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Jaroslaw Kozlowski: Words and Colors

For this exhibition at Berlin’s premier space for Polish art, the 72-year-old conceptual artist presents a thoughtful selection of works from the last five decades. It's on through Feb 10.

Image for Jaroslaw Kozlowski: Words and Colors

Photo courtesy of the artist, ZAK

In 1971, Kozłowski sent letters to over 350 artists and critics around the world in the hope of creating NET, an open network of communication on art ideas without central authority – a gesture so radical in Poland at the time that the first gathering he organised to present the materials he received back was shut down by police. Now, for this exhibition at Berlin’s premier space for Polish art, the 72-year-old conceptual artist presents a thoughtful selection of works from the last five decades including Wall Painting, a gridded set of colour samples from walls that the artist personally painted in various apartments across Europe around 1979. In his newest work, News Games, international newspapers painted in a spectrum of colours are tucked into white paper bags. For Kozłowski, autonomous artistic gestures are “the prerequisite to keeping a critical distance from political conditions” – but in this case, the gesture might be too distant to have the subversive impact of earlier ones.

Through Feb 10