Włodzimierz Książek (1951 - 2011)

Images courtesy of Celina Imielinska

The Polish Cultural Institute in New York laments the passing of WLODZIMIERZ KSIAZEK (1951-2011) PAINTER Wlodzimierz Ksiazek negotiates the demands of narrative and the sublimities of abstraction. Ksiazek's paintings confront us with their demanding realism: there is no story that is not mutable, there is no truth that is safe from erosion. - James McCorkle, artnet Wlodzimierz Ksiazek was born in Poland and lived and worked in the United States for over 30 years, exhibiting his work in galleries in New York, Boston, and around New England. His abstract work was noted for the intensity of emotion that it conveyed and the way that it revealed time compressed in layers of paint and wax. Donald Kuspit wrote, The hard work that Ksiazek puts into his paintings - they are clearly labor-intensive (he works into as well as out of his surfaces, that is, burrows into them by working them out) - in a constant effort to strike a new balance between two dimensions and three dimensions (pure painting's flatness and impure painting's illusionism, a symbolization of space that brings with it a symbolization of emotions experienced through spatial events) without forcing and stabilizing the balance - is what makes Ksiazek's paintings creative "advances" in the history of painting. The Polish Cultural Institute in New York supported his 2005 exhibition at the Kouros Gallery in New York, and he was a recognizable fixture at the Institute's events as a member of the group of Polish emigres most deeply engaged in cultural affairs. His profound commitment to his art shall remain an inspiration to all who knew him. WLODZIMIERZ KSIAZEK WEBSITE SHORT FILM ABOUT WLODZIMIERZ KSIAZEK   © Wlodzimierz Ksiazek SUNDAY, JUNE 26, 2011 3:00 PM MEMORIAL Alpha Gallery 37 Newbury Street Boston, MA 02116 Tel. 617.536.4465