Theo Wujcik

PAINTINGS

     Wujcik has been taking in cultural information since the days he acted as a visual reporter for his gang of hooligan comrades in his native Detroit. He would produce portraits and tongue-in-cheek illustrations of his gang’s exploits. These were juxtaposed with his obsessive preoccupation of sketching war, death, carnage, and graphic battle exploits—this was the dawn of post-war America. Wujcik, back then as now, played the role of cultural shaman: an individual with the unflinching eye of an artist, conjuring magic and mystery, seeing beyond the matrix of reality to gain knowledge and insight to better serve the greater community.
     Whether the vision is narrow and personal, as depicted in the work Brassy Girl, or broad and timely, as the response to 9/11 in Skydivers, Wujcik manages to cut a swath through the spectrum of personal experience, giving the viewer a road map to the internalization of the period in which they live. Wujcik’s dialogue of personal experience continues to coalesce within the spirit of unique artistic vision. Beacons and post holes, random dribbles of paint, a weathered door, hurricanes, and explosive cultural events: all a lightning rod for the artist.
                                                                                                   - Scott Sleeter, December 2, 2007

Theo Wujcik began his art career in 1958, with his entrance to The Art School of the Society of Arts and Crafts, Detroit, Michigan. In 1967 he took a leave of absence from teaching at his alma mater to attend the Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, attaining the status of Master Printer. He returned to teaching in Detroit until 1970, when he accepted the position of Shop Manager at Graphicstudio, a research-based atelier on the campus of the University of South Florida. He resigned from his post in 1972 to teach full time in the university’s Fine Arts Department, a position he held until his retitrement as Pofessor Emeritus in 2003.

Theo Wujcik’s work is held in:

Museum of Modern Art: New York City, New York
Whitney Museum of American Art: New York City, New York
Brooklyn Museum: Brooklyn, New York
L.A. County Museum of Art: Los Angeles, California
San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art: San Francisco, California
Detroit Institute of Art: Detroit, Michigan
The Art Institute of Chicago: Chicago, Illinois
Boston Public Library: Boston, Massachusetts
Yale University Art Gallery: New Haven, Connecticut
The Library of Congress: Washington, D.C.
Numerous private collections

BRASSY GIRL

Brassy Girl

CHINA CONNECTION

China Connection

DIRECT HIT

Direct Hit