Guided tour with audio description: 13^th December, 6 p.m. (as part of the official opening)
Guided tour in Polish Sign Language: 15^th December, 4 p.m.

 

FREE ENTRY

 

Curator: Jasia Reichardt
Coordination: Emilia Golnik
Cooperation: Agata Janikowska

 

 

 “In the second act of a London theatre production, one of the protagonists, a stocky man, began to dance – although he initially seemed to have trouble moving. He danced alone in the middle of the stage. He moved so lightly, so gracefully, that visitors soon forgot what a giant he was…”

 

 

The scene witnessed by Nick Wadley served as an inspiration to create a series of drawings entitled Big Man. These and several dozen other works by this eminent British art historian and draughtsman will be shown at his exhibition in Gdańsk, held at ŁAŹNIA 2 CCA in Nowy Port.
 

 

Wadley’s intelligent, humorous drawings result from close observation of people on trains, in hospitals, waiting rooms or the streets. They include insightful portraits, impressions on animals and objects, and works combining image and puns of which Nick Wadley was particularly fond.
 

 

 “now + here = nowhere”
 

 

In his works, he did not shun formal experimentation, such as xeroxing drawings and photographs in various shades and using them to create collages or scanning sketches that were later processed on a computer.
 

 

The ŁAŹNIA 2 exhibition will feature over 100 works by Nick Wadley, including satirical drawings published in the 1990s and early 2000s in the Daily Telegraph Magazine, Royal Academy Magazine and Financial Times, books by various artists with his illustrations and… a curiosity cabinet with trinkets made by Nick Wadley and other things he received from friends. The exhibition also includes portraits of the artist by Franciszka Themerson. 
 

 

Nick Wadley (1935–2017) studied art at the Kingston School of Art and art history at the Courtauld Institute in London. Between 1970 and 1985 he was head of Art History of the Chelsea School of Art in London. After 20 years of academic work, he took early retirement to focus on his drawing. He published several dozen academic publications on art history (e.g., The Drawings of Van Gogh, 1969; Cubism, 1972, Impressionist & Post-Impressionist Drawing, 1991). He illustrated books by Cozette de Charmoy, U.A. Fanthorpe, Lisa Jardine and many other writers. Apart from publishing, Nick Wadley curated exhibitions on Roman Cieślewicz, Franciszka Themerson and Lyonel Feininger, among others. In 1996–2001 he also contributed satirical drawings (with Sylvia Libedinsky) to the Daily Telegraph and Financial Times. His own drawings were presented in the UK, Poland, Italy, France, Argentina and Japan. He published several books – collections of drawings and poems – with more awaiting publication.