ERIC STRAWCZYNSKI, ABOVE ALL, AN EXPERIMENTER

OFFICIAL CARRER PATH After Graduate Studies in Law,a doctorate in Economic Sciences and Psychology,Eric STRAW pursued a carreer as a professor and a researcher in Social Sciences in the seventies.In this enclosed and rather unimaginative environment,he turned towards a world of antique objects and of Curiosity,where his real tastes had always lead him.

Born in 1939

Professionally,he has become one of the most reputable French expert in antique toys,specialized in dolls and the problems of restoring them. PERSONAL AND CREATIVE PATH Since the seventies, STRAW has always lead a "dual life".Extremely curious and demanding,he is first of all,an experimenter,for whom theory does not suffice.

Thus,since that period,he has done numerous works of creation and design,at first mainly in the aera of toys:marionettes, satirical busts (an important collection no longer avalaible),terra cotta sculptures,objects in bronze,black and white photography etc...etc...

These works have been exhibited in many different places (in particular professional exhibitions such as the "Ateliers d'Art" in Paris up until 1984).More often he simply exhibited in his own gallery or in his own workshop,feeling neither the need nor the desire to attain fame for his research.

An independant man,he felt that "searching" didn't necessarily mean "discovering". At that time he maintained an ongoing privileged correspondance with Jean Dubuffet,an unequaled fascinating and attentive correspondant (cf.see portions of the correspondance concerning the "terra cotta sculptures and shadow boxes period"**). The works being presented currently are the products of the continuity of theorical and practical research that he has pursued for over thirty years. Now it is a period of maturity in which STRAW has definitively lightened his aims,a period when there is everything to provoke, and nothing more to prove !

** Part of a letter from Jean Dubuffet answering some sending from Straw ,in the "terra cotta and bronze sculptures" period.

"Dear Sir,our mind works exceptionally well when it comes to raising radishes or to succeeding in mechanical constructions. But when we decide to use it for important philosophical studies, we suddently realize that it doesn't serve us...Your text,which accompanies your terra cotta objects ,like a musical background, is a poem.I like the fact that you think that our decision will found truth-our truth.... We are enclosed in a group of mirrors in which our thoughts find nothing other than their reflection.... I can do nothing more than sincerely applaud the great importance of your experiences in terra cotta.Not only it is a "philosophical statement", but a "philosophical practice", a continuous creation..."

Affectionately yours

Jean Dubuffet.