Zygmunt Rytka: Stones, Ants, and Television
Photographic Works 1971–2010
Daniel Muzyczuk/Karol Hordziej

Zygmunt Rytka (1947–2018) was an intermedia artist associated with the Polish neo-avant-garde of the 1970s and the independent artist community of the 1980s. In his conceptual work, he combined a philosophical and artistic study of nature and perception with ironic reflections on contemporary media and politics. The artist saw the camera as an instrument that creates a convention and begins to influence reality. The book—the first monograph of his photographic work in English— is a comprehensive collection including early conceptual cycles, works dealing with consumer culture, politically charged analytical studies of the language of mass media, and works focusing on the relationship between culture and nature. There is commentary on the cycles provided by notes from the author, an interview conducted by Anna Maria Leśniewska, and new texts by David Crowley, Karol Hordziej, and Daniel Muzyczuk. 

Zygmunt Rytka (1947–2018), Polish conceptual photographer and intermedia artist. His work is in such collections as Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź or Kontakt Collection, Vienna. He collaborated closely with the Mała Gallery in Warsaw, the Wschodnia Gallery and the FF Gallery in Łódź and was the co-founder of the In Situ Contemporary Art Foundation. Daniel Muzyczuk is chief curator at the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź. Karol Hordziej is a curator, art manager, and lecturer based in Kraków, Poland.