An art historian, artist, essayist and writer, Ewa Kuryluk was born in Cracow in 1946 and studied painting and art history there.

Her first book as an art historian, The Viennese Apocalypse, a collection of essays on art and literature at the turn of the century, came out in 1974. She has lived since 1981 in New York and Paris, lecturing at American universities and writing in English Her book Veronica and her Cloth, on vera icon, the tradition of the "true picture" not painted by human hands, was published in New York and London in 1991. This theme is closely linked with Ewa Kuryluk's own art. Her best known works are drawings on cotton and silk cloths which she hangs and drapes in various places to form striking installations. For several years, she has also included fragments of texts in her drawings. The texts come from her own writings and emphasize the unity of everything she undertakes: scholarship, writing, and art. Ewa Kuryluk has written two accomplished, innovative novels: Century 21 (written in English and published in Poland in 1995) and Grand Hotel Oriental (1997). Both novels follow the same method, in which tales, characters and images are piled one on top of another. The result is a re-creation of the complicated nature of individual consciousness, offering the reader insight into the depths of his or her own mind in order to discover the most fundamental elements lurking there: love and death.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Wiedeńska apokalipsa, Kraków: WL, 1974.
• Salome albo o rozkoszy, Kraków: WL, 1976.
• Hyperrealizm - Nowy realizm, Warszawa: WaiF, 1977.
• Podróż do granic sztuki, Kraków: WL, 1981.
• Weronika i jej chusta. Historia symbolizmu i struktura "prawdziwego" obrazu, Kraków: WL, 1998 (trans. from English).
• Art mon amour. Szkice o sztuce, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Sic!, 2002.

prose:

• Wiek XXI, Gdańsk: Marabut, 1995 (trans. from English).
• Grand Hotel Oriental, Warszawa: W.A.B., 1997 (trans. from English).
• Encyklopedierotyk, Warszawa: Sic, 2001.
• Goldi, Waszawa: Twój Styl, 2004.
• Droga do Koryntu/On the Way to Corinth, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Książkowe Twój Styl, 2006
• Frascati, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2009

poetry:

• Kontur, Kraków: WL, 1979.
• Pani Anima, Kraków-Wrocław, Wrocław: WL, 1984.

books in English:

• Century 21, Normal, IL.: Dalkey Archive Press, Cloth, 1992.
• Grand Hotel Oriental, Oxford: Basil Backwell, 1991.
• Veronika and Her Cloth: History, Symbolism and Structure of a "True" Image, Oxford: Basil Backwell, 1991.
• Salome and Judas in the Cave of Sex, Evanston, IL.: Northwestern University Press, 1987.
• Droga do Koryntu/On the Way to Corinth, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Książkowe Twój Styl, 2006

TRANSLATIONS

Russian:

• Epoto-encyklopedia [Encyklopedie-erotyk], trans. Irina Adelgejm, Moskwa: NLO, 2007

The book Veronika and Her Cloth was published in Italian in 1993 and Portugese in 1994.