29.0 x 16.0cm - patinated bronze
Signed on the base: TOMEK, next to ED. III | 17/25
on the bottom the author's sticker with edition number 17/25 and atelier address
The sculpture was inspired by a 17th-century engraving by an anonymous artist (described in the collection of the Musée Carnavalet in Paris), depicting a "perfumer's outfit" - a mysterious purveyor and dealer in fragrances, equipped with test tubes, flacons and aroma accessories.
The full-scale sculpture by Tomasz Kawiak stood in 1997 in Grasse, France, which has been famous for its perfume industry since the 18th century.
Tomasz Kawiak (Lublin 1943, lives in France) studied painting and interior design at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts from 1962 to 1967, graduating in 1968. From 1968 to 1970 he was an assistant in the ceramics studio at his alma mater's Faculty of Painting. He was one of the first and most visible actioners of his generation. In 1970 he presented the memorable action "Tom Kawiak's Pain", during which he bandaged trees mutilated by the municipal services on one of Lublin's streets. In the same 1970 he left for Paris, where he continued his studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts from 1971 to 1973. Parallel to his studies, in 1971 he inaugurated a long-term exchange action called "Trock-Art." Another action calculated to last for a long time was the action of "briquetage", which consisted in leaving the artist identical bricks fired in red clay, measuring 20 x 10 x 3 cm, in the places he visited during his numerous travels. An important iconographic motif for Kawiak since the early 1970s have been blue jeans, which over time have become a kind of fetish for his art, as have the contents of his pockets - both of which are recorded in sculptural casts, multiples, paintings, drawings and so on.
