EXHIBITIONS

INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS

1978, Wacław Szpakowski (1883–1973). Linie rytmiczne (Rhythmical Lines). The first exhibition of Wacław Szpakowski’s drawings. Organized on the initiative of his daughter Anna, curated by Janusz Zagrodzki who also edited the exhibition catalogue, presenting Szpakowski as a pioneer of Polish avant-garde and precursor of Geometrical Abstraction, Minimal Art and Op Art. Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi (Art Museum in Łódź)

1979, Muzeum Architektury we Wrocławiu (Museum of Architecture in Wrocław)

1992, Wacław Szpakowski (1883–1973). The Infinity of the Line Galerie Atelier 340 in Brussels, Belgium. The monographic exhibition curated by Janusz Zagrodzki was accompanied by a catalogue with texts in five languages (Dutch, German, Polish, English, and French). It was shown in Belgium, Germany, and Poland.

1993, Wilhelm Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen, Germany

1993, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie (National Museum in Warsaw)

1994, Bałtycka Galeria Sztuki (Baltic Gallery of Art), Ustka, Poland

1994, Galeria Awangarda BWA, Wrocław, Poland

1997, Galeria Miejska Arsenał, Poznań, Poland

1997, Galeria Willa, Łódź, Poland

1998, Galeria Stara BWA, Lublin, Poland

1997, Session devoted to the work of Wacław Szpakowski organized at the Polish Center in Ottawa, Canada by the Association of Polish Engineers

2015, Wacław Szpakowski (1883–1973), Galerie Berinson, Berlin, Germany

2016, Wacław Szpakowski (1883–1973). Rhythmical Lines, Muzeum Miejskie (the City Museum of Wrocław), Wrocław. The exhibition was part of the activities of Wrocław as the European Capital of Culture in 2016. The curator of the exhibition and the editor of the monograph with essays by six authors published at that time was Elżbieta Łubowicz.

2016, Rhythmical Lines, Galeria Łącznik / University of Wrocław, Wrocław

2017, Wacław Szpakowski (1883–1973). Rhythmical Lines, Leon Wyczółkowski District Museum in Bydgoszcz

2018, Wacław Szpakowski (1883–1973). Rhythmical Lines, Platan Gallery / Polish Institute and Hybridart Space, Budapest, Hungary. The exhibition was organized in two places. In the Platan Gallery at the Polish Institute, original works, notebooks and photographs, as well as a film by J. Robakowski from 1992 were shown. In Hybridart Space, the rhythmic line from drawing D4 (1925) filled the entire interior of the gallery. An element of the whole was an acoustic-visual installation by the ElectroMoon duo, consisting in closing the composition by activating its fragment with sound.

2021–2022, Wacław Szpakowski: 935 Movements in 25 roku zosaan Infinite Line, CSW (Centre for Contemporary Art) Łaźnia, Gdańsk. An exhibition inviting you to play with Szpakowski’s Rhythmic Lines, complemented by an animation by Łukasz Grynda and Łukasz Kujawski and a sound installation by Gerard Lebik. During the vernissage, a live concert played to animated Rhythmic Lines by the Group Rdzeń69 (Piotr Lutyński, Adam Rzepecki, Zbigniew Libera, Ewa Malas-Libera, Fryderyk Lutyński i Grzegorz Kosowski).

2023, Riga Notebooks, Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga, Latvia. Latvian response to the group exhibition Notes of Riga (Museum of Art in Łódź, 2020–2021). Szpakowski’s beautiful return to the place where he lived with his family and studied architecture. It was also there that he recorded the first Rhythmic Lines in notebooks, to which he creatively returned until the end of his life. Notebooks from the years 1900–1910, together with the final ink drawings on tracing paper from the years 1920–1950, utility projects and geometric theorems, were viewed by over 19,000 people at the Riga National Museum. Curators: Inga Lace, Daniel Muzyczuk, Jakub Gawkowski.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

1979–1992
Exhibitions prepared by the Museum of Art in Łódź:

1979, Polish Photography 1839–1979, International Center of Photography, New York, USA

1983, Présences Polonaises, l’art vivant autour du Musée de Lodz, Centre George Pompidou, Paris, France

1989, Konstruktivizmus Lengyelországban (Polish Construktivism), Magyar Nemzeti Galériá (National Gallery), Budapest, Hungary

1991, Kolekcja sztuki XX wieku w Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi (20th-Century Art in the Collection of the Museum of Art in Łódż), CBWA Zachęta Gallery, Warsaw, Poland

1992, Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi 1931–1992 (Museum of Art In Łódż 1931–1992), Musée d’art contemporain, Lyon, France

1996–2015

1996, Vonal, Ernst Múzeum, Budapest, Hungary

1999, Niekończąca się linia (Neverending Line), Muzeum Sztuki Reduktywnej, Świeradów Zdrój, Poland

1999, Multimedialna kolekcja Galerii Wymiany Józefa Robakowskiego (Multimedia Art in the Collection of Józef Robakowski’s Galeria Wymiany – Exchange Gallery), BWA Zielona Góra, Poland

2000, Autoportrety (Self-Portraits), BWA – Galeria Grodzka, Lublin, Poland

2001, Postawy – szczególne powołanie artysty (Attitudes. The Artist’s Special Vocation), BWA – Galeria Grodzka, Lublin, Poland

2002, Europe – Concrete – Reductiv, Hünfeld, Germany

2003, Europe – Concrete – Reductiv, Museum of Architecture in Wrocław, Poland

2003, Labirynth – Labirynt 2 Gallery Presents Contemporary Polish Art, UH Galleries – Art and Design Gallery, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK

2004, Labirynth – Labirynt 2 Gallery Presents Contemporary Polish Art, Folly Gallery, Lancaster, UK

2004, Labirynt – Galeria Labirynt 2 prezentuje współczesną sztukę polską, BWA – Galeria Stara, Lublin, Poland

2006, Les Avant-gardes polonaises. Dialogues historiques depuis Malévitch, Musée Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France

2006, The Intelligible Non-Violent Art, Atlas Sztuki, Łódź, Poland

2006, Fotoobrazy. Gest plastyczny w fotografii (Photoimages. Plastic Gesture in Photography), Museum of Art in Łódź, Poland

2007, The Intelligible Non-Violent Art, Kunststation, Kleinsassen, Hofbieber-Kleinsassen, Germany

2007, The Intelligible Non-Violent Art, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel

2007, Prawie 100 lat sztuki awangardowej w Polsce – medium: fotografia (Almost a Century of Avant-Garde Art in Poland) Muzeum Sztuki Współczesnej w Radomiu (Contemporary Art Museum in Radom)

2011, Ornamentika – szerialitás / Ornament – Seriality, Vasarely Múzeum, Budapest, Hungary

2012, Front Wschodni (Eastern Front), Atlas Sztuki, Łódź, Poland

2012, Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

2016, The Museum of Rhythm, Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi

2016, Art Searches for IQ, NFM (National Forum of Music), Wrocław, Poland

2017, Grounding Vision, Miguel Abreu Gallery, New York, USA

2017, &, Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi

2017, Superorganism. The Avant-Garde And The Experience Of Nature, Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi

2017–2018, Imagination and Rigor, Grażyna and Jacek Łozowski’s Collection, Muzeum Miejskie (The City of Wrocław Museum), Wrocław, Poland

2018, Abstraction.pl, Museum of Art, Olomouc, Czech Republic

2019, Forms and Numbers, Galeria ASP (Academy of Art), Kraków, Poland

2020–2021, Imperative, Galeria Miejska (The City Gallery), Wrocław, Poland

2020–2021, Notes Ryski, Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi

2022–2023, Photographic Amusement from America – Multiple Portraits, BWA Katowice and Atelier 34 Zero Muzeum, Bruxelles, Belgium

2022, Sanatorium of Sound, Sokołowsko, Poland

2023, The Kowalskis Must Rest. An Exhibition about Pafawag and Free Time, BWA Wrocław, Poland

FILMS ON WACŁAW SZPAKOWSKI’S WORK

1992, Nieskończoność linii – Wacław Szpakowski (Infinity of the Line – Wacław Szpakowski) film, directed by Józef Robakowski, written by Janusz Zagrodzki, music by Zbigniew Bargielski, 12 min. (featuring the musical interpretation of eight drawings: A6, A12, B5, B9, C1, D9, F2, F5)

1992, Maciej Walczak, Klip dla Wacława Szpakowskiego, (Clip for Wacław Szpakowski), film 3.20 min., produced by the artist, collection of Galeria Wymiany (Exchange Gallery)

WORKS OF OTHER ARTISTS DEDICATED TO WACŁAW SZPAKOWSKI

1998, Beat Zoderer, Wall installation in homage to Wacław Szpakowski, wool, nails drawn into the wall, 236 x 236 cm, Galerie Sztuki Współczesnej BWA Wrocław – Awangarda Gallery

2004, Jerzy Olek, Bezwymiar iluzji. Mapy rozmaitości, (Non-Dimensional Illusion), City Museum of Wrocław – City Arsenal, exhibition dedicated to Theo van Doesburg, Wacław Szpakowski, Sol LeWitt and Zdzisław Jurkiewicz

2006,Michał Jakubowicz, Między liniami (Between the lines), exhibition and performance dedicated to Wacław Szpakowski, 2 Piętro Gallery, Wrocław

2013, Kama Wybieralska and Katarzyna Zmyślona, design for the monument to the popular actor Aleksander Żabczyński (1900–1958) in Warsaw (located in the centre of a rondo in the district of Mokotów) – assembled of sheets of perforated steel inspired by the work of Wacław Szpakowski

2009/2010 Andrzej Burmecha, Prezentacja artysty – Wacław Szpakowski (Presenting the Artist – Wacław Szpakowski), animation of Szpakowski’s F3 drawing, Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Zawodowa, Głogów, Poland

PROJECT (UNREALIZED) COMMEMORATING WACŁAW SZPAKOWSKI

1997, Professor Olgierd Czerner, then Director of the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław, in connection with the ongoing work on the replacement of the pavement of the city’s Market Square put forward in the local press the idea of having one of Szpakowski’s “infinite lines” rendered as a pavement mosaic in its western section. It would have made a splendid view from the viewing platform in the tower of St Elizabeth’s Church adjoining Market Square. Unfortunately, this interesting idea never materialized.

Compiled by Barbara Baworowska (ed. EŁ)

PRAWA AUTORSKIE ZASTRZEŻONE – COPYWRIGHTS RESERVED