Though Andrzej Dudziński published his first satirical commentary towards the end of 1969, the artist does not recognize this as the date of his debut, for the magazine where it was published misspelled his first name. In spite of the fact that his first cover of the legendary monthly Ty i Ja (You & I) appeared in May 1970, and the monthly Poland run a few of his captionless cartoons, he insists that his legitimate participation in the trade began in 1971. From 1970 till 1972 Dudziński lived in London, where he collaborated with the underground press, among them the notorious OZ, also Ink, Frendz and Time Out. This is what he has to say about those days:

“The June 1970 London we landed in was the unquestionable youth capital of the world, the most attractive city of Europe, full of life and bursting with energy.It was the London of the Beatles, Jimmi Hendrix, King’s Road, Notting Hill, the counterculture, anti Vietnam War protesters, the open-air rock concerts in Hyde Park. Legions of young Americans converged on London: hippies on the road, veteran Beatniks, poets, musicians. Since they needed no translation, their influence was instantenous.

As I spread some white sheets of paper out on the floor of a rented room, I knew I was bound to do something completely different. I distinctly remember that intoxicating feeling of opening up, as if my new place of residence not only had made me a new man at the same enabling me to get through to another dimention. It also might have been an attempt to pry myself loose from whatever influence I had been under then. It was a merciless soul-searching in order to find something unquestionably my own, not imposed upon me.”

Dudzinski on Hoza from May 15-31 — vernissage starts at 18 PM on Saturday, May 14.

Galeria Grafiki i Plakatu, Hoża 40, Warsaw