Edward Krasiński

Discover the innovative theatrics of the Polish artist Edward Krasiński

Edward Krasiński used tonal colour, lighting, photography and reflective surfaces to challenge the fixed nature of sculpture.

Krasiński began his career as an illustrator and set designer, going on to make paintings and sculptures, often using found materials such as cables, pipes and string. In the early 1970s he began to create installations which experimented with alternative ways of presenting and experiencing art. Krasiński transformed galleries into maze-like spaces through the use of cleverly positioned plinths, hanging objects and blue adhesive tape.

The installation displayed here consists of 12 suspended mirrors of equal size. A continuous line of blue tape runs along the walls and the surface of each mirror. The tape is applied at a fixed height of 130cm. It integrates the mirrors with their surroundings, erasing the difference
between real and reflected space. The rows of overlapping mirrors generate a sense of movement in which the space seems to recede and advance, depending on the viewpoint of the spectator, who is also reflected in the work.

The mirrors were first installed in 2001 at the Klosterfelde Gallery in Berlin. They were exhibited alongside several of Krasiński’s Untitled sculptures from the 1960s and 1970s, including the four works displayed here. The sculptures were drawn into a relationship with the mirrors and in turn the spectators surrounding them. Krasiński was concerned with how entire environments, not only the works within them, were experienced. He continued to question the traditional conventions of displaying art until the end of his career.

Curated by Helen O'Malley

Tate Modern
Blavatnik Building Level 3
Room 8

Getting Here

1 February 2022 – 1 March 2026

Free

Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Darkroom Mirror (_2200633) 2018

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Charles White, Love Letter III 1977

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Tau Lewis, Saint Mozelle 2022

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Barkley L. Hendricks, Family Jules: NNN (No Naked Niggahs) 1974

Hendricks made four paintings featuring George Jules Taylor, one of his former students at Yale University. The other paintings showed him dressed in contemporary fashions, while this one depicts him nude except for his glasses. Hendricks was already a well-known African-American painter, and his decision to place a naked black male figure in the position of the traditional female ‘odalisque’ was extremely radical. As the title underlines, the painting confronts white fears and sexual stereotypes surrounding the black male. These issues are heightened by a realistic representational style that went against contemporary trends in black American art.

Gallery label, October 2016

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Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Remain, Thriving 2018

Made for Brixton Underground station, this scene imagines a gathering of the grandchildren of the ‘Windrush generation’ who moved to Britain following the 1948 British Nationality Act. The patterned walls, radiogram and hanging pictures are reminiscent of ‘front rooms’ they may associate with their grandparents. The wall imagery derives from photography in Brixton’s Black Cultural Archives, Including portraits of Dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson and activist Olive Morris. The scene is not simply celebratory: 2018 news of the Windrush scandal’s deportation of commonwealth citizens plays on television.

Gallery label, January 2022

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