Edward Krasiński *
(Luzk, 1925–2004 Warsaw)
Intervention, Osieki, 1979, titled, signed, dated and inscribed, on the reverse: Praca ta jest gestem przyjaźni. Powstala na plenerze “Osieki 79”, J. Robakowski (This work is a gesture of friendship. It was made at the ‘Osieki 79’ plein-air. J. Robakowski), acrylic on canvas, blue tape, film tape, 55.5 x 47 cm, on stretcher
Provenance:
Józef Robakowski - Galeria Wymiany (Exchange Gallery), Łódź, Poland (stamp on the reverse)
Private Collection, Austria
Literature:
Art of Exchange. Józef Robakowski‘s Collection, Latent Capital 4, Wilanow Palace Museum, 10 October - 30 November 2013;
then: Profile Foundation, Warsaw, 4 November - 14 December 2013, exh. cat. p. 173 with ill.
Note:
In Polish, plener refers to an open-air gathering of artists, often taking the form of a several-day trip during which artists paint, draw and create work together. The term derives from the French plein air. The Osieki Pleinairs were among the most important meeting points for Poland ‘s neo-avant-garde artists in the 1960s and 1970s. It was most probably here that Edward Krasiński and Józef Robakowski first met.
The film tape incorporated into the work originates from Józef Robakowski, who was engaged in his experimental film practice. During their meeting, Robakowski gave a section of the film material to Edward Krasiński, who subsequently incorporated it into the canvas.
Robakowski together with Małgorzata Potocka founded Galeria Wymiany (Exchange Gallery) in Łódź, Poland, in 1978. The initiative became an important independent platform for experimental and avant-garde art, functioning not only as a gallery but also as an archive and a network for artistic exchange. Its collection was built largely through exchanges and gifts between artists from Poland and abroad.
In 2017, Robakowski donated the Exchange Gallery Collection, comprising more than 200 works, together with its archive, to the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie).
Edward Krasiński was one of the key figures of the Polish neo-avant-garde of the second half of the twentieth century. His artistic practice was defined by a radical and conceptual approach that challenged the boundaries between the artwork and its surrounding environment, transforming the act of intervention into a fundamental artistic principle.
The origins of this approach date back to 1968, when Krasiński ventured alone into a forest and spontaneously wrapped tree trunks with a roll of blue adhesive tape he had received as a gift. Positioned beyond the immediate field of vision and below the horizon line, the tape introduced a subtle yet decisive alteration to the perception of the landscape. Rather than illustrating a theory or conveying a specific symbolic meaning, this gesture constituted an intervention in reality itself, redefining the relationship between an object and the space it occupies.
Krasiński continued to develop this concept in the following years, extending the blue line beyond the natural environment into architectural and exhibition spaces. In 1970, he applied the tape throughout galleries situated on the Left Bank of the Seine in Paris, demonstrating its potential to transcend individual objects and establish a continuous relationship with the surrounding space.
Over time, the blue line became the defining element of his artistic practice, evolving into a conceptual device through which he explored perception, spatial continuity, and the relationship between art and reality.
The 1979 work Intervention is emblematic of this ongoing investigation. On a simple surface painted with black acrylic, a strip of Krasiński’s characteristic blue adhesive tape runs horizontally across the composition, slightly below the midpoint of the canvas. Yet the work is not conceived as an autonomous object: its significance extends beyond the limits of the painted surface, anticipating the continuation of the blue line onto the wall. Installed at a consistent height of 130 cm above the floor, the tape establishes a precise visual and spatial reference that connects the artwork to its architectural surroundings and to the viewer’s field of perception.
Through this deceptively simple gesture, Krasiński transforms a line into an instrument of spatial intervention. The blue tape functions simultaneously as a visual element and as a conceptual principle, dissolving the distinction between the artwork and its environment. It creates a kind of structural unity that recalls the horizon line, which in turn defines the continuity of the natural landscape, as the artist himself stated.
„My blue line is meant to embrace everything.
It is like a guide through a labyrinth;
someone once compared it to Ariadne's thread.
Yet it leads nowhere, to no exit at all, because the exit comes before the entrance.
I would not want to spoil what I do with any kind of artistry. (...)
In life and in art, everything is fragmented and broken apart,
while the blue line reconnects those lost links, bringing them closer together,
at least in the realm of the mind.
What I do is also constantly in motion, never truly complete.
It allows people to hold on to hope”
EDWARD KRASIŃSKI
Specialist: Mag. Patricia Pálffy
(Luzk, 1925–2004 Warsaw)
Intervention, Osieki, 1979, titled, signed, dated and inscribed, on the reverse: Praca ta jest gestem przyjaźni. Powstala na plenerze “Osieki 79”, J. Robakowski (This work is a gesture of friendship. It was made at the ‘Osieki 79’ plein-air. J. Robakowski), acrylic on canvas, blue tape, film tape, 55.5 x 47 cm, on stretcher
Provenance:
Józef Robakowski - Galeria Wymiany (Exchange Gallery), Łódź, Poland (stamp on the reverse)
Private Collection, Austria
Literature:
Art of Exchange. Józef Robakowski‘s Collection, Latent Capital 4, Wilanow Palace Museum, 10 October - 30 November 2013;
then: Profile Foundation, Warsaw, 4 November - 14 December 2013, exh. cat. p. 173 with ill.
Note:
In Polish, plener refers to an open-air gathering of artists, often taking the form of a several-day trip during which artists paint, draw and create work together. The term derives from the French plein air. The Osieki Pleinairs were among the most important meeting points for Poland ‘s neo-avant-garde artists in the 1960s and 1970s. It was most probably here that Edward Krasiński and Józef Robakowski first met.
The film tape incorporated into the work originates from Józef Robakowski, who was engaged in his experimental film practice. During their meeting, Robakowski gave a section of the film material to Edward Krasiński, who subsequently incorporated it into the canvas.
Robakowski together with Małgorzata Potocka founded Galeria Wymiany (Exchange Gallery) in Łódź, Poland, in 1978. The initiative became an important independent platform for experimental and avant-garde art, functioning not only as a gallery but also as an archive and a network for artistic exchange. Its collection was built largely through exchanges and gifts between artists from Poland and abroad.
In 2017, Robakowski donated the Exchange Gallery Collection, comprising more than 200 works, together with its archive, to the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie).
Edward Krasiński was one of the key figures of the Polish neo-avant-garde of the second half of the twentieth century. His artistic practice was defined by a radical and conceptual approach that challenged the boundaries between the artwork and its surrounding environment, transforming the act of intervention into a fundamental artistic principle.
The origins of this approach date back to 1968, when Krasiński ventured alone into a forest and spontaneously wrapped tree trunks with a roll of blue adhesive tape he had received as a gift. Positioned beyond the immediate field of vision and below the horizon line, the tape introduced a subtle yet decisive alteration to the perception of the landscape. Rather than illustrating a theory or conveying a specific symbolic meaning, this gesture constituted an intervention in reality itself, redefining the relationship between an object and the space it occupies.
Krasiński continued to develop this concept in the following years, extending the blue line beyond the natural environment into architectural and exhibition spaces. In 1970, he applied the tape throughout galleries situated on the Left Bank of the Seine in Paris, demonstrating its potential to transcend individual objects and establish a continuous relationship with the surrounding space.
Over time, the blue line became the defining element of his artistic practice, evolving into a conceptual device through which he explored perception, spatial continuity, and the relationship between art and reality.
The 1979 work Intervention is emblematic of this ongoing investigation. On a simple surface painted with black acrylic, a strip of Krasiński’s characteristic blue adhesive tape runs horizontally across the composition, slightly below the midpoint of the canvas. Yet the work is not conceived as an autonomous object: its significance extends beyond the limits of the painted surface, anticipating the continuation of the blue line onto the wall. Installed at a consistent height of 130 cm above the floor, the tape establishes a precise visual and spatial reference that connects the artwork to its architectural surroundings and to the viewer’s field of perception.
Through this deceptively simple gesture, Krasiński transforms a line into an instrument of spatial intervention. The blue tape functions simultaneously as a visual element and as a conceptual principle, dissolving the distinction between the artwork and its environment. It creates a kind of structural unity that recalls the horizon line, which in turn defines the continuity of the natural landscape, as the artist himself stated.
„My blue line is meant to embrace everything.
It is like a guide through a labyrinth;
someone once compared it to Ariadne's thread.
Yet it leads nowhere, to no exit at all, because the exit comes before the entrance.
I would not want to spoil what I do with any kind of artistry. (...)
In life and in art, everything is fragmented and broken apart,
while the blue line reconnects those lost links, bringing them closer together,
at least in the realm of the mind.
What I do is also constantly in motion, never truly complete.
It allows people to hold on to hope”
EDWARD KRASIŃSKI
Specialist: Mag. Patricia Pálffy
