Monotypes

"To the Margin and Back" was the first international museum solo show of the Polish artist Andrzej Wróblewski (1927-1957) that features a selection of sixty-seven works including paintings, gouaches, monotypes and woodcuts. Wróblewski’s oeuvre is an intriguing example of a struggle waged by an individual within the rapidly-developing political regime in post-World War II Eastern Europe. Beginning with an early involvement in the Polish avant-garde movement marked by his participation in the much-discussed "1st Exhibition of Modern Art." in Krakow (1948), he created a series of canvases that provide an acute observation of the war-time trauma ("Executions", 1949). Many of his works convey the sense of disorder, social alienation and failed expectations concerning the role of art in the new reality.

The exhibition retraces this narrative, at the same time highlighting the artist’s lifelong interest in human nature, its masks and social codes – all issues that pushed him to constantly negotiate his own position. Spread between the extremes of two artistic idioms, and bound by personal tension, "To the Margin and Back" is itself a journey that creates new challenges to the existent readings of Andrzej Wróblewski and proposes new vistas for international audiences.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, which – for the first time – discloses the history of Wróblewski to an international public. The volume includes two critical texts addressing his artistic practice written by art historians Andrzej Kostołowski (in 1968) and Joanna Kordjak, a historical statement by the artist and photographer Zbigniew Dłubak. An essential part of the book offers a comprehensive selection of the artist’s writings (most of which were published in Polish as press articles, ranging from critiques aimed at the system of fine art academies to comments and remarks on exhibitions), as well as private notes, short texts, film scripts and letters.

ISBN 978-94-9075-701-4
format: 27×20 cm
hard cover
168 pages, colour
publisher: Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

Constance Pierce received an MFA from the Hoffberger School of Painting, Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD, studying with abstract expressionist, Grace Hartigan. Pierce has exhibited in NY, DC, CT, OH, PA, MI, MD, MS, AL, in Europe, and most recently in Japan. Her sketchbooks were twice exhibited at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. Her work is in the collection of this museum, as well as the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art (DC), the National Gallery of Art, rare book collection (DC), the Yale Center for British Art, sketchbook archives (CT), the Yale University Haas Special Collection of Book Arts (CT), the National Institutes of Health Collection (DC), the Georgetown University Booth Special Collections (DC), the Baldwin Wallace College Collection (OH), Butler Snow Law Firm (MS), the Henry Luce III Center for the Arts and Religion (DC), and the International Marion Research Institute of Dayton University (OH), as well as the Spike Lee Filmworks headquarters collection (NYC) among others and numerous private collections.

This book is published on the occasion of "American Monotypes from the Baker/Pisano Collection" at the Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin–Madison, December 19–February 22, 2015. © 2015, The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright conventions

Reflexão desenvolvida por uma artista visual em busca de discernir formas práticas — plásticas — de instaurar eixos favoráveis à causa urgente dos ameríndios guarani-kaiowá, que vivem numa atmosfera trágica no estado do Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil. Para tanto, comparam-se dois objetos litúrgicos em forma de cruz, a cruz processional cristã e o pau de chiru — manejado por rezadores indígenas. Destaca-se, com isso, a noção de pessoa “adornada” (“nua”), a qual é relacionada à circunstância de “abrir brechas no tempo presente”. Esta sintaxe é averiguada em práxis dadaístas e, também, em operações realizadas nos anos 60, numa corrente chamada por Hal Foster de Neovanguardismo. / Reflection developed by a visual artist seeking to discern practical — plastics — ways to establish axes favorable to the urgent cause of the Guarani-Kaiowá Amerindians, who live in a tragic atmosphere in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. For this, two cross-shaped liturgical objects are compared, the Christian processional cross and the «chiru» stick — handled by Indigenous prayers. Thereby, the notion of “adorned” (“naked”) person is highlighted and related to the circumstance of “opening gaps in the present time”. This syntax is verified in Dadaist praxis as well as in operations performed in the 1960s, in a stream called Neo-Avant-Garde by Hal Foster.

The text of a CAA paper I gave in Feb. 2019 at the College Art Association Conference. The panel was chaired by S. Hollis Clayson and was titled "A Second Talent: Art Historians Making Art." It revolves around my experiences making prints as a mode of research for writing about prints.

The two small figures in the cosmic landscape of my monotype reveal themselves to me as Dante and Virgil. Dante, in spite of his deepest fears, has willingly followed his guide through the terrors of the Inferno. Now, in the final Canto, Virgil begins to lead Dante into Purgatorio. It is a a place of conscious acceptance of the arduous healing of wrongdoing, but also a place of forgiveness and a promise of the coming Light. There is no way back - only forward up the mountain. ~ Everything awaits.

Uma digressão entre dois objetos litúrgicos, em forma de cruz, capta diferentes maneiras de relacionar-se com o tempo e com o espaço. O contraste, entre aspetos imbuídos no tratamento com o cruzeiro cristão e com o kurusu-o qual indica sepulturas de familiares e antepassados dos ameríndios guarani-kaiowá-, revela distintos modos de o corpo lidar com a realidade circundante. Como evadir da atual lógica reinante, a qual gera cenários opressivos como o que persiste no estado Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil, onde guarani-kaiowá sobrevivem com dificuldade? Para procurar alguma inspiração resolutiva, a presente reflexão esforça-se por esboçar meios de impregnar-se pela cosmovisão indígena. Como proposta está o esforço individual por deixar-se intrigar pela "permeabilidade cutânea", ou seja, por estar atento às "distrações" significantes instauradas no contato com o presente. Este comportamento entende-se, assim, como via para a aquisição de sentimentos, ecologicamente e socialmente, sustentáveis e responsáveis. / A digression between two cross-shaped liturgical objects captures different ways of relating to time and space. The contrast between aspects imbued in the treatment with the Christian cruise and the «kurusu»-which indicates graves of Guarani-Kaiowá Amerindians relatives and ancestors-reveals different ways in which the body copes with the surrounding reality. How to evade the current prevailing logic, that generates oppressive scenarios such as the existing in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, where Guarani-Kaiowá barely survive? To seek for some resolutive inspiration, the present reflection endeavors to devise ways to immerse itself in the Indigenous worldview. As a proposal, the individual performs an effort to be intrigued by the "skin permeability", that is, to be aware of the significant "distractions" introduced in the present. This behavior is thus understood as a way of feeling ecologically and socially, sustainable and responsible.

Constance Pierce © 2018  (oil monotype on BFK Rives cream paper)

This image is offered in response to yet another school shooting, which took place at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14th, 2018. Seventeen students and staff were fatally shot - and seventeen more were wounded - making this the deadliest school massacre in U. S. history. This horrendous tragedy resulted in "Never Again MSD," a political action committee founded by the surviving students who have expressed, "Thoughts and prayers do not save lives. Gun reform will."

As an artist, I am compelled by Biblical narrative that I express in a contemporary idiom. I often work with images of pilgrimage, lamentation, and absolution. Such archetypal themes flesh out parable and reveal to me the ancient stories, once again reborn, in our world of dissonance and division. These scared narratives, in their mythic and consuming drama, are forever played out in our most inward journeys. The moment of betrayal or transfiguration is not ancient history, but is reenacted anew within each soul. Through the work of my hands I petition an otherness. The creative act becomes an Opus Cordis, a work of the heart. The dialogue begins.

Note: Color images have been inserted in some attached versions of this essay.
Constance Pierce

Online ISBN
978-90-481-9160-4
Print ISBN
978-90-481-9159-8

"To the Margin and Back" was the first international museum solo show of the Polish artist Andrzej Wróblewski (1927-1957) that features a selection of sixty-seven works including paintings, gouaches, monotypes and woodcuts. Wróblewski’s oeuvre is an intriguing example of a struggle waged by an individual within the rapidly-developing political regime in post-World War II Eastern Europe. Beginning with an early involvement in the Polish avant-garde movement marked by his participation in the much-discussed "1st Exhibition of Modern Art." in Krakow (1948), he created a series of canvases that provide an acute observation of the war-time trauma ("Executions", 1949). Many of his works convey the sense of disorder, social alienation and failed expectations concerning the role of art in the new reality. The exhibition retraces this narrative, at the same time highlighting the artist’s lifelong interest in human nature, its masks and social codes – all issues that pushed him to constantly negotiate his own position. Spread between the extremes of two artistic idioms, and bound by personal tension, "To the Margin and Back" is itself a journey that creates new challenges to the existent readings of Andrzej Wróblewski and proposes new vistas for international audiences. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, which – for the first time – discloses the history of Wróblewski to an international public. The volume includes two critical texts addressing his artistic practice written by art historians Andrzej Kostołowski (in 1968) and Joanna Kordjak, a historical statement by the artist and photographer Zbigniew Dłubak. An essential part of the book offers a comprehensive selection of the artist’s writings (most of which were published in Polish as press articles, ranging from critiques aimed at the system of fine art academies to comments and remarks on exhibitions), as well as private notes, short texts, film scripts and letters. ISBN 978-94-9075-701-4 format: 27×20 cm hard cover 168 pages, colour publisher: Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

"To the Margin and Back" was the first international museum solo show of the Polish artist Andrzej Wróblewski (1927-1957) that features a selection of sixty-seven works including paintings, gouaches, monotypes and woodcuts. Wróblewski’s oeuvre is an intriguing example of a struggle waged by an individual within the rapidly-developing political regime in post-World War II Eastern Europe. Beginning with an early involvement in the Polish avant-garde movement marked by his participation in the much-discussed "1st Exhibition of Modern Art." in Krakow (1948), he created a series of canvases that provide an acute observation of the war-time trauma ("Executions", 1949). Many of his works convey the sense of disorder, social alienation and failed expectations concerning the role of art in the new reality. The exhibition retraces this narrative, at the same time highlighting the artist’s lifelong interest in human nature, its masks and social codes – all issues that pushed him to constantly negotiate his own position. Spread between the extremes of two artistic idioms, and bound by personal tension, "To the Margin and Back" is itself a journey that creates new challenges to the existent readings of Andrzej Wróblewski and proposes new vistas for international audiences. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, which – for the first time – discloses the history of Wróblewski to an international public. The volume includes two critical texts addressing his artistic practice written by art historians Andrzej Kostołowski (in 1968) and Joanna Kordjak, a historical statement by the artist and photographer Zbigniew Dłubak. An essential part of the book offers a comprehensive selection of the artist’s writings (most of which were published in Polish as press articles, ranging from critiques aimed at the system of fine art academies to comments and remarks on exhibitions), as well as private notes, short texts, film scripts and letters. ISBN 978-94-9075-701-4 format: 27×20 cm hard cover 168 pages, colour publisher: Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven