FYDRYCH MAJOR WALDEMAR, Dwarf from Madalińskiego Street, Warsaw, 1982/2016, archival copy 1/4

Own technique, canvas (handwritten edition on the ground of the Orange Alternative's work wall); 70 x 60 cm, signed on the back 'KRASNOLUDEK | Z MADALIŃSKIEGO | WARSAW | 1982/2016 | Archival Author | A 1/4 | MAJOR WALDEMAR | FYDRYCH'.

"This is a picture-symbol of the leader of the Orange Alternative - a social and artistic movement, which in the breakthrough years of the 1980s and 1990s was a colorful manifestation of the young generation of artists and ordinary citizens. Happenings of members and thousands of participants of the movement, in a mocking way referred to the communist authorities and the reality of the time. The apparent approval of the system (e.g., by "celebrating" the holidays introduced by the authorities), led to caricatured situations of destroying the system with its own weapons. The group was founded in Wroclaw, and was also active in Lodz, Warsaw and Lublin. The dwarf symbol was invented by Fydrych as a kind of "synthesis." As slogans opposing the authorities were painted over, blank spaces appeared in their place, which in time began to be filled with images of dwarves as an alternative form of resistance ("the thesis is the inscription, the antithesis is the stain, and the synthesis is the dwarf," Major explained). The motif first appeared on June 1, 1987, on Children's Day, during one of the group's actions. The dwarf has a famous Scottish art patron Richard Demarco in his collection. Works from the series are in the collections of the Upper Silesian Museum in Bytom and the National Museum in Warsaw.

Bibliography: Brad Finger, "Surrealism. 50 works of art you should know," Prestel Publishing, 2013, pp. 120-121 (ill. Color)"

Waldemar Fydrych (born April 8, 1953, alias Major; surname sometimes misspelled as Frydrych) - happener, leader of the Orange Alternative. He grew up in Toruń. He studied history and art history in Wroclaw, where he was one of the initiators and leader of the happeners movement Orange Alternative. He is known mainly for this activity in the 1980s, during which time he used the humorous title of Commander of the Wroclaw Fortress. In the parliamentary elections of 1989 Waldemar Fydrych ran for the Senate. He won 10,000 votes, which was not enough to win a seat. Soon after, he left for Paris. There he worked casually, including as a room painter. In 1999 he returned to Breslau, inspiring the formation of the ephemeral Southwest Front, which carried out several happenings against the city government. In 2002, he ran for mayor of Warsaw. In December 2004, he and a group of students visited Ukraine in support of the Orange Revolution."