Robert Rehfeldt, „Hommage á Matuszewski”, 1974, screen print, 80 x 60 cm

In 1975, Galeria Studio hosted an exhibition by the married East German artists Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt (1932-2024) and Robert Rehfeldt (1931-1993). The artists presented works in the area of mail art, including a project that consisted of posted responses to Robert Rehfeldt’s invitations. After the exhibition, the artist donated a print dedicated to the Polish artist Andrzej Matuszewski (1924-2008) to the gallery for its collection. According to documents found in the Rehfeldt archive in Berlin and elsewhere, Matuszewski and Rehfeldt had friendly and close relations. They both exchanged correspondence and visited each other in Berlin and Poznań.

Donated to Galeria Studio, the work is a screen print consisting of a composition of four photographs and a triangle, with a dedication to Matuszewski. Three of the photographs are repeated shots of a chair embedded in a tree.  The fourth one shows a man carrying this chair. These photographs are most likely documentation of one of Matuszewski’s so-called “parallel actions,” and it is very possible that the creator of the photographs is Rehfeldt himself, who often took part in plein-air art events in Poland.

Paulina Olszewska