Slawomir Elsner

(*1976 in Wodzislav Slaski, Poland, lives and works in Berlin) focuses in his practice recently on works on paper, watercolours and crayon drawings. Elsner works in series. In large crayon drawings in the series Window on the World, he stretched the genre of drawing. In his most recent drawings he explores the colours and compositions of famous Old Master paintings. Instead of using the “classical” line drawing, defining the volume of space through singular lines, Elsner circumscribes the pictorial space with hundreds of straight line bundles. His works possess a contradictory quality that can be described as a sharpened blur. Beside these meticulous crayon drawings Elsner creates engulfing watercolours. In different sizes, sometimes depicting star constellations, sometimes alluding to airy curtains. The crayon works as well as the watercolors from the different series hold an apparent contradiction: Through their artisanal fabrication the personal style of the artist is not pronounced, on the contrary through the careful even application of watercolour and the repeated fixing of lines Slawomir Elsner nearly negates personal style, his “hand”. Accurately the curator Michael Hering characterized another feature of Slawomir Elsner’s crayon drawings after famous paintings from art history: “The most accurate precision in drawing achieves formally the most evident blurring.” It seems as the images would be behind translucent glass and the contours would blur even the sharp lines are drawn with outmost precision.

Elsner’s work is in the following public collections Kupferstichkabinett der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen, Dresden; Kupferstichkabinett Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, (Charlotte, North Carolina, USA); KiCo Foundation permanent loan for the Lenbachhaus, Munich; Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich. Important public collection and foundations hold his work amongst others XXL Collection of the German Stock Market, Frankfurt on the Main; Cusanuswerk, Bischöfliche Studienförderung Bonn; Rubell Family Collection, Miami; Collection of the LBBW, Stuttgart; Ostsächsiche Sparkasse, Dresden; me Collectors Room, Berlin; Roche Art Collection, Basel

 
Selected works
Solo Shows with Lullin + Ferrari
Group Shows with Lullin + Ferrari

Slawomir Elsner, San Girolamo (after Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano), 2024, Coloured pencil on paper, 32.1 x 25.4 cm

Slawomir Elsner, Die Schaukel (after Jean-Honoré Fragonard), 2023, Coloured pencil on paper, 81 x 64 cm (Private Collection)

Slawomir Elsner, From the Series Just Watercolors (121), 2023, Watercolor on paper, 70 x 50 cm

Slawomir Elsner, From the series Just Watercolors (108), 2022, Watercolour on paper, 140 x 110 cm (Private Collection)

Slawomir Elsner, From the series Just Watercolors (113) - Morgen in den Bergen (in Anlehnung an C.D. Friedrich), 2023, Watercolour on paper, 135 x 170 cm (Private Collection)

Slawomir Elsner, Widder, from the Series der Nachtstücke, 2020, Watercolour on paper, 168 x 110 cm (Private Collection)

Slawomir Elsner, From the Series Just Watercolors (070), 2020, Watercolour on paper, 146 x 116 cm (Private Collection)

Slawomir Elsner, From the series A4 Blatt 202, 2020, Watercolour on paper, 29.7 x 21 cm (Private Collection)

Slawomir Elsner, From the series A4 Blatt 206, 2020, Watercolour on paper, 29.7 x 21 cm (Private Collection)

Slawomir Elsner, Amor als Sieger (after Caravaggio), 2015, Coloured pencil on paper, 156.6 x 113.3 cm (Private Collection)

Slawomir Elsner, From the Series Just Watercolors (016), 2016, Watercolour on paper, 80 x 80 cm

Slawomir Elsner, Flower Piece (after Henri Matisse), 2023, Coloured pencil on paper, 55.6 x 46.4 cm (Private Collection)

Slawomir Elsner, Still 09 (after Untitled Film Still #48), 2007, Crayon in five grades of grey on paper, 44.5 x 55.5 cm

Slawomir Elsner, Still 38 (after Untitled Film Still #64), 2010, Crayon in five grades of grey on paper, 37 x 52.5 cm

Slawomir ElsnerGeraubte Küsse

3 May – 15 July 2023


Slawomir ElsnerThe Memory of Vision
5 September – 17 October 2020


Slawomir ElsnerNarcissus and Echo
27 October – 2 December 2017

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Slawomir Elsner / Uwe WittwerABRAHAM – OVID – DAS ANDERE
31 October – 5 December 2015

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Le Grand Bleu: Group show with works by Anne-Lise Coste, Slawomir Elsner, Klodin Erb, Franziska Furter, Pierre Haubensak, Clare Goodwin, Sebastian Utzni and wiedemann/mettler

12 December 2020 – 23 January 2021

 

When the facts change, I change my mind: with works by Benedikte Bjerre, Anne-Lise Coste, Slawomir Elsner, Jonathan Monk, Andreas Slominski, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra
30 March – 18 May 2019

 

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With Other Eyes: Anna Amadio, Michael Bauch, Benedikte Bjerre, Anne-Lise Coste, Slawomir Elsner, Klodin Erb, Franziska Furter, Clare Goodwin, Pierre Haubensak, Alex Heim, Jamie Isenstein, Mamiko Otsubo, Athena Vida, wiedemann/mettler, Bill Woodrow
26 May – 26 July 2018

 

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