LUDWIK DUTKIEWICZ:
Adventures in Art – Paintings, Graphics, Photographs & Films
by Adam Dutkiewicz
Moon Arrow Press 2009
ISBN 9780977545537 (pbk)
72 pp, 40 in full colour
280 x 200mm, section-sewn limp cover, 100mm flaps
Limited edition of 250
RRP: $AUS40.00
Released 20 July 2009
ISBN 9780992434823 (hbk)
Ludwik Dutkiewicz was born in Stara Sol, Poland, in 1921. He migrated to Australia in 1949, settling in Adelaide, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal South Australian Society of Arts (RSASA) in 1951, and in the same year held his first Australian exhibition with his older brother, Wladyslaw. In 1953 he was awarded the Cornell Prize at the Contemporary Art Society of South Australia (CASSA), and won it again in 1954.
Ludwik was one of a number of South Australian painters featured in the documentary film Painting 1950-1955 South Australia, directed by Stan Ostoja-Kotkowski. He was a member of the progressive alliance known as The Adelaide Group, which exhibited in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne in the mid-late 1950s. He lectured for several years at the South Australian School of Art and was Vice-President or committee member of CASSA 1954-62.
Ludwik joined the staff of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens on 19 February 1953, and became the state’s first official botanic illustrator, a position he held for 30 years before retiring in 1983. His work in this field was published in many journals and books, and has received international recognition.
From 1964 Ludwik worked in collaboration with screenwriter and photographer Ian Davidson on a series of three experimental films, inspired by the theories of Sergei Eisenstein. He directed Transfiguration, which featured the music of Anton Bruckner and was shown in the 6th Adelaide Film Festival; it received an AFI award for Best Black and White Photography and was acquired by the Museum Of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York. The other films he directed were Reflections and Time in Summer. Both were black and white, the latter a feature film that was selected for presentation at the Berlin Film Festival.
Ludwik Dutkiewicz’s creative output has multifarious expression, in content and media. Of particular note are his richly colorful abstract paintings in oils, and his later kaleidescopic abstracts in acrylics. The book also features reproductions of a number of his commercial graphic designs, early skecthbook drawings, life drawing sketches, costume and programme designs for theatrical productions with which he was associated, ideas for sculptures, and a number of black and white photographs, some of which relate to his experimental films.
A survey exhibition of the artist’s work was shown in February 2011 at RSASA Gallery, Level 1, Institute Building, North Terrace, Adelaide.
The hardback version is available through blurb.com:
The Dutkiewicz Archive 