Construction – Reproduction: Graphics, Photography and Film in Polish Constructivism
Marcin Giżycki
kwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.plThe Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology in Warsaw (Poland)
Abstract
Giżycki deals with the problem of an interest in photography and film, shown by Polish avant-garde artists from its beginnings. According to Giżycki, photomontage, film, prints made of typographic elements, and first of all film collage were the means that were perfectly suitable for the realisation of Constructivist ideas. One of the basic aims of Constructivism – to turn towards new materials – could be put in practice through the use of finished and prefabricated elements. Giżycki traces the way in which the artworks were evolving from the „literary quality” of the early photomontages of Mieczysław Szczuka, Teresa Żarnower’s abstract and geometric compositions, Stefan and Franciszka Themerson’s films, inspired by Constructivism Pharmacy (1930) and Europa (1932) and Jalu Kurek’s (Rhytmic Calculations, 1932) into typically collage-montage films of Janusz Maria Brzeski (Sections, 1931; Concrete, 1933) or his anti-Utopian and anti-industrial series of photomontages Birth of a Robot (1934). Giżycki also points out that after a period of Utopian projects by artists relishing a regained freedom, the Constructivists expressed through art their, mostly left-wing, political beliefs. [originally published in Polish in Kwartalnik Filmowy 2006, no. 54-55, pp. 31-44]
Keywords:
constructivism, avant-garde, typographyReferences
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Authors
Marcin Giżyckikwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
The Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology in Warsaw Poland
Art and film historian, critic, filmmaker. Associate Professor at the Katowice School of Technology in Katowice (since 2012). Artistic Director of the International Animated Film Festival “Animator” in Poznań (since 2007). Senior Lecturer at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, USA (since 1988). He is the author of seven books and has made a number of documentary, experimental, and animated films.
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