Kozłowski, Jarosław.

[POLISH NEO-AVANT-GARDE – CONCEPTUAL BOOK OBJECT] language/jezyk.

Warsaw: Galeria Foksal, 1972. Quarto (28.5 × 20.5 cm). Original green side-stapled card wrappers; [1], 46 leaves of reproduced typescript to rectos and versos. In Polish and English. Rust to staples beneath wrappers, as usual; else very good. Item #53020

Rare artist book by Kozłowski, a master of Polish conceptualism and co-founder of the anti-institutional NET initiative. Born 1945, Kozłowski studied painting at the University of Fine Arts in Poznań. His creative output includes drawings, artist books, performances, installations, and experimental institutional structures. In 1971, defying the tight control of national borders – and of art by institutions – Kozłowski and art historian Andrzej Kostolowski (born 1940) formulated and mailed the NET manifesto to 350 international artists. It proposed the free circulation of artistic ideas, in “opposition to institutions dominated by the market in the West and bureaucratic ideology in the East.” The manifesto was a phenomenal success and Kozłowski soon began to receive artworks, manuscripts, slides, letters, handbills, books, and films from around the world. The first group of NET materials was shown in May 1972 in the artist's apartment, with art objects from Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, USA, Brazil, and Israel. The exhibition was shut down that evening by the Polish secret police (Służba Bezpieczeństwa, or Security Service). Accused of anarchist anti-state activities, the participants were interrogated and all materials confiscated. Kozłowski was removed from his teaching post at the Poznań Academy of Fine Arts, “demoted to working at the University library,” and barred from leaving Poland for six years. Nevertheless, he would go on to found Akumulatory 2 Gallery by the end of the year, which hosted further NET events, including a Fluxus festival in 1977.

Kozłowski’s artist books are also grounded in conceptualism and in his aim to break international barriers by means of art. Piotr Rypson describes the period that led to the emergence of the Polish artist book as one of artistic optimism: “Widespread interest in the language of art; exploring the links between art and science; serious reduction of extra-conceptual elements, and fascination with new means of expression […] served to strengthen faith in art as a lingua franca in which cultural dialogue could be held” (Rypson 2000, p. 104). Rypson also identifies Kozłowski as one of the first to make artist books, a form that “broke through the state monopoly, often avoiding censorship and the official publishing machinery,” and ultimately “stretching the limits of freedom.” Moving beyond the self-published concrete poetry of artists such as Andrzej Partum, Kozłowski’s artist books play with logic and reduce language to its most basic elements.

“The questions posed by language can be considered the central questions of [Kozłowski’s] entire work, especially the books written/made by the artist since the 1970s” (Nader 2005, p. 188). His 1972 book Language is a “deliberation on the language of art” and the “logic of artistic expression.” Rather than using words or sentences, here the artist creates a game with letters of the Latin alphabet. Some combinations of letters spell recognizable words in English or Polish and perhaps other languages; others form simple letter combinations with no assigned meaning. Foksal Gallery is indicated as the publisher of this text to confuse the censor. In fact, the book was self-published by Kozłowski and distributed as part of the NET project. One of 150 copies printed.

As of March 2024, KVK, OCLC show five copies outside Poland, of which only two in North America.

Price: €750.00

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