ELLIOTT ERWITT. RETROSPECTIVE is an event not only for photography enthusiasts and connoisseurs. The artist’s photographs presented at the exhibition are a combination of wit, absurdity and elegance, a perspective characteristic of Erwitt’s creative work. Thus the retrospective’s curators draw attention to the bright side of human nature, highlighting the beauty of ordinary moments that tend to escape us under the burden of everyday life.
‘Elliott Erwitt was a versatile artist who recorded everyday life, important moments in history, ordinary people, show-business celebrities and political figures as well as… dogs in his pictures. His photography is a remarkable record of time and places. A unique, beautiful historical source, thought-provoking and pleasing at the same time,’ points out the exhibition’s co-curator Katarzyna Puchalska.
‘The impact of Erwitt’s works on the twentieth-century photography canon cannot be overestimated,’ adds the co-curator Beata Łyżwa-Sokół. ‘Elliott Erwitt was not afraid of the world, perhaps because – as can be seen in his photographs – he was delighted with it. He looked for beauty and truth in people and, being sincere towards them, he portrayed them somewhat seriously and humorously at the same time. Erwitt’s most famous photographs are quite serious, but somewhat not so, they allow one to look at oneself from a distance, they are an affirmation of life and bring smiles onto the viewers’ faces.’
