Art stations fundation - by Grażyna Kulczyk

Zbig Rybczynski – a world-famous author of animated films and video works, an Oscar winner and a pioneer in high definition TV. His works combine spectacular experimentation and formal invention with a remarkable sense of humor and acute lyricism of the visual image. His art explores the common ground of the cinema, television and art. He is highly regarded by both critics and audiences.

On the Visual Image gathers Rybczynski’s film pieces and electronic works, along with sketches, drawings, calculations and graphs – a collection that illustrates the artist’s steps on his way to a new visual synthesis in which he combines 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 the 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 – the truth which is indispensable for representing – and first of 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 from the recording of reality. Yet, without being limited to superficial realism, they develop further so as to convey grand syntheses and artistic visions thanks to the artist’s creativity and ingenious use of technology. The exhibition constitutes 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.

Zbigniew Rybczynski, born 1949 in Lodz, an experimental film director, cameraman and lecturer. Having completed his secondary education at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw, he worked for a period of time at the Studio Miniatur Filmowych [the Miniature Film Study]. In 1969 he enrolled at the Lodz Film School, where he was active in the Film Form Workshop, the leading Polish avant-garde group. All his major animated films, including Tango – for which he won an Oscar in 1983, the first ever awarded to a Pole – were produced at the Se-Ma-For Study in Lodz. After moving to the United States, he turned to video and High Definition techniques.

He gained great popularity – as well as the nickname “Big Zbig” – thanks to his music videos for artists including Simple Minds, Mick Jagger and John Lennon, and films such as Steps (1986), The Fourth Dimension (1988) and The Orchestra (1990), acclaimed for their striking virtuosity by critics and audiences around the world. From 1987 to 1994 he ran his own studio, which he outfitted with the most advanced HDTV equipment available. 
In addition to the Oscar, Zbig has received numerous prestigious awards, including an Emmy, a Golden Gate Award at San Francisco Film Festival, Electronic Cinema Festival Awards in Tokyo and Montreaux, MTV and American Video Awards, Monitor Awards and a Billboard Music Video Award. His Orchestra received a Prix Italia, an award which is granted to TV productions for outstanding artistic value.

He has taught at numerous universities: the Film School of Lodz, Columbia University New York, the Academy of Media Art (KHM) in Cologne. Presently, he holds a position of a visiting professor at Joshibi University of Art and Design in Tokyo. 
Along with pursuing his artistic and academic career, he has been conducting research on the visual image and special effects, which has led him to develop his own solutions in the field of electronic visualization. His applications have been employed in the film and TV industry and received several technical US patents.

In 2008 Rybczynski received the “Gloria Artis” Medal of Cultural Merit from the Polish Minister of Culture, an Honorary Doctorate from the Lodz Film School, and the prestigious Katarzyna Kobro Award, established by the artistic community in Poland to honor exceptional artistic achievements.

At present Rybczynski is engaged in a joint project with well-known Israeli writer Eli Barbur, which will involve the production of a two-hour-long film "The Short History of White People" (working title). The film is going to portray the fate of the Jewish people in the history of the European Civilization.