Estate of Krzysztof Jung

Krzysztof Jung (1951–1998), known mostly as a performer, prolific painter and portraitist, called “the painter of trees” during his lifetime, has become more celebrated over the last few years for his male nudes, intimate drawings, rarely or never shown in public, revealing his queer side and giving an insight into his private life. His works were included in the first large manifestations of LBTQ-related art, such as Ars Homo Erotica (2010), curated by Paweł Leszkowicz at the National Museum in Warsaw, and the Heritage pop-up exhibition organized as part of the Pomada 7 Queer Festival (2017). The changing reception of his works was recapped by his solo exhibitions at Salon Akademii in Warsaw (2016) and Schwules Museum in Berlin (2019). As Jung stated in his will, his friend Dorota Krawczyk-Janisch, based in Berlin, became the sole caretaker of his works after his death. For over two decades, she has been responsible for his estate, and along with his other friends, such as Wojciech Karpiński, she kept the memory of Jung, a great person and artist. From November 2021, working closely with Dorota Krawczyk-Janisch, Gunia Nowik Gallery is representing the Estate of Krzysztof Jung.

Krzysztof Jung studied interior design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (1971–1976). From his diploma year on, he became part of Repassage Gallery milieu and performed on a regular basis at the gallery. His performances and actions, which he called the Visual Theatre, most often took the form of “threading”, in which he used the naked bodies of himself and/or his friends, and a thread that was formed into a spiderweb-like nets in the course of performance, entangling people and the space. The Visual Theatre often took place in the presence of an intimate circle of friends and conveyed messages addressed to specific people. Jung ran the Repassage Gallery for a year (1978–1979), renaming it Repassage 2.

At the turn of 1970s and 1980s, in the atmosphere of growing political tension in Poland, Jung organized several actions of sociopolitical significance, both in public and private spaces. He staged the happening A Street Epitaph to Jan Palach on Krakowskie Przedmieście Street, dedicated to the Czechoslovak student who self-immolated himself in 1969 in protest against the military intervention of the Warsaw Pact in Czechoslovakia. After introduction of martial law in Poland in December 1981, Jung performed in the private studio of Barbara and Wiktor Gutt, when he tried to draw a copy of Goya’s famous Caprichos No. 43 while being blindfolded. At the same time, he played a crucial part in animating artistic and social life, for instance organizing annual Christmas parties at his apartment.

From the late 1970s on, Jung started spending more time abroad, especially as his friends emigrated to Sweden, West Berlin, and Paris, expanding his network of international connections, and having access to Western museums, publications, as well as the gay scene. Furthermore, through his friend writer Wojciech Karpiński, he became acquainted with the circle of Polish emigrés in Paris, connected with Kultura magazine published in Maisons-Lafitte by Jerzy Giedroyć. He found a special connection with writer and critic Kot Jeleński and painter Józef Czapski. Karpiński and Czapski encouraged him to focus more on drawing and painting, which in the 1980s became the main media of Jung’s art. He made portraits of famous writers and poets: Czesław Miłosz, Zbigniew Herbert, Adam Zagajewski and others for Zeszyty Literackie, published in Paris.

In 1991, he started working as an art teacher at a private high school in Warsaw, which as a result of his efforts was named the Józef Czapski Memorial School. He died in 1998 in Warsaw. His tomb is decorated with the sculpture Narcissus by Barbara Falender, for which he posed.