Persons
› back to overview
Partum, Ewa
Born in 1945 in Grodzisk Mazowiecki near Warsaw, Ewa Partum studied at the State College for Plastic Arts in Lódz (programme according to Wladyslaw Strzeminski) from 1963 to 1965, and continued her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Ewa Partum belongs to the first generation of Polish conceptualists, who appeared on the scene from 1965 onwards. Her work was pioneering not only in the development of conceptual art, but also of feminist art, body art, and critical art. She created “Presence/Absence”, the first installations in public space ever documented within Poland.
Her work also includes actions, objects, photographic cycles, films that she herself calls “tautological cinema”, visual poetry performances, and mail art. Ewa Partum defines the essence of her work in these terms: “the act of thought is an act of art”.
Since 1969 she has engaged in linguistic activities in an effort to find a new language of art. Actions and installations on a linguistic level followed, which were shown both in galleries and outdoors. Among them is her meta-poetry – the spilling and spreading of letters in the form of existent or non-existent texts from the history of literature (with some help from Goethe, Proust, and others). In the early 1970s she produced conceptual installations such as “Legality of Space” (1971) and “Breakfast on the Grass – after E. Manet” (1971). In 1972 she founded “Adres” in Lódz, one of the most significant galleries for mail art and art theory, which she managed until 1977. In 1973 and ’74 she developed her “tautological cinema” under the title “films by ewa”.
Ewa Partum counts as a pioneer of feminist art. 1971 saw her first lipstick prints, a symbol for feminine self-identification. From 1974 onwards she turned her own body into an artistic object, producing works that were devoted to the problem of feminism. In 1980 she produced “Self-identification”, a controversial cycle of photomontages that were displayed in the Mala Gallery in Warsaw. Much of her work was banned by Polish censors, and so was its reproduction in catalogues. During martial law in 1982, she realised her “Homage to Solidarity” in the Underground Gallery, Lódz.
Since 1983, Ewa Partum has lived in Berlin, where she moved at the invitation of the Fluxus artist Wolf Vorstell and of Berlin feminists. Numerous solo exhibitions of her work have so far been staged in Germany and Poland. In joint exhibitions, Partum’s art has also been shown in Spain, the USA, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Sweden, Japan, Uruguay, Brazil, and Argentina.
beteiligt an › Ewa Partum: The Legality of Space
Born in 1945 in Grodzisk Mazowiecki near Warsaw, Ewa Partum studied at the State College for Plastic Arts in Lódz (programme according to Wladyslaw Strzeminski) from 1963 to 1965, and continued her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Ewa Partum belongs to the first generation of Polish conceptualists, who appeared on the scene from 1965 onwards. Her work was pioneering not only in the development of conceptual art, but also of feminist art, body art, and critical art. She created “Presence/Absence”, the first installations in public space ever documented within Poland.
Her work also includes actions, objects, photographic cycles, films that she herself calls “tautological cinema”, visual poetry performances, and mail art. Ewa Partum defines the essence of her work in these terms: “the act of thought is an act of art”.
Since 1969 she has engaged in linguistic activities in an effort to find a new language of art. Actions and installations on a linguistic level followed, which were shown both in galleries and outdoors. Among them is her meta-poetry – the spilling and spreading of letters in the form of existent or non-existent texts from the history of literature (with some help from Goethe, Proust, and others). In the early 1970s she produced conceptual installations such as “Legality of Space” (1971) and “Breakfast on the Grass – after E. Manet” (1971). In 1972 she founded “Adres” in Lódz, one of the most significant galleries for mail art and art theory, which she managed until 1977. In 1973 and ’74 she developed her “tautological cinema” under the title “films by ewa”.
Ewa Partum counts as a pioneer of feminist art. 1971 saw her first lipstick prints, a symbol for feminine self-identification. From 1974 onwards she turned her own body into an artistic object, producing works that were devoted to the problem of feminism. In 1980 she produced “Self-identification”, a controversial cycle of photomontages that were displayed in the Mala Gallery in Warsaw. Much of her work was banned by Polish censors, and so was its reproduction in catalogues. During martial law in 1982, she realised her “Homage to Solidarity” in the Underground Gallery, Lódz.
Since 1983, Ewa Partum has lived in Berlin, where she moved at the invitation of the Fluxus artist Wolf Vorstell and of Berlin feminists. Numerous solo exhibitions of her work have so far been staged in Germany and Poland. In joint exhibitions, Partum’s art has also been shown in Spain, the USA, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Sweden, Japan, Uruguay, Brazil, and Argentina.
beteiligt an › Ewa Partum: The Legality of Space
