FACEFORMATION

7–31 December 2021

FACEFORMATION is a tricky process, a game with no rules in which we take part in a double capacity as faceformers and the faceformed. When looking at faces we interpret them, consciously or not, and thus we also deform and transform them, creating… CARICATURES. The phenomenon of faceformation is an inexhaustible source of questions, which this exhibition reiterates, complicates perhaps, but possibly also (hints at) answers to some of them. The history of the face is a multifaceted one. It holds a place for portraits / self-portraits, caricatures / self- caricatures, for effaced non-faces, hybrid faces and facial metaphors, for abstract types, artificially prepared physiognomies, and individualised images; for the faces of well-known personages, those portrayed once only, by chance, and those repeatedly faceformed; for faces in the crowd, ostensibly all alike, and those that stand out by themselves; for those frozen in a grimace and for faces making faces…

The theatrum of the face is a magic theatre. Are you curious of faces, multifarious and varied, true and invented? Please enter if you are!

media patrons

exhibition collaborators and contributors

Curator: Karolina Prymlewicz
Poster and catalogue design: Tomasz Rupociński, Labografia

Witold Mysyrowicz, Caricature of Lech Wałęsa, 90s, 20th century, collection of the Museum of Caricature
Witold Mysyrowicz, Balcerowicz – Holy Cow [caricature of Leszek Balcerowicz], 2002, collection of the Museum of Caricature
Roman Cieślewicz, Self-caricature, before 1973, collection of the Museum of Caricature
Waldemar Świerzy, Marilyn Monroe, ca. 1995, collection of the Museum of Caricature
Edmund Mańczak, Caricature of Krystyna Janda, 1984, collection of the Museum of Caricature
Edmund Mańczak, Caricature of Kalina Jędrusik, 1982, collection of the Museum of Caricature
Edmund Mańczak, Caricature of Wojciech Jaruzelski, 1984, kcollection of the Museum of Caricature
Zbigniew Kiulin, Self-caricature, no date, collection of the Museum of Caricature
Stefan Brzozowski, Mona Lisa protected from kidnappers, no date, collection of the Museum of Caricature
Jacek Rupiński, Eyore, ca. 1975, collection of the Museum of Caricature
Stanisław Gratkowski (Ibis), Caricature of Zbigniew Cybulski, no date, collection of the Museum of Caricature
Eryk Lipiński
Caricature of Gall Anonim, 80s, 20th century, collection of the Museum of Caricature
Wacław Kondek
From the series "Portrait", 1965, collection of the Museum of Caricature
Wacław Kondek
From the series "Portrait", 1965, collection of the Museum of Caricature
Wacław Kondek
From the series "Pandemonium”, 1973, collection of the Museum of Caricature
Wacław Kondek
From the series "Pandemonium”, 1973, collection of the Museum of Caricature
Lech Frąckowiak
Caricature of Fryderyk Chopin, 2009, collection of the Museum of Caricature
Ireneusz Parzyszek
no title, 90s, 20th century, collection of the Museum of Caricature
Zygmunt Januszewski
no title 1982, collection of the Museum of Caricature

Exposition

phot. Ireneusz Sobieszczuk

The opening night

The face has fascinated artists, scientists and thinkers for centuries. It can express countless emotions and it is in its expression that we find a multitude of meanings. The way in which the characteristic features of a given person are captured and shown, especially in the case of a portrait caricature, opens the field to many interpretations related both to its protagonist and the artist's intentions. The problem of interpreting, depicting and deforming the face appears in the title concept of faceformation proposed by Karolina Prymlewicz. In the essay included in the book she analyses the complexity of the history of face perception and portrayal. She discusses what is a face-representation and what is its aim. The author describes the way we interpret other people's faces. The book also includes Elżbieta Laskowska's text which briefly outlines the formation of the definition of the term caricature.

The texts in Faceformation (Przepotwarzanie) are accompanied by a rich collection of reproductions of, among others, self-portraits by Joseph Ducreux, sculptures by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, photographs by Tomasz Machciński and works of the most outstanding artists of portrait caricature from the collection of the Eryk Lipiński Museum of Caricature, such as Andrzej Stopka, Edmund Mańczak, Edward Ałaszewski, Edward Głowacki, Eryk Lipiński and Izabella Kulczyńska.

editorial and photo-editing: Karolina Prymlewicz
graphic design: Tomasz Rupociński, Labografia
ISBN: 978-83-87994-44-0
binding: hardback
number of pages: 112
publisher: Eryk Lipiński Museum of Caricature
place and year of publication: Warsaw 2021
circulation: 400 copies 
price: 79 PLN