Signed l.g.: WJZakrzewski 1973
Printed sticker with details of the painting on the bottom strip of the loom.
Włodzimierz Jan Zakrzewski (Lodz 22 XI 1946, lives in Warsaw)
studied at the Faculty of Painting and Graphics at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts in 1964-70 (diploma in the studio of Prof. Krystyna Łada-Studnicka). During his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Zakrzewski studied in the studios of such artists as Roman Owidzki (composition of solids), Juliusz Studnicki (painting), Halina Chrostowska (graphics), Daniel Szczechura (photography).
Already as a student of painting, Zakrzewski was looking for a place for himself between geometric abstraction and the pop art and hyperrealist figuration current penetrating Polish art at the time. The work of his father, painter Włodzimierz Zakrzewski, among whom he grew up, was also not without significance for the young artist.
The artist left Poland in 1981 and settled in the United States. Since 1990, he divided his time between New York and Warsaw.
After leaving for the United States in 1981, Zakrzewski continued his painting self-reflection and continued to play out on his canvases abstract still lifes and landscapes maintained in a conceptual discipline. In his works from the 1980s, one can recognize similar linear forms on flat, neutral backgrounds, although they became increasingly immaterial through the clarity of lines and colors.
He has lived and worked in Warsaw since 2001.
Around 2000, Zakrzewski began making his works in the form of installations that dealt with various aspects of Polish-German history. Within the framework of the "Polonia-Germania" project, there was an exhibition entitled "Heaven over Berlin" presented in Poznań, Warsaw and Berlin (2003/2004).
The artist's works have been presented in numerous group and individual exhibitions, including Marian Goldman Gallery, Vanderwoude/ Tananbaum Gallery, Brooklyn Museum, TZ'Art & Co. in New York, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Thomas Schulte Galerie in Berlin, Wetering Galerie in Amsterdam, Zachęta National Art Gallery in Warsaw, Foksal Gallery, CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Ego Gallery in Poznań.
Zakrzewski's works are in the collections of the National Museum in Warsaw and Poznan, the Museum of Art in Lodz, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Brooklyn Museum in New York, Museum Bochum, the Zachęta National Art Gallery, the Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw, the collection of Galeria Foksal and others.
