During the vernissage we will also present an extensive catalog containing 36 photographs from Wański’s Balkan series, a critical study devoted to his work by Dr. Adam Sobota, and an artistic calendar and biography of the artist. The exhibition will be accompanied by a meeting with Dr. Adam Sobota.
Tadeusz Wański was one of the greatest polish landscape artists. He was a representative of pictorialism. Pictorialism in many of its manifestations was a modern formula of art searching for a compromise between the effects of the industrial revolution and the traditional principles of art which photography could best realize. Pictorialism tried to combine photographic values with the accepted principles of pictoriality and symbolic figures.
Photographic style of Wański was described as soft, watercolor and moody. It was characterized by the unreal nature of the landscape, idealization of the motif, excellent composition, and above all, extraordinary luminosity, which the artist obtained through special efforts. Wański used varnish on prints, removing it from light parts to get the contrast with the darker tones.Tadeusz Wański about himself during the First International Salon of Fine Art Photography, which took place in 1927 in Warsaw: “I love and admire great well thought-out, classic motifs, characterized by the charm of the play of lights and shadows, which, besides the culture and imagination, reveal the artist creative effort. There is so much beauty around us, in nature, that I can hardly understand why one could find satisfaction in reproducing triviality just for the technical prowess…”
A series of photographs “Summer on the Adriatic” taken by Tadeusz Wański on the Croatian Adriatic coast has been created, most probably, in the first half of the 1930s. The series made by Tadeusz Wański is very stylistically and thematically consistent. Selected photographs clearly illustrate his beliefs, located in opposition to avant-garde movements, gaining popularity in interwar Europe. Old architecture and natural motifs are presented in a phenomenal way – an intensity of southern sun contrasts with the deep shadows of the alleys of the Balkan villages. The artist plays with the light and shadow in almost any way he wants. Human figures are only small components of the landscape playing the role of a staffage. Specific nature and buildings, the presence of the inhabitants, and especially the intensity of sunshine in Croatia were something very exotic to the Poles in the 1930s.
Tadeusz Wański was born on 27 October 1894 in Środa Wielkopolska. He attended a humanist middle school in Wągrowiec. He was an industrialist and owner of the company Import kawy i herbaty (Import of Coffee and Tea). Over time the company opened an office in Gdynia, to where Wański relocated to supervise it. Tadeusz Wański took interest in photography by 1922. His works were first recognized at the Chiaroscuro exhibition (Światłocień), awarding him a bronze medal. In 1926 Wański joined the Poznań’s Association of Photography Aficionados; in 1930 he became its president. In the interwar period
Tadeusz Wański was one of the most frequent exhibitors at national and international art photography salons, where he won many of the highest distinctions. After the end of World War II he was engaged in activities popularizing photography. In 1954 the Warsaw Zachęta Gallery organized a large retrospective exhibition of Wański’s works. He died on 17 December 1958.
Opening: 11.04 (Thursday), 7 PM
On display: 12.04. – 01.06.2019
Lecture by Dr. Adam Sobota: 12.04 (Friday), 6 PM
Guided–tour by Wojciech Jędrzejewski: 15.05 (Wednesday) 6.30 PM
Opening hours: Monday-Saturday 10 AM-8 PM, Working Sundays 12 AM-6 PM
Free admission
Media patrons: Fotopolis, Doc! Magazine, Art Info, Digital Camera