Technique:acrylic on plywood, dimensions:33x33 cm, author's frame, signed on the back.
Gerard Jürgen Blum Kwiatkowski: artist of European significance - painter, creator of installations, author of several monuments in public space, art theorist and curator, animator of artistic life.
He was born in 1930 in Faulen (now Ulnowo). For many years he was associated with Elblag: in 1956-61 he was co-founder and manager of the Club of Young Intelligentsia "Red Oberza", in 1961 he founded and led the Art Laboratory and EL Gallery, in 1965-1973 - he was the initiator and organizer of the Biennale of Spatial Forms and many other artistic events.
In 1974, upon hearing of his son's illness, he left for Germany, where he stayed. In Germany, he set up so-called art stations (at Cornberg Monastery, Rittersheim Castle) and art schools (in Hünfeld, Fulda, Bad Hersfeld, Eschwege, Kleinsassen) and thus formulated the "idea of stationism." From 1975 he ran the Free Academy of Art in Hünfeld, and in 1990 he opened the Museum of Modern Art - with a collection with an international profile, bringing together works by artists of Constructivist origin. In 1993 he founded the Artists' Museum "Forum of Concrete Art" in Erfurt and the Museum of Reductive Art in Swieradow-Zdroj. By the end of the 1990s, he had organized dozens of exhibitions and symposia in Europe, the United States and Israel, and published more than a dozen texts on art. He continued these activities almost to the end of his life.
In 2000 (thanks to Zbyszek Opalewski, director of the EL Gallery Art Center at the time) he re-established contact with the institution of which he was a founder, and in 2011 he donated to his home institution part of the collection - more than 200 works - from the collection gathered at the Museum Modern Art Hünfeld (Germany), consisting of more than 4,000 works. In accordance with his wishes, a modern steel and glass construction of a two-story emporium was built inside the EL Gallery - a former Dominican church - for the permanent presentation of the Collection, which was put into use in May 2011. A ceremonial opening of the empora was held, along with a display of the gift Gerard received, and on the occasion Elblag honored the artist - local media headlines read: "Gallery EL is just experiencing its celebration. 50 years after the establishment of the EL Gallery, its founder Gerard Kwiatkowski was presented with the title of honorary citizen of Elblag."
