Richard Henry Fung, War HERBATNIK, 1982

68.5 x 78.0 cm - tempera, gouache, paper 68.5 x 78 cm - dimensions in light passe-partout

signed on the reverse p.d. in pencil: RYSZARD GRZYB, below in pencil: HERBATNIK WOJENNY..,

in marker: 82 r., below visible fragment of stamp of permission to export abroad



Work exhibited:

- A forest, a mountain, and a cloud over the mountain, Pracownia Dziekanka, Warsaw 14 - 21 I 1983 (no cat.; Gruppa's debut exhibition);

- Show. Forest, mountain, and above the mountain a cloud, and above the cloud a hole, BWA, Lublin III 1983, without cat. list, ill. b/w p. nlb.



Bibliography:

- Maria Morzuch, New Painting in Poland, [in:] Polish Art after 1945. Materials of the Session of the Association of Art Historians, Warsaw, November 1984, Warsaw 1987, p. 270, il. b/w;

- Gruppa, ed. Agnieszka Szewczyk, Jerke Art Foundation, Museum Jerke, Recklinghausen 2023, il. p. 118 (in a block of reproductions of works exhibited in Lublin in 1983 - see Exhibitions, above).



There is an author's replica of this work, 50 x 58 cm, privately owned, with a dedication on the reverse: Ryszard Grzyb "War Biscuit" 1982 | As a token of appreciation to Marta and Janek | on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Zderzak gallery | 16.12.2005 | Ryszard Grzyb.

War Tea Party has a counterpart in the work Birds Passing Over the Flag after the declaration of martial law. Both papers were created at approximately the same time in reaction to December 13, 1981. In both, the artist - a breeder and bird lover - "covered" the field of the composition, gray-black in the first, red and white in the second case, with rows of parading figures resembling birds, in fact taken from indulgent bird-shaped whistles. By reducing an essentially serious and tragic event to the level of a trivial game, he commented on it in a manner characteristic of Gruppa, which was debuting at the time, and more broadly of the New Expression generation in Poland. The irony, the mockery of the power of the grotesque general was a sign of rebellion on par with other forms of social resistance.



♣ An additional fee will be added to the Purchase Price based on the right of the creator and his heirs to receive remuneration in accordance with the Law of February 4, 1994 - on Copyright and Related Rights (droit de suite).



Ryszard Grzyb (born Sosnowiec, July 17, 1956) studied at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, in the studio of Prof. Zbigniew Karpinski (1976-1979) and at the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (1979-1981). He obtained his diploma in the atelier of Prof. Rajmund Ziemski In 1982- 1992 he was a member of Gruppa, with which he exhibited and participated in its actions. He was also a co-founder and publisher of Gruppa's magazine, "Oj dobrze już".
Since the mid-1980s, he has made several artistic trips: in May and June 1986, together with Ryszard Wozniak, he was on a scholarship in West Berlin, in 1990-1991 in Cologne at the invitation of Rafal Jablonka, in 1995 again in Germany on a scholarship in Lamspringe, and in 1996 in Saignon at the invitation of Kamila Regent and Pierre Jaccaud.
His paintings are in the collections of the National Museum in Warsaw, Wroclaw, Cracow, Poznan, Zachęta Gallery, In District Museums in Katowice, Bytom, Torun, Bydgoszcz, Olsztyn, in private collections in Poland and abroad.
Parallel to painting, he is active in poetry, having made his debut while still a student in Wroclaw. He published his writings in "Nowy Wyraz" (1980, 1981), "Miesięcznik Literacki" (1981), in the magazine "Oj dobrze już˝", in the publication Sztuka Najnowsza. What You Can Hear, edited by M. Sitkowska (Warsaw 1989), and Young Poets of a New Poland, (London 1993), and in the art journal Working Title (2004). His "Napowietrzne Sentences" was published by Literary World (2005).
In 2004, he began a multimedia project, Sentences Overhead, in which he collects short poetic sentences, "absurd haiku," as he says, and places them in a context completely alien to poetic experiments - on billboards, postcards, pencils, mugs, turning them into neon signs, signage. By appropriating the space intended for other kinds of messages, the artist strengthens the power of their message, creating a kind of suspense.
Winner of the Jan Cybis Award for 2010.
(artist's website)