Marta Klonowska brings back to life animals that have only played secondary roles in pictures for hundreds of years. These are primarily dogs that gave additional significance to people in Renaissance and baroque portraits, or which were simply all the rage at the time. She turns them into a life-size glass sculptures. Marta Klonowska was born in Warsaw in 1964. Between 1987 and 1989 she studied at the Academy of Pictorial Arts in Breslau/Wrocław and at the Düsseldorf Academy of Arts as a master student under A.R. Penck from 1989 to 1997. She lives and works in Düsseldorf and Warsaw. Her sculptures, which also make up installations with reproductions of the paintings, can also be found in private collections and museums in many countries.
Mediathek Sorted
Ill. 1a: Henry the Pious of Saxony and his Wife Katherine of Mecklenburg after Lucas Cranach the Elder
Ill. 1b: Henry the Pious of Saxony and his Wife Katherine of Mecklenburg after Lucas Cranach the Elder
Ill. 2a: The Arnolfini Wedding after Jan van Eyck
Ill. 2b: The Arnolfini Wedding after Jan van Eyck
Ill. 1a: Henry the Pious of Saxony and his Wife Katherine of Mecklenburg after Lucas Cranach the Elder
Ill. 1b: Henry the Pious of Saxony and his Wife Katherine of Mecklenburg after Lucas Cranach the Elder
Ill. 2a: The Arnolfini Wedding after Jan van Eyck
Ill. 2b: The Arnolfini Wedding after Jan van Eyck
Ill. 3a: The Young Ones after Francisco de Goya
Ill. 3b: The Young Ones after Francisco de Goya
Ill. 4a: Portrait of the Duchess of Alba, (red) after Francisco de Goya
Ill. 4b: Portrait of the Duchess of Alba by Francisco de Goya
Ill. 3a: The Young Ones after Francisco de Goya
Ill. 3b: The Young Ones after Francisco de Goya
Ill. 4a: Portrait of the Duchess of Alba, (red) after Francisco de Goya
Ill. 4b: Portrait of the Duchess of Alba by Francisco de Goya
Ill. 5: The Morning Walk after Thomas Gainsborough
Ill. 6a: Abb. 6a: The Presentation nach Pietro Longhi
Ill. 6b: Presentation after Pietro Longhi
Ill. 7: Portrait of a Lady Holding Her Pet Prince Charles Spaniel after Jan Verkolje
Ill. 5: The Morning Walk after Thomas Gainsborough
Ill. 6a: Abb. 6a: The Presentation nach Pietro Longhi
Ill. 6b: Presentation after Pietro Longhi
Ill. 7: Portrait of a Lady Holding Her Pet Prince Charles Spaniel after Jan Verkolje
Ill. 8a: Venus and Adonis, after Peter Paul Rubens
Ill. 8b: Venus and Adonis
Ill. 8c: Venus and Adonis
Ill. 9: Goat, after Alexander Keirincx and Cornelis van Poelenburgh
Ill. 8a: Venus and Adonis, after Peter Paul Rubens
Ill. 8b: Venus and Adonis
Ill. 8c: Venus and Adonis
Ill. 9: Goat, after Alexander Keirincx and Cornelis van Poelenburgh
Ill. 10a: Large Kitchen Still Life, after Michel Bouillon
Ill. 10b: Large Kitchen Still Life, after Michel Bouillon
Ill. 11a: Lynx, after a sketchbook page by Albrecht Dürer
Ill. 11b: Lynx, after a Sketchbook Page by Albrecht Dürer
Ill. 10a: Large Kitchen Still Life, after Michel Bouillon
Ill. 10b: Large Kitchen Still Life, after Michel Bouillon
Ill. 11a: Lynx, after a sketchbook page by Albrecht Dürer
Ill. 11b: Lynx, after a Sketchbook Page by Albrecht Dürer
Ill. 12a: La Marquesa de Pontejos, after Francisco de Goya
Ill. 12b: La Marquesa de Pontejos
Ill. 12c: La Marquesa de Pontejos by Francisco de Goya
Ill. 13: Maki
Ill. 12a: La Marquesa de Pontejos, after Francisco de Goya
Ill. 12b: La Marquesa de Pontejos
Ill. 12c: La Marquesa de Pontejos by Francisco de Goya
Ill. 13: Maki
Ill. 14a: Lady Walking Her Dog, after Claude Louis Desrais
Ill. 14b: Lady Walking Her Dog
Ill. 15: Garden View with a Dog, after Tomas Yepes
Ill. 16a: Demoiselle en Polonoise unie en Buras, after Claude Louis Desrais
Ill. 14a: Lady Walking Her Dog, after Claude Louis Desrais
Ill. 14b: Lady Walking Her Dog
Ill. 15: Garden View with a Dog, after Tomas Yepes
Ill. 16a: Demoiselle en Polonoise unie en Buras, after Claude Louis Desrais
Ill. 16b: Demoiselle en Polonoise unie en Buras
Ill. 16b: Demoiselle en Polonoise unie en Buras
Marta Klonowska - "My glass animals open a new reality."
Klonowska recognises the staging in these images and reverses it. She liberates the animals from their existence as bit players and gives them the main role as precious, luminous, colourful beings that can no longer be perceived as glass animals, dangerous, remote and cold. Human beings, who are only represented by their shoes, now take on secondary roles. The artist comments on this in the following manner: “I create installations, which should lead the audience into a new universe. My animal figures are part of historical paintings, where they play a secondary role to the sitters. In my art the animals perform as the principal actor. Animals are difficult to understand and it is difficult to communicate with them. My glass animals open therefore a new reality, which is different from ours. The sitters in the painting, the animals and the audience of my art perform in a kind of theatrical stage, where the different levels become indistinct. This clash of realities should make us think about the uncertainties of life.”
Last not least the artist hides the “insecure nature of the world” in wit and irony. “Dogwalk” is the title of one of her exhibitions, despite the fact that her animal figures will never go anywhere for a walk, but stare rigidly and silently in Thomas Gainsborough’s corresponding painting, which shows an elegantly dressed aristocratic couple taking their dog for a morning walk. (1785, National Gallery London, Ill:. 5). “Petting Zoo” is the title of another exhibition, irrespective of the fact that visitors would cut their own bodies if they tried to put this into practice. In her installations and exhibitions Klonowska creates her own universe of historical and contemporary art and takes visitors into a world in which the role of animals can be observed in a more respectful manner.
