09.07.2023 / 15.30 / at the Granary of Wilkow on the grounds of the Radom Village Museum in Radom, 30 Szydłowiecka Street.
Photographs works representing a cross-section of seven decades of creative work of one of the most outstanding Polish photographers. An artist recognized on all continents, whose works have been and are presented in the world's largest art galleries.
Edward Hartwig was born in Moscow in 1909 died in 2003 in Warsaw. In 1932-34 he studied at the Graphisches Institut in Vienna with renowned photographers Rudolf Koppitz and Hans Daimler. In 1930 he presented his works for the first time in Lublin. In 1938 he worked as a free photographer. In the 1930s, with Polish pictorialists, he participated in exhibitions in Lublin and Warsaw.
First in the catalog we present works from the pictorial period, when Hartwig was influenced by his idol and mentor Jan Bulgak. By this time he had already become known as a master of landscape. His works also fulfilled the program of "native photography" propagated by Jan Bulhak. They presented a kind of marriage of realism with the traditions of pictorialism. From the beginning of his career he was perceived as a modern artist, creatively experimenting with photographic matter, searching for form and ways to make the image unreal, bringing the medium of photography closer to the visual arts. This was probably related to his youthful interest in painting. Edward Hartwig was associated with photography throughout his life. Initially its utilitarian (craft) form, and after graduation its artistic form was also experimental. He was extremely hardworking, consistent and bold in his photographic recordings. He took up a variety of subjects. He was a landscape photographer, portraitist, documentary photographer, sports photographer, photographed people of theater and art.
While working on the exhibition, we made a very interesting discovery. One of the exhibits on display is the camera used by Edward Hartwig to take photographs. This camera was shown at several exhibitions as a personal item belonging to the photographer. For more than 20 years after the artist's death it was safely kept by his daughter Danuta.
When the camera arrived at the museum, we discovered that there was film inside. We notified Mrs. Danuta Hartwig Saulewicz, the artist's daughter, of this fact, asking for permission to develop the negative. We received the consent.
After developing the negative, it turned out that Edward Hartwig himself was captured on it during one of his last exhibitions around 2001, and probably one of the last photographic motifs he worked on.
We are happy to share this discovery with you by presenting it at the exhibition as probably the photographer's last work.
The exhibition can be seen until October 2, 2023, in the Granary of Wilkow on the grounds of the Radom Village Museum in Radom, 30 Szydłowiecka Street.
The opening will feature special guest Dr. Veronika Kobylinska.
Honorary patronage was assumed by Mr. Adam Struzik Marshal of the Mazowieckie Voivodeship.
The media patron is the Union of Polish Artists Photographers.
Partner Edward Hartwig Foundation.
The organizers of the exhibition would like to extend special thanks to Mrs. Danuta Hartwig Saulewicz.