Guided Tour of the Szapocznikow Exhibition, Hammer Museum, 3/23/2012

The Board of Directors of the Modjeska Club is pleased to invite you to join us at a special guided tour of the exhibition

Alina Szapocznikow: Sculpture Undone, 1955-1972

at 2:00pm on Saturday, March 24, 2012.

Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90024 (310.443.7000)

About the exhibition

Alina Szapocznikow: Sculpture Undone, 1955-1972
February 5 – April 29, 2012

Alina Szapocznikow: Sculpture Undone, 1955–1972 is the first museum survey in the United States devoted to this Polish artist. The exhibition brings to light the extraordinary oeuvre of Alina Szapocznikow, one of the most significant yet lesser known sculptors of the 20th century. At the core of Szapocznikow’s art is the ephemeral condition of life and the human body. Her work oscillates between permanence and impermanence, from carvings in Carrara marble to the precarious assemblages of lips and breasts cast in polyester resin. The exhibition includes approximately 60 sculptures and 50 works on paper, as well as a poignant group of photographic works, demonstrating the tremendous range and scope of Alina Szapocznikow’s art.

Alina Szapocznikow: Sculpture Undone, 1955-1972 is organized by WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels, and the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, in collaboration with the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The exhibition is curated by Elena Filipovic and Joanna Mytkowska.

This exhibition and the accompanying catalogue are generously supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The Hammer Museum’s presentation is made possible through major gifts from Erika Glazer and Alice and Nahum Lainer. Generous support is also provided by Herta and Paul Amir. The exhibition is made possible by additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Rosette V. Delug, Alisa and Kevin Ratner, The Audrey & Sydney Irmas Charitable Foundation, and the Consulate General of Poland, Los Angeles.

About the Event

A special tour of the exhibition will be led by Allegra Pesenti, the coordinating curator of Alina Szapocznikow: Sculpture Undone, 1955–1972. Pesenti joined the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts at the Hammer Museum in 2007, where she recently curated Rachel Whiteread Drawings (2010).

She earned her PhD in 2006 from The Courtauld Institute of Art in London, and has been involved in the organization of exhibitions of old master drawings at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and at the Louvre in Paris. She formerly served as Assistant Curator of Drawings at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

This Modjeska Club event is organized by Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Marjorie Susman Curatorial Fellow Joanna Szupinska.

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Images:

Petit Dessert I (Small Dessert I), 1970-71. Colored polyester resin and glass. 3 3/16 x 4 5/16 x 5 1/8 in. (8 x 11 x 13 cm). Kravis Collection. © The Estate of Alina Szapocznikow/Piotr Stanislawski/ADAGP, Paris. Photo by Thomas Mueller, courtesy BROADWAY 1602, New York, and Galerie Gisela Capitain GmbH, Cologne. © 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.

Allegra Pesenti. Photo by Margo Graxeda.

USC Polish-Lithuanian Concert - Bruzdowicz, Krausas & Zebrowski, 3/23/2012

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Modjeska Club, it is a pleasure to invite you to a concert celebrating Polish and Lithuanian composers and organized by USC’s Polish Music Center on Friday, March 23, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. at the Alfred Newman Recital Hall on the USC campus (3616 Trousdale Parkway, L.A., CA 90089).

The concert, a part of PMC’s Festival of Premieres, will present world premieres of UN-intermezzi (2012) for piano by Veronika Krausas and Five Piano Preludes (2000) by Marek Żebrowski as well as California premiere of Pasaka by Vykintas Baltakas. Joanna Bruzdowicz’s Erotiques pour piano (1966) will not be a premiere, but will be graced by the presence of the composer. Henryk Mikołaj Górecki’s Piano Sonata (composed in 1956, revised in 1990), and Five Character Pieces by Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis will round off the evening.

This concert is a USC Thornton Faculty Recital by pianist Aron Kallay, a pianist and composer who champions contemporary and microtonal music, and music that combines electronics with acoustic instruments. He is a member of the faculty of the USC Thornton School of Music and Chapman University.

Joanna Bruzdowicz studied in Poland and France (with Nadia Boulanger, Olivier Messiaen and Pierre Schaeffer). She wrote her doctoral thesis "Mathematics and Logic in Contemporary Music" at the Sorbonne. As a composer she devotes her attention to opera, symphonic and chamber music, works for children, and music for film and television. She wrote four concerti, six stage works, and numerous chamber pieces, as well as over 25 hours of film music. Her works have been issued on 12 CDs and over 20 LPs; she has been featured in TV programs produced in Belgium, France, Germany and Poland.

Composer Veronika Krausas has had her works performed internationally. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) writes that "her works, whose organic, lyrical sense of storytelling are supported by a rigid formal elegance, give her audiences a sense that nature's frozen objects are springing to life." Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times said of her chamber opera "Something novel this way comes."

Krausas has received commissions from the Penderecki String Quartet, San Francisco Choral Artists and the Alexander String Quartet, ERGO Projects, Continuum Music, Toca Loca, and Motion Music. She holds music composition degrees from the University of Toronto, McGill University in Montreal, and a doctorate from USC’s Thornton School of Music.

In 2009, the Penderecki String Quartet gave the US Premiere of her work midaregami at REDCAT. Her chamber opera The Mortal Thoughts of Lady Macbeth was premiered with the New York City Opera in 2008 and a full production was mounted in Los Angeles in 2010. Language of the Birds, a commission for the 25th Anniversary of the San Francisco Choral Artists and the Alexander String Quartet, using text by the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, was premiered in 2011 in San Francisco and released on CD with Foghorn Classics.

Krausas has directed, composed for, and produced multi-media events in Los Angeles that incorporate her works with dance, acrobatics and video. She is an Assistant Professor in the Composition Department and the Assistant Director of Undergraduate Theory at the Thornton School of Music, on the advisory board of Jacaranda Music, an associate artist with The Industry and Catalysis Projects. She is of Lithuanian descent and her parents live in Canada.

Marek Żebrowski (on the right with David Lynch) studied in Poland, France (with Robert Casadesus and Nadia Boulanger), and the U.S. As a pianist-composer he has recorded for Apollo Records, Titanic and Harmonia Mundi labels and frequently appears in recitals and as a soloist with orchestras worldwide. The catalogue of his compositions includes orchestral and chamber works, numerous piano compositions and transcriptions, as well as film and stage scores. He has received commissions from Meet The Composer, The New England String Quartet, and Premiere Productions and Central Europe Trust in the United Kingdom, among others. Since 2004, he has served as the Director of USC Polish Music Center; he also is the author of two books on Paderewski and Chopin, and frequently lectures on music.


Admission is free and open to the public. Reception of Polish desserts to follow. Information: www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/Events/2012festofpremieres.html Parking: $8, Parking Structure X at USC Gate 3 [McCarthy Way and Figueroa St.]

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NOTE: Reconstructed coat of arms of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth by Avalokiteshvara on the website of Wikimedia Commons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coat_of_Arms_of_the_Polish-Lithuanian_Commonwealth.svg

Maria Pilatowicz at the Ruskin, with Zhou and Katisse, 3/11/2012

You are cordially invited to a celebration of the literary talents of our own Maria Pilatowicz. She will read fragments from her novel, Walking on Ice (Tate Publishing, 2012) and will be interviewed by Andrzej Maleski. The star of our evening will also sign her books that will be available for purchase.

The program will start from a mini-concert by Sue Zhou and Katisse, presenting Bach Piazzola, and Szymanowska. The event will take place at the historical Ruskin Art Club, a 120-year old cultural landmark of Los Angeles (800 South Plymouth Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90005) on Sunday, March 11, 2011 at 7 p.m. Free for members, $10 donation from guests.

Maria J. Pilatowicz was born and raised in Warsaw, Poland. She earned her BA in English at California State University, Northridge, and her MA at the Professional Writing Program of the University of Southern California. Her essays appeared in New Horizon International Review and Northridge Review. Her fiction was published in the Southern California Anthology, in The Southern Anthology and in What(!) Magazine. It also appeared locally in various small presses. She is a finalist of Southern Prize Competition, recipient of the honorable mention in ED Moses Writing Competition, and in the category of Literary Short Story in Writer Digest Magazine Writing Competition. http://mariapilatowicz.com.

From the publisher's website: "In Walking on Ice, Maria Pilatowicz paints a poignant picture of a girl breaking into adolescence while trying to balance on the system's slippery surface. Agnes, a young girl in Poland, shares her life with us as she tries to find her place in her family and her country. But the more she learns, the more out of place she becomes. When Comrade Stalin dies, Agnes's father pushes the limits and is sent to prison for crimes against them. So now Agnes and her mother are alone in the icy waters of an oppressive system run by an unpredictable government. Agnes starts to learn the difference between truth and lies, but she knows she can never escape as long as they are in charge."



A MUSIC INTERLUDE BY SUE ZHOU AND KATISSE

Program:

1. J.S. Bach - Flute Sonata No.1 in b minor BWV 1030, - 1st movement, Andante
Sue Zhou - piano, Katisse - Flute

2. Astor Piazzolla - Tango No.2, Andante rubato, melancolico
Sue Zhou - piano

3. Maria Agata Szymanowska - Menuetto and Trio, No.1 and 2
Sue Zhou - piano
Katisse - tenor saxophone

Hailing from Shanghai, China, Sue Zhou started her formal piano training at the age of 15. She continued her education by graduating from the Los Angeles High School for the Arts, specializing in Classical Piano under the tutelage of Roza Yoder. She received her Bachelors in Classical Performance from UC Irvine under the instruction of Dr. Lorna Griffitt. In the past years, she has taken part and performed in festivals all over the world, including Los Angeles, France, Italy and China. Ms. Zhou recently completed her Masters in Classical Piano Performance at Azusa Pacific University, guided by Professor Yoder. Recent wins include the CAPMT Sonata Adult Division I competition. Sue is blessed to have a burgeoning studio in the West Los Angeles area, and is an active member of the MTAC.


Katisse graduated from the L.A. County High School for the Arts and then from the Grove School of Music where he studied with multi-Grammy winning jazz legend, Rob McConnell. He received an NEA Jazz Fellowship Grant to study with woodwind master, Bill Green, attended the National Music Camp at Interlochen Michigan, and won the L.A. Jazz Society's New Talent Award. Upon hearing Katisse as a guest soloist with the LA Guitar Quartet Allan Kozinn of The New York Times described him as , "...a flutist whose ornate improvisations transformed this vocal score into a virtuosic instrumental work". Tom Meek wrote this for the LA Weekly pick of the week- "Katisse Buckingham leads a double musical life, most often as one of the area's most sought-after woodwind players. But on the last Thursday of every month, he leads his own band in a unique mix of jazz, soul, hip-hop & rap, beatboxing his way through flutes and leaving even seasoned studio veterans often in astonishment."

Katisse plays Tenor, Alto & Soprano Saxophones, Flute, Alto Flute & Ethnic Flutes as well as spoken word. He has performed and/or recorded with Yellowjackets, Prince, Dr. Dre, Airto & Flora Purim, Billy Childs, Vanessa Paradis, Herbie Hancock, Poncho Sanchez, Dave Douglas, Andy Summers, Pete Yorn, Colin Hay, Brian Auger, John Patitucci, Ricky Lawson, Terri Lyne Carrington, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Strunz and Farah, Bill Summers, Jimmy Haslip, Russ Ferrente, Bob Hurst, Tom Brechtline, Munyungo Jackson, Gary Novak, Gary Thomas, Alphonso Johnson, B-Sharp Jazz Quartet, Don Grusin, Dean Parks, Greg Phillinganes, Harvey Mason, Abe Laboriel (Sr. and Jr.), Sandro Albert, Otmaro Ruiz, Wah, Amma, Gerry Gibbs, Monday Michiru, Jaz Klash, Raya Yarbrough, Down to the Bone, Sara Gazarek, Jimmy Johnson, Will Kennedy, Russ Kunkel, Robben Ford, Mike Elizando, Deepsky, The Angel, Patrice Rushen, DJ Quik, Non Amiss, Xzibit and Kurupt. He has played on numerous films (including the "jazz flute" scene in the Will Ferrell film, Anchorman).


THE MODJESKA CLUB AND FRIENDS - OTHER EVENTS IN MARCH

March 4, 7 p.m.: "Monsieur Chopin" with Hershey Felder at the Pasadena Playhouse

March 16, 8 p.m.: Concert of Joanna Bruzdowicz at CSUN School of Music

March 23, 8 p.m.: Concert of Polish-Lithuanian Music at USC (Newman Recital Hall at USC)

March 24, 2 p.m.: Guided Tour of the Alina Szapocznikow Exhibition, Hammer Museum at UCLA, with Joanna Szupińska and Allegra Pesenti

April 22, 2 p.m.: Book Reading and Signing of a new Modjeska biography by Prof. Beth Holmgren, Bowers Museum, Santa Ana.

In addition, there will be a concert of Czerwone Gitary on March 3, a retrospective of films by Andrzej Zulawski with the director in attendance at the opening gala at the end of the month, and another concert at USC, on March 24 at 4 p.m. with a program including Wieniawski and Meyer.

February 14, 2012 - Difficult Questions on Polish-Jewish Relations

DIFFICULT QUESTIONS ON POLISH-JEWISH RELATIONS

A CONVERSATION WITH
KONSTANTY GEBERT & JOANNA PODOLSKA

MODERATED BY CONSUL GENERAL
JOANNA KOZIŃSKA – FRYBES

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2012, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA


Konstanty Gebert is an international reporter and columnist at “Gazeta Wyborcza”, Poland’s biggest daily. He was a democratic opposition activist in the Seventies, when he was also an organizer of the Jewish Flying University, and an underground journalist in the Eighties under martial law.


He is the founder of the Polish Jewish intellectual monthly Midrasz, and a board member of the Taube Centre for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland and of Einstein Forum in Potsdam, Germany. He has taught in Poland, Israel and the US. He wrote ten books, e.g. on the Polish democratic transformation and on French policy toward Poland, the Yugoslav wars and the wars of Israel, Torah commentary and post-war Polish Jewry. His essays have appeared in two dozen collective works in Poland and abroad, and his articles in newspapers around the world.


Joanna Podolska is a journalist and broadcaster, a graduate and a professor of the University of Łódź, and the current director of the Marek Edelman Center for Dialogue (Centrum Dialogu im. Marka Edelmana). She initiated the "Colorful Tolerance" project in 2000 and also serves as President of the Institute of Tolerance (since 2003). She is widely published and authored eight books on the history of Jewish community in Poland, especially in Łódź. For her work promoting tolerance, Ms. Podolska received numerous awards.

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CALENDAR OF EVENTS

March 4, 2012 at 7 p.m. - Monsieur Chopin at the Pasadena Playhouse (30% discount on tickets for Modjeska Club members)

March 11, 2012 at 7 p.m. - Maria Pilatowicz's New Novel, with Sue Zhou, pianist, Ruskin Art Club, Los Angeles

March 23, TBA - Alina Szapocznikow Exhibition at the Hammer Museum

April 22, TBA - Beth Holmgren's biography of Modjeska (Indiana University Press), reading and book signing at the Bowers Museum, Santa Ana, cosponsored with Helena Modjeska Foundation of Orange County

May 13, 2012, TBA - Maciej Grzybowski, piano - An Adventurous Recital

June 23, TBA - Annual General Meeting of the Modjeska Club

February 14, 2012 - An Evening with Konstanty Gebert

Helena Modjeska Club has the pleasure to invite you to a limited-seating event in an exclusive gated community in Beverly Hills featuring Konstanty Gebert, a Polish journalist, historian, and author, who specializes in Polish-Jewish relations and the history of Jews in Poland. The Valentine's Day Evening will be held in English only. RSVP required.

KONSTANTY GEBERT was born 1953 in Warsaw and is scholar in residence at the Taube Centre for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland, a private US foundation in Warsaw. He is also the Head of the Warsaw office of the European Council for Foreign Relations, a think-tank. Simultaneously he works as a columnist at Gazeta Wyborcza, the leading Polish daily. Fluent in English and French, he also speaks Italian and Russian and has a working knowledge of BCS. A graduate of Warsaw University's Psychology Department (1976) he worked in a community psychology program in Warsaw (1975-1979), and then taught psychology at the Medical Academy, Warsaw, 1979 - 1983.

During the Solidarity era he was a co-founder of the (unofficial) Jewish Flying University, 1979 and, in September 1980 in Warsaw, of an independent white-collar trade union that soon merged with the free trade union Solidarność. After avoiding interment in the 1981 coup, Gebert became, under the pen name of Dawid Warszawski he still uses, well known as editor and columnist of KOS fortnightly and of other underground publications.

In 1989 he covered the round table Solidarność-government talks on transition to democracy, and joined the new independent daily Gazeta Wyborcza, where he is columnist and international reporter, writing about the Middle East, the Balkans, human rights and international humanitarian law, and Jewish issues. In 1992-95 he covered the Bosnian war for Gazeta. He is a frequent contributor to other Polish and international media, including the BBC.

In 1989, he became a co-founder of the Polish Council of Christians and Jews. In 1997 he founded the Jewish intellectual monthly Midrasz, of which he was the first editor. From 1995 till 2000 he was vice-chair, and since 2000 media consultant, of MDLF, an international credit fund for independent media he was co-founder of. Since 2005, he is on the Advisory Board of the Einstein Forum, Potsdam. Since 2006 he is on the Advisory Board of the Jewish Humanitarian Fund, Amsterdam. In 2005-2007, he represented Jews on the Polish Council of Government and National Minorities.

Mr. Gebert has worked with independent media in Russia, Ukraine, the Balkans, Africa and Latin America. He has done advocacy work in Poland for i.a. Burmese exiles, Russian independent journalists, and Rwandan academics. He has taught courses on the wars of the Yugoslav succession, contemporary Poland, media and ethnic conflict, and Polish-Jewish relations i.a. at UC Berkeley and Santa Cruz, Grinnell College, Hebrew University, and the Centre for Social Studies in Warsaw.

Konstanty Gebert is the author of ten books in Polish and English i.a. on the Polish round table negotiations, the European 20th century, post-war Polish Jewry and the wars of Israel. Most recently he co-authored with Helena Datner “Jewish Life in Poland: Achievements, challenges and priorities since the fall of communism” JPR Institute, London 2011.

His essays have also appeared in two dozen collective works in Poland, Japan, US, UK, Italy, France and Belgium, most recently in Sabrina Ramet (Ed.), Central and Southeastern European Politics, Sabrina Ramet (Ed.), Cambridge University Press, 2010. He has published almost two thousand articles in the Polish press, and his work has been widely reprinted abroad, i.a. in The Guardian (London), Le Monde Diplomatique (Paris), MicroMega (Rome), Respekt (Prague), Magyar Naranc (Budapest), Svijet (Sarajevo), Maariv (Tel Aviv), New Republic (New York), The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles), The Walrus (Toronto), Die Welt (Berlin), and The Moscow Times (Moscow).

Consul Joanna Kozinska-Frybes and Helena Modjeska at the 40th AnniversaryBall

The Honorable Joanna Kozińska-Frybes, Consul General of the Republic of Poland in Los Angeles is the Guest of Honor at the 40th Anniversary Ball of the Modjeska Club. The Ball will be held on the 4th of February 2012 at 7:00 p.m.(Mountaingate Country Club 12445 Mountaingate Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90049, Evening Attire/Black Tie). Although we have exceeded the originally planned number of guests, a very limited number of tickets is still available. At our elegant ball, we will also have the pleasure of the company of Ms. Helena Modjeska herself, as performed by the talented and inspired actress Eva Boryczko. The rich history of the Club will be honored by yet another round of awards and recognition for our past presidents and board members, including one of the club's original members from its first reiteration in the 1970s, a choreographer and dancer, Mr. Stefan Wenta. Past Presidents of the Modjeska Club, Mr. Andrzej Maleski and Edward Pilatowicz, will take the guests on a guided and entertaining tour through the Club's history, illustrated with humorous and wistful songs, photos and amusing archival film clips. For the rest of the evening, the dancing will feature an international mix of hits, so there will be something to delight for everyone. As a special treat, the ladies will receive special gift bags generously donated by Ms. Aida Thibiant, from Thibiant International, thanks to the efforts of our enterprising Board Member, Ms. Wanda Presburger.  

Helena Krol, Hon. Consul Gen. Joanna Kozinska-Frybes, Bozena Onzol (Paderewski Society), and Maja Trochimczyk (Modjeska Club), December 2010.

THE HONORABLE JOANNA KOZINSKA-FRYBES Ms. Joanna Kozińska-Frybes has been appointed Consul General of the Republic of Poland in Los Angeles, effective September 30, 2009. She is a member of the Polish Civil Service and the Polish Foreign Service, holding the rank of Ambassador since 2008. Ms. Joanna Kozińska-Frybes graduated in 1985 from the Institute of Ibero-American Studies at Warsaw University, and in 1991 obtained her post-graduate diploma from the Institute of Hispanic Studies at Paris III, Sorbonne Nouvelle. In the 1980s, Ms. Kozińska-Frybes was an active member of the student anti-communist movement in Poland. In 1985, due to political pressures on her husband Marcin Frybes, they left Poland together for Paris, where Kozińska-Frybes undertook postgraduate studies in sixteenth-century Latin American history at Sorbonne Nouvelle University. While in Paris, she and Frybes co-founded the Central and Eastern European Commission, an organization within the International Movement of Catholic Students (IMCS - Pax Romana) whose purpose it was to enable international contacts for Polish students at a time when the Polish government prohibited all non-communist organizations. During and following her studies, Kozińska-Frybes pursued research opportunities in the archives of France and Spain, as well as in archives and indigenous communities in Mexico, Guatemala and Peru. Her writing has been published in international Hispanic history journals, and she has delivered lectures at universities and seminars throughout Europe and Latin America. After the political changes of 1989, Kozińska-Frybes returned to her homeland to offer her international experience toward the rebuilding of a new, independent and democratic Poland. Her contribution to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs began with her position as a co-founding member of the Polish National Committee of the 500th Anniversary of the Encounter of Two Worlds. In 1992, Kozińska-Frybes was appointed Secretary General of the Polish National Commission for UNESCO, which she directed for two years. In 1993, she was appointed to the post of Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to Mexico. Following her return to Warsaw, she directed the Cultural and Scientific Cooperation Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1999 to 2002. From 2001 to 2006, she served as Consul General of the Republic of Poland in Barcelona. Following her time in Spain, and until her latest nomination to Los Angeles, she served as the Deputy Director of the Consular and Polish Communities Abroad Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw. Ms. Joanna Kozińska-Frybes is fluent in Polish, Spanish, French and English. She is married and has one child. (Biography courtesy of the Polish Consulate)

   

 EVA BORYCZKO is a Polish actress and writer, who created a solo play about Modjeska's life and career and performed it in a series of venues throughout California. Entitled "Modjeska! An Artist's Dream" the play is based on Modjeska's diaries and letters. Ewa Boryczko interprets the extraordinary journey of famous Polish actress Helena Modjeska, who comes to America in 1876 with the dream of performing on the American stage. The costume, on loan from Helena Modjeska Society of Orange County (thanks to Kris Cieply), is a faithful reproduction of one of Modjeska's own stage costumes.

Our 40th Anniversary Ball - 2/4/2012

 

 HELENA MODJESKA ART AND CULTURE CLUB IN LOS ANGELES Has the honor to invite you to the BALL Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Club On the 4th of February 2012 at 7:00 p.m. Mountaingate Country Club 12445 Mountaingate Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90049 Guest of Honor Joanna Kozińska - Frybes Consul General of the Republic of Poland in Los Angeles Evening Attire (black tie) RSVP to the 20th of January 2012 $100.00 per person