed portions of the architectural structures of this extraordinary city with which the artist conducts a never-ending formal discourse. Myslowski has always been supported by his wife Irena Hochman, an art historian by education, owner of a notable art gallery and an important figure in the American art market. Tadeusz and Irena share not only a passionate relationship, but also a great collector's passion, which has resulted in the creation of an interesting collection of works by Polish, European and American artists who were primarily active in the 20th century. These are exclusively works on paper, mainly prints made using all possible graphic techniques. In 2017, the couple donated a part of the collection to the then Lublin Museum (now the National Museum in Lublin) and placed some of the artworks on a long-term loanśc dokonania zmian w kulturze.