Wilhelm Sasnal

5 September 2009 – 11 January 2010

 

Opening: Friday, 4th September 2009, 9 p.m.


Wilhelm Sasnal, Krakow, 2007, Oil on canvas, 40 x 35 cm, Courtesy Wilhelm Sasnal, © Wilhelm Sasnal


Approximately 75 pictures will make up this show which is organised around recurring central topics in his oeuvre.

 

This selection includes not only pictures of his family and friends but also historical figures. Further topics are the continuity of modernity in a constructed environment symbolised by flying, the depiction of intimate feelings, clichéridden views of Sasnal’s hometown Krakow, and also the ubiquity of the church in Poland.


Wilhelm Sasnal, Partisans, 2005, Oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cm, Courtesy Wilhelm Sasnal, © Wilhelm Sasnal


Sasnal’s painting style developed during the first post-communist decade in Krakow.

At that time, he belonged to a group of like-minded artists who opposed academic tradition.

 

The group Ładnie (pretty) was made up of painters who were concerned with a realistic kind of art in the broadest sense which emulated popular imagery and everyday motifs in an intentionally simple way.

 


Wilhelm Sasnal, The Populations Deployment 1994 -, 2000, Oil on canvas, 120 x 120 cm, Courtesy Wilhelm Sasnal, © Wilhelm Sasnal


Consequently, Sasnal developed a large range of pictorial alternatives extending from methods used in illustrative commercial art to almost complete abstraction.

 

He is not an artist with a comprehensive pictorial programme aimed at continuing along a previously chosen route. On the contrary - every picture is a singular event. This applies not only to his chosen motifs, which are usually present as either discovered or self-made photographs, but also to his pictorial style.


Wilhelm Sasnal, Untitled, 2009, Oil on canvas, 180 x 220 cm, Private Collection, London, © Wilhelm Sasnal


Even when painting a succession of pictures on one topic, he does not aim for standardisation and re-identification. Instead, his interest lies in the impression of the specific picture in question. Intuition and spontaneity play an important role.

 

Sasnal transfers his generation’s particular kind of visual intelligence, which enables rapid distinctions between heterogeneous images, to the medium of painting.


Wilhelm Sasnal, Shoah (Forest), 2002, Oil on canvas, 40 x 40 cm, Private collection, © Wilhelm Sasnal


Media partner

 

 





Wilhelm Sasnal, Untitled, 2003, Oil on canvas, 150 x 150 cm, Courtesy Wilhelm Sasnal, © Wilhelm Sasnal

Catalogue

 

Published by Prestel Publishing with texts by Gregor Jansen, Ulrich Loock and Adam Szymczk. Editor: Julian Heynen. 144 pages, German-English, 89 colour reproductions and film stills from “Swineherd”. Price at the museum shop: € 29.95

 


Wilhelm Sasnal, An Eyelid, 2004, Oil on canvas, 50 x 70 cm, Courtesy Wilhelm Sasnal, © Wilhelm Sasnal


Supporting Programme

 

Film premiere:

Wilhelm Sasnal, “Swineherd”, 2009

Friday, 4 September 2009, 7 p.m. 

Atelier im Savoy, Graf-Adolf-Straße 47, 40210 Düsseldorf

 

 

K21 KPMG Art Evenings

On every first Wednesday of the month, 6 p.m. until 10 p.m., admission free

 

07.10.2009, 8 p.m. – 9 p.m., lecture:

Stefan Gronert (director of the Graphics Collection, Kunstmuseum Bonn): Warum Malerei nach der Fotografie (den-)noch sinnvoll sein kann (=Why there might still be a point to painting after photography).

 

04.11.2009, 8 p.m. - 9 p.m., lecture (in English):

Andrzej Przywara (director of the Folksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw): Folksal – a Polish contemporary art gallery between myth and reality.

 

02.12.2009, 8 p.m. – 9 p.m., lecture:

Beatrix Ruf (director of the Kunsthalle Zurich): Der Maler Wilhelm Sasnal – Jenseits des “Shooting Stars” (=The painter Wilhelm Sasnal – More than just a “shooting star”).

 

 

K21 WestLB Theme day: Long live painting!

Sun, 25.10.2009

 

K21 Guided tour for visitors with impaired hearing

27.09.2009, 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.

 

K21 Information especially for teachers

The painter Wilhelm Sasnal:

15.09.2009 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.

 

A short series of lectures on literature, music, film and television in the 1980’s and 1990’s in Poland will be organised in cooperation with German-Polish Institute. The dates of these events will be announced separately.

 

Please note that normally all related events are in German language.

Gallery talks in English will be organised on request.

For further information please call Regula Erpenbach: +49 (0)211.8381-642 .

 

 


Wilhelm Sasnal, A priest, 2006, Oil on canvas, 35 x 27 cm, Private Collection, London, © Wilhelm Sasnal