Zbig Rybczynski – a world-famous author of animated films and video works, Oscar winner and pioneer in high definition TV. His works combine spectacular experimentation and formal invention with a remarkable sense of humour and acutely lyrical visual images. His art explores the common ground of cinema, television and art. He is highly regarded by both critics and audiences.
On the Visual Image brings together Rybczynski’s film pieces and electronic works, along with sketches, drawings, calculations and graphs – a collection that illustrates the artist’s steps along his way to a new visual synthesis in which he combines the photographic realism of today’s media with all the depth that great Renaissance masters such as Piero della Francesca or Leonardo da Vinci employed in representing reality. Rybczynski’s oeuvre testifies to one overall mission: attaining in art a degree of realism that embraces modern technical possibilities and at the same time responds to the spiritual aspirations of our era.
Rybczynski uses film and electronic media to create visual images which are not merely reflections of the superficial but rather reach to the truth hidden deep inside – a truth which is indispensable for representing – and above all – understanding the real world.
In his art, Rybczynski has always been aiming at free formal expression of the contents which he wished to represent. His films acquire their ultimate shape in a process starting with the recording of reality. Yet, without being limited to superficial realism, they develop further, conveying grand syntheses and artistic visions through the artist’s creativity and ingenious use of technology.
The exhibition constituted the first such comprehensive presentation of the artist’s method and his lifelong achievement.
The accompanying publication contains texts by Zbigniew Rybczynski, Piotr Zawojski and Piotr Krajewski (the exhibition curator), as well as comprehensive illustrative material.
