Marcos Kurtycz Explained

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. 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”.
• 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".
• 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

Notes and References

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