Andrzej Dudzinski, WITHOUT TITLE, 2004

30.30 x 30.30 cm - ink, charcoal, bisque
diameter: 30.3 cm
signed at the bottom: A. Dudziński

Andrzej Dudziński (Sopot, December 14, 1945 - January 17, 2023), after studying architecture at the Gdansk University of Technology for several years and the interior design and graphic design departments of the Gdansk State Higher School of Fine Arts, moved to the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, which he graduated from in 1972 with a diploma in poster design in Henryk Tomaszewski's studio. While still a student, he published drawings in "Szpilki", Warsaw's "Kultura" and other magazines. Together with Andrzej Mleczko, Jan Sawka and others, he co-created a phenomenon that, together with the poster art of young (partly the same) artists, constituted the distinctiveness of Polish student culture at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s. In 1970-1972, he stayed in London, where he started working with youth and off-price magazines: "OZ", "Ink", "Frendz", "Time Out". Since 1977 he has lived and worked in the USA. Gradually he gained a high position among local graphic designers and poster artists, doing many commercial commissions and publishing his work in magazines such as "The New York Times," "The Boston Globe," "Newsweek," "Rolling Stone," "Playboy," "Vanity Fair," "The Washington Post," "Time" and others. At the same time, he did not lose touch with the country and Polish reality, which nourished his art. During the years of martial law, volumes of his drawings were published in underground publications. The cult bird Dudi, created by him in 1972 and published in the pages of "Szpilek" and Warsaw's "Kultura," found a continuation in the form of 1987's Pokrak, which since 1992 has been published and commented on current affairs in the pages of "Tygodnik Powszechny." In 1994, the artist began creating posters for non-existent films, and then invited well-known critics and publicists, including Stanisław Barańczak, Jan Kott, Andrzej Werner) to write reviews of them. On the occasion of Dudzinski's visit to Poland in 1996, a Dudinalia event was organized in Sopot. That year the album "Andrzej Dudzinski" was published, followed by other publications: "Andrzej Dudzinski's Cinema" (1997) and "Pokrak" (1998).