Natalia Lach-Lachowicz (18 April 1937 – 12 August 2022) was a Polish artist who worked with paint, photography, drawing, performance, and video art.

Sean O'Hagan Sean O'Hagan (born 1959) is an Irish singer and songwriter who leads the avant-pop band the High Llamas, which he founded in 1992. He is also known for being one half of the songwriting duo (with Cathal Coughlan) in Microdisney and for his wor ...

, writing in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' in 2017, described her as "a neglected early-1970s Polish-born pioneer of feminist avant garde image making".

Biography

Natalia Lach-Lachowicz was born in

Żywiec Żywiec () is a town on the River Soła in southern Poland with 31,194 inhabitants (2019). It is situated within the Silesian Voivodeship, near the Żywiec Lake and Żywiec Landscape Park, one of the eight protected areas in the voivodeship. H ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. From 1946 to 1956, Lach-Lachowicz lived in

Bielsko-Biała Bielsko-Biała (; ; , ; ) is a city in southern Poland, with a population of approximately 166,765 as of December 2022, making it the List of cities and towns in Poland#Largest cities and towns by population, 22nd largest city in Poland, and an a ...

where she completed basic and secondary education. From 1957 to 1963 she studied at the State College of Fine Arts (nowadays Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts) in

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

under the supervision of Professor S. Dawski, where she completed her MSc. In 1964 she received a Diploma of the (ZPAF). In 1970 she co-founded PERMAFO, an artists' group and gallery, with Zbigniew Dłubak and Andrzej Lachowicz. In 1971, after marrying Lachowicz, she assumed the name Natalia LL. Since 1975 she was engaged in the international feminist art movement and took part in various symposia and exhibitions. Between 2004 and 2013 she was a senior lecturer at the

University of Fine Arts in Poznań A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

. In 2018, the ZW Foundation was founded to preserve the works of Natalia LL as well as to provide a "place for exchanging scientific ideas and creative thoughts".

Work

Natalia LL was a conceptual artist and photographer, associated with the avant-garde scene of the 1960s in Poland. Through photography and video she deconstructed single-frame photographs and satirizes the images that were presented in advertising, television, and print in the 1970s and 1980s. Her series, ''Consumer Art'' (1972–1975), depicts close ups of women eating and biting foods like bananas, sausages, and melons. It is often read as a critique, questioning the common representation of women in

pornography Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is Sexual suggestiveness, sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolv ...

. She said of it ''"Feminists saw in my consumer art a perverse struggle with the cult of the phallus and with masculinity. For me it was rather the manifestation of a feeling of life and liveliness."'' After suffering from a severe illness in the late 1970s, Natalia LL began to delve into transcendental and mythological subjects, often photographing her performances. In April 2019, after an anonymous complaint, the Polish National Museum in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

removed from an exhibition works by Natalia LL,

Katarzyna Kozyra Katarzyna Kozyra (born 1963) is a Polish video artist. She studied German studies at the Warsaw University, University of Warsaw (1985–1988). In 1993, she also graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw where she studied sculpture and Hoc ...

, and the duo formed by Karolina Wiktor and Aleksandra Kubiak. This act, which was seen as an act of censorship of feminist art, led to widespread protests; a movement termed "#bananagate."

Awards

*Silver Medal,

Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis The Gloria Artis Medal for Merit to Culture () or Gloria Artis Medal, is a departmental decoration of Poland in arts awarded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland to persons and organizations for distinguish ...

, from the

Ministry of Culture and National Heritage The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage () is a ministry within Polish government led by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage responsible for national heritage preservation and Polish culture promotion. Ministry oversees state o ...

, Poland, 2007

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

* ''Natalia LL. The Mysterious World'', Francisco Carolinum, 2021 * ''Natalia LL. Intimate Photography'', Galerie Steinek, Vienna, 2018 * ''Doing Gender'', lokal_30, Warsaw, 2013 * ''Natalia LL – Opus Magnum'', Ernst Múzeum, Budapest, 2012 * ''The Whole of the Parts'', Galeria Wangarda BWA, Wrocław, 2005 * ''Ogrody personlizmu/Gardens of Personalism'', Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw, 1998 * ''Allusive Space'', Frauenmuseum, Bonn, 1995 * ''Piramida/Pyramid'', Galeria Spojrzenia, Wrocław, 1980

Group exhibitions

*''Natalia LL, Józef Robakowski, Ewa Juszkiewicz'', gallery lokal_30 at Frieze New York City, 2016 *''Gender Check, Femininity and Masculinity in the Art of Eastern Europe'', mumok Museum Moderner Kunst – Stiftung Ludwig Vienna & Zachęta National Gallery of Art Warsaw *''Rebelle: Art and Feminism 1969–2009,'' Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem, Netherlands, 2009 *''Darkside - Photographic Desire and Sexuality Photographed'', Fotomuseum, Winterthur, 2008 *''La photographie polonaise'', Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1982 *Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil, 1979

Gallery

File:Natalia-ll-aksamitny-terror-1.jpg, Aksamitny terror, 1970 File:Fma-natalia-ll-postconsumerart-1975.jpg, Sztuka Postkonsumpcyjna, 1975 File:Snienie.jpg, Śnienie, 1978 File:Sztukazwirzeca-animalart-1978.jpg, Sztuka zwierzęca / Animal Art, 1978 File:Natalia-ll-erotyzm-trwogi-3.jpg, Erotyzm trwogi, 2004