'Composition - photomontage 1948-49'

In autumn of 1949, the ‘2nd Photographic Art Exhibition’ was held in Wroclaw, organized by the Wroclaw Branch of the Polish Photographic Society. The exhibition was organized with the ‘intent to review a broad group of photographers, with particular emphasis on photographers from the Recovered Territories - and against this background, to show the works of the few more prominent individuals working in the field of photographic art’ (from the introduction to the catalogue of the ‘2nd Photographic Art Exhibition’, Wroclaw, autumn 1949).
Besides photographs submitted to the collective exhibition, the organizers also presented the works of three invited authors: Edward Hartwig, Edmund Zdanowski and Aleksander Krzywoblocki - an outstanding avant-garde artist in the field of photomontage and modern photography during the interbellum, co-founder of the Artes group in Lvov (active during the years 1929-35), architect and conservator of historical monuments.
In the introduction to the exhibition's brochure, penned by Janina Mierzecka, one can read: ‘Meanwhile, the third author, engineer A. Krzywoblocki, working in Wroclaw, shows us a direction completely novel to our exhibitions - photomontage. His photomontages straddle the border of photography and graphic art. He used clippings of others’ photographs and reproductions as materials for his works. His works display the extraordinary possibilities of composition afforded by this technique, which, although not new, has not always been applied with a happy result’ (from the introduction to the catalogue of the ‘2nd Photographic Art Exhibition’, Wroclaw, autumn 1949).
Krzywoblocki created the series of twenty one photomontages displayed at the exhibition during the years 1948-49. Krzysztof Jurecki describes them thus: ‘Architectural and sculptural forms originating from antiquity are predominant. Stone face-masks, sculptures and fragments of Greek sculptures are the central motif. Classical architecture prevails in the background. Soft, wavy drapery complements the whole. Some of these photomontages resemble the metaphysical paintings of Giorgio de Chirico in their mood and set of accessories’ (Krzysztof Jurecki, Aleksander Krzywoblocki, culture.pl, June 2004).
Krzywoblocki describes his photomontages in the ‘Traces of meetings and memories’ typescript, written during the years 1968-70, housed at the National Museum in Wroclaw: ‘At the moment of montage, the sensitizing and sublimating factor is important, orientation towards certain forms, shapes, arrangements and emotions - transmitted, emanated by the photo-element - which I saturate even further when assembling the whole, reinforcing the might of the plastic expression that is drawn out’ (Krzysztof Jurecki, Aleksander Krzywoblocki, culture.pl, June 2004).
The work that we are offering in the catalogue is a rarity on the art market. Krzywoblocki’s original photomontages are not available for sale. The artist’s work from the interbellum period has only been preserved in the form of several original works found in museum collections. Among Krzywoblocki’s unique, original photomontages displayed at the Wroclaw exhibition in 1949, twenty are in the possession of the National Museum in Wroclaw.

Additional Charge Details:
- In addition to the hammer price, the successful bidder agrees to pay us a buyer's premium on the hammer price of each lot sold. On all lots we charge 18 %.
- To this lot we apply 'artist's resale right' ('droit de suite') fee. Royalties are calculated using a sliding scale of percentages of the hammer price.