Vladimir Boudnik/ Retrospective of works from 1947-1968

Vladimir Boudnik/ Retrospective of works from 1947-1968 / 25.05.2023 - 20.06.2023

From 26 May, visitors to the City Gallery will have the opportunity to view a retrospective exhibition of works by Vladimir Boudnik – a Czech avant-garde graphic artist and painter whose extraordinary life and unconventional creative attitude inspired Bohumil Hrabal to write his novel “The Tender Barbarian”. This is the first solo exhibition of this legendary artist’s works in Poland in over 60 years.

In his famous book, Hrabal described his friend in these words: Vladimír, the master of tactile imagination, was always dying, always on the point of giving up the ghost, but only in order to rise from the dead, grow young again, renew the strength to break through walls with his head (…). Boudnik was an artist of unlimited imagination and extraordinary creative power. He became known mainly as a main forerunner of the Explosionlism movement which involved creating based on free associations. At the core of this movement was the ability to evoke shapes and colours corresponding to memories of specific places which the artists processed based on their subjective experiences and reflections.

Boudnik was known for using non-standard artistic materials in his art, such as metal shavings, filings, pieces, textiles and metal sheet. His formal experiments were inspired by his long-time employment in industrial and metal factories. Thus, Boudnik’s art, filled with explorations and unconventional solutions, testifies to the inherent bond between art and his life.

The exhibition at the City Gallery in Gallery will showcase the Czech artist’s diverse works from 1947-1968. Alongside prints produced using a variety of techniques, the show features collages, paintings and photographic documentation of Boudnik’s happenings from the late 1940s and early 1950s. The exhibition is complemented by archives related to the artist. These include letters with drawing notes, samizdat, catalogues with unique prints and even the original copy of the famous Manifesto of Explosionlism.

The exhibition will be on display until 20 June.
The official opening of the exhibition takes place on 25 May at 6:00 p.m.

Curators: Mirosław Jasiński, Jan Placak