Professor Krzysztof Fijalkowski

As a writer and researcher specialising in the study of international Surrealism I’m interested in a broad range of disciplines and approaches, including art, photography, design, architecture, film, literature and critical theory. I’m also interested more generally in the wider avant-garde and cultural contexts and legacies of this subject area, particularly in Europe, as well as in its continuation in contemporary creative practices. Most of my research takes the form of academic publications in books, journals and exhibition catalogues, but I also work as a specialist translator and occasional curator, and write and publish more experimental and personal work, as well as exploring these ideas as a visual practitioner.

I am a member of the university’s Fine Art and Photography Research and Knowledge Exchange group of collaborative, interactive and networking practitioners, theorists and innovators in education.

Research

• 2025: ‘It’s a Bird: Animation, objective humour and the heart of the black star’, in Abigail Susik, ed., Surrealism and Animation: Transnational Connections, 1920-Present. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
• 2025: ‘Colin Self: Collage and Everyday Myths’, in Giorgia Bottinelli, ed., One Self: The Creative Life of Colin Self. Norwich: Norfolk Museums Service.
• 2024: With Michael Richardson, ‘Translators’ Introduction’, and with Kristoffer Noheden, ‘Max Walter Svanberg and Henri Chopin: The 1955 Enquiry’, in André Breton, Magic Art, edited by Robert Shehu Ansell and Merlin Cox. Lopen, Somerset: Fulgur Press.
• 2024: ‘1932-1935: Politiques du merveilleux’ / ‘The Politics of the Marvellous 1932-1935′, in Didier Ottinger, Marie Sarré and Katia Sowels, eds, Le surréalisme / Surrealism Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou / Woodbridge: ACC Art Books.
• 2023: ‘The Anxious Spiral’, in Sarah Horton and Victoria Michell, eds, Pattern and Chaos: Making and Meaning. Bristol: Intellect.
• 2023: Krzysztof Fijalkowski and Rachel Fijalkowska, ‘Eva Švankmajerová: From the Interior’, International Journal of Surrealism, no. 1, autumn, 58-80.
• 2022: ‘Limits not frontiers: surrealist resistance to nationalism, patriotism, and militarism’, in Kirsten Strom, ed., The Routledge Companion to Surrealism. New York : Routledge, 71-78.
• 2022: ‘Une explosion lente: le Carnet de Paul Paon’, in Michel Scognamillo and Monique Yaari, eds., Paul Paon: Chimères. Paris: Galerie Métamorphoses, 102-03
• 2021: ‘Surrealist Networks and the Films of Maya Deren’, in Kristoffer Noheden and Abigail Susik, eds., Surrealism and Film After 1945: Absolutely Modern Mysteries, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• 2021: ‘Princip Slasti, 1968’, in Stephanie D’Alessandro and Matthew Gale, eds, Surrealism Beyond Borders. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
• 2021: ‘Fashion in the Formative Years of Parisian Surrealism: The Dress of Time, the Dress of Space’, Journal of Surrealism and the Americas, vol. 12, no. 1.
• 2021: ‘Beards: The Grain of the Face’, in Tangible Territory, no. 2, spring 2021.
• 2020: ‘Secret Noise: Marcel Duchamp and the (un)sound object’, Journal of Sonic Studies, no. 20, autumn 2020.
• 2020: ‘The Unsurpassable: Dada, Surrealism and the Situationist International’, in Alastair Hemmens and Gabriel Zacarias, eds., The Situationist International: A Critical Handbook. London:Pluto Press.
• 2019: ‘Lyrical Forms, Divergent Functions: Between Surrealism and Design’, in Mateo Kries, ed., Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design 1924–Today. Weil am Rhein: Vitra Design Museum.
• 2019: Dawn Ades, Krzysztof Fijalkowski, Steven Harris, Michael Richardson and Georges Sebbag, eds. The International Encyclopedia of Surrealism. 3 volumes and digital platform. London: Bloomsbury.
• 2017: ‘Complications and Attacks on the Beauty of Unity’: Le Corbusier and Louis Soutter’, Art History, vol. 40, no. 5
• 2016: Krzysztof Fijalkowski and Michael Richardson, eds. (2016) Surrealism: Key Concepts. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
• 2016: ‘Dada and Surrealism in Eastern Europe’, in David Hopkins, ed. (2016) The Companion to Dada and Surrealism. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
• 2015: (joint translator and editorial advisor) Dawn Ades and Michael Richardson with Krzysztof Fijalkowski, The Surrealism Reader: An Anthology of Ideas. London, Tate publishing
• 2015: ‘Cubomania: Gherasim Luca and Non-Oedipal Collage’, Dada/Surrealism, 20 (2015), special issue From Dada to Infra-noir: Dada, Surrealism, and Romania.
• 2014: ‘Gherasim Luca: Le désir désiré’, in Monique Yaari (ed), « Infra-noir », un et multiple: Un groupe surréaliste entre Bucarest et Paris, 1945-1947. Oxford: Peter Lang
• 2013: ‘Poétique / politique: Picasso, Surrealism and Politics after 1944’, in Jonathan Harris and Richaerd Koeck, eds., Picasso and the Politics of Visual Representation: War and Peace in the Era of Cold War and Since. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
• 2013: With Michael Richardson and Ian Walker, Surrealism and Photography in Czechoslovakia: On the Needles of Days. Farnham: Ashgate.
• 2011: 8 catalogue texts, Christoph Grunenberg, ed. Magritte A-Z. Liverpool: Tate publishing.
• 2010: The Incompletist: Notes on the Collection, text/multiple, Kaavous-Bhoyroo editions, commissioned for the exhibition A Skvader, Castle Museum Norwich
• 2010: ‘Marcel Duchamp, Surrealist Exhibitions and the Restless Place’, in Jane Alison, ed., Surreal House. London and New Haven: Barbican Art Gallery/Yale University Press
• 2008: translator and introduction, Gherasim Luca, The Passive Vampire. Twisted Spoon Press, Prague
• 2008: ‘Néon’, Eye, no.68, summer 2008.
• 2007: ‘Black Materialism: Surrealism Faces the Commercial World’, in Ghislaine Wood, ed., Surreal Things: Surrealism and Design. London: V&A Museum.
• 2007: ‘The Encounter with the Real’, interview with John Stezaker and Lynda Morris, in Richard Flood et al., Collage: The Unmonumental Picture. New York: New Museum.
• 2005: ‘Emila Medkova, the Magic of Despair’, Tate Papers, no.4 (autumn 2005).

Other Activities

• Currently supervising 4 PhD students; 5 PhD students supervised to completion; 24 PhD examinations
• Series co-editor, Bloomsbury Academic Transnational Surrealism series

See more work by Krzysztof on the Norwich University Research Repository.