The world of Krystiana Robb-Narbutt - painter, illustrator, and poet - is a world of dreams and imaginings, but also one of the simplest daily experiences. Her art is born from questions about the meaning of life, love, suffering, and happiness.

Krystiana Robb-Narbutt, SLADY, 2002

The world of Krystiana Robb-Narbutt - painter, illustrator, and poet - is a world of dreams and imaginings, but also one of the simplest daily experiences. Her art is born from questions about the meaning of life, love, suffering, and happiness. "I want to understand and experience my time and art with others, which is why I spend a lot of time observing, reading and following current trends in art - all this in spite of the fact that I know the path I have chosen," she says of herself and her work.

The artist transforms her experiences in life into highly focused, contemplative drawings, peculiar objects, and small volumes of poetry, all of which provide a subtle description of the world and basic human instincts. Krystiana Robb-Narbutt's spare landscapes are visions of infinity. Using thousands of dots of paint, she produces these on small pieces of cardboard and wood. Though these miniatures seem far more akin to paintings, she refers to them as drawings. Her compositions in shades of white, gray, blue and pink most frequently depict people-less landscapes and views, all of which seem to posses a central compositional element, be it a hill, island, gravestone, cloud, angel's wing, labyrinth, or potted plant. Individual works or series of them bear titles like "Sen o wyspie" / "The Dream of the Island," "Droga" / "Road," "Chwila" / "Moment," "Zapamietanie" / "Remembrance," "Koniec i poczatek" / "'Beginning and End," "Powtorne narodziny" / "Rebirth," "Marzenie o podrozy" / "The Dream of a Voyage," "To, co pozostalo po nieskonczonosci" / "That Which is Left of Infinity," "To, co pozostalo po aniele" / "That Which is Left of the Angel, "Zapis swiat i dnia powszechnego" / "A Record of Holidays and Weekdays."

In a text about the work of Krystiana Robb-Narbutt, Marzenna Guzowska writes, "Critics analyze the painterly means the artist uses, describe her paintings, attempt to capture the messages they convey, demonstrate the traces of transcendence within them. They use words like 'symbol,' 'sign,' and 'metaphor.' However, words are powerless in the face of metaphysics. That which cannot be articulated can only be experienced, so we experience a desire to get closer to these paintings, to know more about them than merely that they reflect the miracle of creation, which consists in the transformation of pain, desire, and longing into the contour of an object, a patch of color, a composition. Her works bear a truth more enduring than any substance used to make art and stronger than the lives of humans."

Krystiana Robb-Narbutt (born 1945) studied painting and graphic design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. She graduated in 1971 and debuted with an exhibition of original woven fabrics. She has participated in several dozen group exhibitions in Poland and abroad, and had more than a dozen solo shows at venues that have included the "Kordegarda" and "Pokaz" galleries in Warsaw. Her works are included in private and museum collections in Poland and beyond. The exhibition at the "Zachęta" National Gallery of Contemporary Art includes approximately one hundred drawings and objects created by the artist during the 1980s, 1990s and later.

Exhibition opening: August 29, 2003, 7 p.m.

"Zachęta" National Gallery of Contemporary Art
Panstwowa Galeria Sztuki "Zacheta" w Warszawie
Director: Agnieszka Morawinska
Plac Malachowskiego 3, 00-916 Warszawa
tel. (+48 22) 827 58 54, 827 69 13, 826 83 81, 827 69 09, 827 68 24
fax (+48 22) 827 78 86
www.zacheta.art.pl

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