The work is part of a deposit preserved in the Arsenal Municipal Gallery Collection. The set consists of 25 photographs (9 colour and 16 black and white), most of which were created between 1981 and 1998. Each of the artworks is an abstract composition in which flashes of light, key to the artist’s entire oeuvre, take centre stage. The luminous lines, dots, and spots constitute a visual record of sounds. The collection also includes luminous scores of German cities – Duisburg, Cologne, and Berlin.
In his book 20th Century Photography, Reinhold Misselbeck wrote: “In his sculptural and photographic work, Mikołajczyk experiments with space and light. His camera records the movement of light in space. Sometimes, for example in the series Drawing with Light, the artist moves so that static light can create lines. A third approach is the camera that moves in an environment in motion.”
Dr Christoph Brockhaus described the artist’s work as follows: “Through the use of photography, film and video, as well as gestures and installations in both interiors and open spaces – for the most part outside official cultural institutions – Antoni Mikołajczyk has explored various aspects of light. These efforts culminated in the creation of Light Sculpture, which is unique in the decades-long discourse on the role of light in art, and draws its impulses from an unwavering belief in the utopian functions of art. The theoretical foundations and perspectives of art, and its consistent and logical growth, are among the most outstanding achievements of Polish contemporary art.”
O artystce
Antoni Mikołajczyk was a member of key 1960s and 1970s avant-garde groups including Rhythm, Circle, Zero-61 and, above all, the Workshop of the Film Form (1970-1977), where he collaborated with artists including Józef Robakowski, Wojciech Bruszewski, and Ryszard Waśko. For years, he was part of what Robakowski described as the “Łódź progressive movement.” In 1981, he curated the exhibition Breakwater – Polish Art 1970-1980, which accompanied the first installment of the major international art event, Construction in Process. In 1982, Mikołajczyk founded the underground Art Consultation Point in his flat in Łódź, where he held meetings with artists and documented independent artistic movements.
His work has been exhibited around the world, including at: Richard Demarco Gallery in Edinburgh, 12th Bienal de São Paulo, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Museum Ludwig Cologne, Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum Duisburg, at Construction in Process in Munich and at the Europa, Europa exhibition at Kunsthalle Bonn. In Poland, his work was exhibited at the Museum of Art in Łódź, Galeria Wschodnia in Łódź, Galeria ON in Poznań, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, Arsenal Municipal Gallery in Poznań – both individually (e.g. Transmissions from Reality, 2020), and as part of group shows (Traps_Simulations_Transmissions. Areas of Post-Photography, 2019; Minor Narratives, 1994) and many others. Mikolajczyk’s works are held in the collections of, among others: Museum of Art in Łódź, Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Museum of Modern Art Brasília, Richard Demarco Gallery in Edinburgh, Museum of Modern Art in Buenos Aires, Archivum Stichting “De Appel” in Amsterdam, and Het Apollohuis Gallery in Eindhoven.