Marcos Kurtycz

Kurtycz in Paris

Marcos Kurtycz (21 March 1934, Pielgrzymowice – 13 March 1996, Mexico City) was a performance and graphic artist.

Background

Born in Poland in 1934 as Jan Kurtycz, he moved to Mexico in 1968 where he experimented with graphic design and performance art until 1996.[1] Kurtycz artworks were often complex matrices combining performances and graphic design elements, including photographs, drawings, maps, wax forms, stamps, letters, musical notation and even axes and explosives.[2] His performances and his photographic and print works on paper have influenced Mexico City artists.[1] Kurtycz is known for his use of printing techniques in his graphic artworks.[3] In the 1970s he mobilized his art projects into a challenge to the art establishment, including mail bombs (a series of artworks posted as letters), intended to push art establishment leaders beyond traditional conceptions of what constitutes art.[4] Marcos Kurtycz is the father of graphic artist Anna Kurtycz.

List of selected installations and performances

  • Plastic algorithms (Warsaw, Poland, 1968)
  • La Rueda (Mexico-City, 1976)
  • La muerte de un impresor (Mexico-City, 1979)
  • Un libro diario (Mexico, 1984). Homage to George Orwell.
  • Zero Village (Pennsylvania, USA, 1988)
  • CMAMOTH (Mexico-City, Guanajuato, New York City, 1989)
  • Serpent rouge, vert et blanc (Toulouse, France, 1993)
  • Egg Snake and Serpiente Escalera (Le Lieu, Canada, 1993)
  • Proportions of Snake and Fax Snake (NIPAF, Japan, 1995)
  • Serpiente del Metro (Mexico-City, 1995)[5]

List of selected posthumous exhibits

  • Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil (MACG), Mexico-City, 1999. “Marcos Kurtycz, Memoria”.[3]
  • P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, 2002. Thumbnail retrospective in parallel with Mexico City: An Exhibition About the Exchange Rates of Bodies and Values".[1]
  • Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid. Eco: arte contemporáneo mexicano. February 8 - June 6, 2005 (link: http://www.museoreinasofia.es/en/exhibitions/eco-arte-contemporaneo-mexicano)
  • Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris: América Latina 1960-2013, coproduced with the Museo Amparo in Puebla (Mexico). November 19, 2013 to April 6, 2014[6]
  • Kurtycz Escamilla, Anna Rosa (2016). Marcos Kurtycz. Vida y muerte de un impresor. Studio Kurtycz.[7][8]
  • Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2018 (Mauricio Marcín on Marcos Kurtycz) [9]
  • Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporanea (MUAC), Mexico-City, 2020. [10]
  • Graphic Dialogues, The Hague, The Netherlands, 2020. A retrospective of works by Marcos and Anna Kurtycz. Embassy of Mexico to The Netherlands

References

  1. ^ a b c Cotter, Holland (9 August 2002). "ART IN REVIEW; Marcos Kurtycz". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  2. ^ "Marcos Kurtycz". Arqueologías de destrucción, 1958-2014 (in European Spanish). 10 February 2015. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  3. ^ a b "Marcos Kurtycz - Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil". Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  4. ^ Polgovsky Ezcurra, Mara (2014). "An Art of Flight, an Art of Pursuit: Notes on Mail Art, Fugitiveness, and Bombs |post". post.at.moma.org. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  5. ^ Prior, Jorge (26 January 2015). "Marcos Kurtycz "Serpientes"". Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  6. ^ "Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain". www.fondationcartier.com. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  7. ^ "Marcos Kurtycz; cuerpo y gráfica". Excélsior. 4 October 2016. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  8. ^ "literatura expandida". chopo.unam.mx. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  9. ^ "Witte de With, 2018". www.fwdw.nl. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
  10. ^ "MUAC, 2020". www.muac.unam.mx. Retrieved 1 March 2020.