Price: 5500 PLN ► Buy now
Litograph by Nikita Kadan, untitled, 2023
Edition of 50 + 3 AP + 1 PP
Paper: Fabriano Rosaspina 285 g/m2
Size of the print: 53 x 71,5 cm printed area; total: 70 x 87,5 cm
The edition bears numbering and signatures by the artist and a dry seal of the printing shop (photo Szymon Roginski).
[If you can't buy the edition through the link, please write us at towarzystwo@artmuseum.pl.]
Nikita Kadan was born and still works in Kiev, despite the Russian invasion. He is a multimedia artist; his works can be found in institutions such as the Centre Pompidou, MUMOK in Vienna and, of course, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. The publication of this artist's edition is connected with fundraising for production of Nikita's sculpture commemorating the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine in 2022, in Warsaw's Bródno Sculpture Park.
The lithograph was made by the artist in the Experimental Lithography Studio (Runo Lithograph). It is part of a series previously shown in Vienna and Hamburg, among other places. In Kadan's works, similar inscriptions have also appeared against landscapes or the sun. The word люди (eng. "people") is spelled the same way in Ukrainian and Russian, but pronounced differently. As Sasha Pevak suggests, "Thus, the artist addresses through this overlap the myth of fraternity between Ukrainians and Russians, which in fact doesn’t protect people from death. According to him, Putin’s racism unfolds in a paradoxical way: Ukrainians are seen as brothers yet spoiled ones, similar yet not the same."
The edition was printed at the Experimental Lithography Workshop in Saska Kepa where Przemyslaw Runo, Runo Lifograf, works (UNESCO has included this profession on the list of endangered professions). Because of Pablo Picasso's visit in 1948 the workshop is now operating under the patronage of the King of Spain. It was from this atelier that also printed last year's artist edition by Aleksandra Waliszewska.
A handful of interesting facts: the ink used in the studio today was created several decades ago by Henryk Opałka, a graphic artist and brother of Roman Opałka. Many of the stones used in the shop originate from the Tsarist era, and the machines are well over 100 years old. The Fabriano paper used to print this edition comes from Italy, and has been produced for several hundred years in the same village, during a few weeks in a year. It was first brought to Poland by Queen Bona Sforza and was historically used to print royal edicts, which can still be admired in unaltered condition in museums.