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Art&Business

n° 1/2012

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Agnieszka Sandomierz “Amor” 2012 r.

110 cm x 85 cm

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Agnieszka Sandomierz “Żółta dziewczynka” 2012 r.

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janusz kotlewski “Sephir 01” 2012 r.

150 cm x 130 cm

janusz kotlewski “Sephir 02” 2012 r.

150 cm x 130 cm

Anna Szprynger, no title 101, 2012 r.

50 cm x 50 cm

Anna Szprynger, no title 102, 2012 r.

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Maciej Wieczerzak “hearts iV” 2012 r.

90 cm x 90 cm

Maciej Wieczerzak “hearts V” 2012 r.

90 cm x 90 cm

Szymon Ziarek “Szpagat następujący po kucaniu” 2012 r.

130 cm x 100 cm

Szymon Ziarek “Zdziwienie molestowane” 2012 r.

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CONTENT 1/2012

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Bogusław Deptuła STRONG COLOURS OF SENSITIVITY The artistic work of Szymon Urbański

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Olga Święcicka AGNIESZKA HAS DIED The artistic work of Agnieszka Sandomierz

Agata Kokoszka SCULPTURE FOR EVERYONE Unique retro ceramics

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MY WAY IS FULL OF SURPRISES Paweł Drabarczyk interviews Stanisław Młodożeniec

Monika Weychert Waluszko STYLE ON THE WEB Polish fashion designers

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Olga Święcicka ARTIST PLAYER The artistic work of Maciej Wieczerzak

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Patrycja Jastrzębska THE NEW GENERATION Young Polish designers

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Marta Kowalewska POLISH DESIGN REDISCOVERED Polish 50s and 60s design

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Katarzyna Ziołkowska-Banak MONUMENTAL GALLERY Big-sized art in the Zaspa Housing Estate in Gdansk

Monika Weychert Waluszko TOP SECRET: THE SUCCESS OF POLISH PHOTOGRAPHY Katarzyna Mirczak conquered Paris Salons

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DRAW, DRAW BUT STILL YOU WILL NEVER BECOME MATEJKO Bogusław Deptuła interviews Andrzej Wajda

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PAINTING NON-EXISTENT THINGS Bogusław Deptuła interviews Anna Szprynger

p. 30

102 TOUCHING THE SECRETS OF NATURE Katarzyna Woźniak interviews Agata Kleczkowska p. 68 108

Agnieszka Rayzacher IMAGE ARCHEOLOGIST The artistic work of Andrzej Cisowski

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I DO NOT KNOW THE ROLE I PLAY Katarzyna Woźniak interviews Jakub Słomkowski

124 Maria Poprzęcka CLUES The artistic work of Łukasz Huculak

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BENTLEY WARSZAWA ul. Wybrze˝e KoÊciuszkowskie 45, 00-347 Warszawa, tel. (+48 22) 258 96 60, www.bentley-warszawa.pl ”Bentley” i ”B” w logotypie sà zarejestrowanymi znakami towarowymi. © 2008 Bentley Motors Limited.

Model na zdj´ciu: Continental Supersports Coupe.

CONTENT 1/2012

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Anna Jastrzębska THE BEST PLAN IS TO ACT WITHOUT ANY PLAN dOCUMENTA 13 in Kassel

138 Paweł Drabarczyk LUIS RAMON MARÍN: PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE KING AND REVOLUTION Spanish photo-master rediscovered after years

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Michał Dziadosz THE SOTHEBY’S - HOW TO SELL ANYTHING The story of the Sotheby’s Art Auction House

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A MANAGER IS LIKE A PAINTER Bogusław Deptuła interviews Dariusz Lewandowski

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Grażyna Bastek Unknown Art Masterpieces CANALETTO & CANALETTO

184 Wojciech Konończuk SHCHUKIN - ART VISIONARY A profile of the Russian art collector - Sergey Ivanovich Shchukin

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Bogusław Deptuła Edible paintings SIMPLY A FAST HERRING

190 IMAGINED COLLECTIONS Bogusław Deptuła interviews Professor Maria Poprzęcka

150 Jacek Santorski Commentary: The Art of Living YOUR RULES OF CONDUCT

156 Bogusław Deptuła [....] BEING AN ART COLLECTOR

158 Anna Jastrzębska BE LIKE CHARLES SAATCHI The millionaire and art super-collector - Charles Saatchi

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VIENNA IS ART HEAVEN Agnieszka Antoniewska interviews Christina Steinbrecher and Vita Zaman

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p. 158

Karolina Gadzimska Managing the luxury THE LUXURY BRANDS IN THE ERA OF THE INTERNET p. 168

200 Jonathan Bowring Risk matters…

INSURANCE AS AN ART

204 Tomasz Potocki Wealth management ALTERNATIVE FINANCIAL INVESTMENTS

208 Janusz Miliszkiewicz The Masonic Verses POLAND: THE RIGHT ADDRESS! p. 178 1/2012

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The Photocolumn by Tomasz Sikora

„Dialog”

Cover: Halim Al Karim, "Lost Memory 7", 2001 © AB Gallery, Luzern by courtesy of VIENNAFAIR

Art&Business Editor: Art & Business Magazine S.A. ul. Taśmowa 7 PL 02-677 Warszawa

Editioral Board: ul. Taśmowa 7B PL 02-677 Warszawa redakcja@artbiznes.pl tel.: +48 22 828 14 70/+48 22 828 14 71 President of the Board: Jakub Kokoszka Vice-President of the Board: Bartłomiej Czernecki Creative Director: Agnieszka Antoniewska Editor-in-Chief: Bogusław Deptuła b.deptula@artbusiness.pl Editorial Assistant: Paweł Drabarczyk p.drabarczyk@artbusiness.pl Editorial Team: Patrycja Jastrzębska p.jastrzebska@artbusiness.pl Anna Jastrzębska anna.jastrzebska@artbusiness.pl

Contributors: Grażyna Bastek Aleksandra Binkowska Andrzej Maria Borkowski Dagmara Budzbon-Szymańska Zofia Chylak Bożena Chlabicz Natalia Czarkowska Michał Duda Iga Fijałkowska Maciej Gajewski Łukasz Greszta Irena Huml Zuzanna Janisiewicz Roman Kaczkowski Natalia Kaliś Agata Kokoszka Wojciech Konończuk Karolina Korwin-Piotrowska Marta Kowalewska Anita Kwestorowska Marta Lisok Agnieszka Michalak Janusz Miliszkiewicz Iwa Pawlak Tomasz Potocki Jarosław Mikołaj Skoczeń Lucyna Sosnowska Joanna Stopyra Marcin Szczelina Grzegorz Szczepański Olga Święcicka Monika Weychert Waluszko Katarzyna Woźniak Katarzyna Ziółkowska-Banak Błażej Żuławski

Departament of Sales: tel.: +48 22 110 00 29 reklama@artbusiness.pl Subscription and Distribution: Maria Bukowska prenumerata@artbiznes.pl Desktop Publishing: Aleksandra Świerzy aleksandra.swierzy@gmail.com Print run: 4 000

This publication is legally protected under the intellectual property rights, including penal provisions therein. Any copying and distribution forms thereof shall be only permitted under the Editor’s consent.

The Editor shall commit no liability for the wording of advertisements published in this edition. The Editor reserves hereby the right to decide on the final content of the articles and their titles.

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& Main topic

- it’s Poland’s turn!

Design in Poland s. 30 SCULPTURE FOR EVERYONE s. 46 Polish fashion designers s. 54 Murals in Gdańsk s. 58 Andrzej Wajda s. 68 Anna Szprynger s. 74 Szymon Urbański s. 80 Agnieszka Sandomierz s. 84 Stanisław Młodożeniec s. 90 Maciej Wieczerzak s. 96 Agata Kleczkowska s. 102 Andrzej Cisowski s. 108 Jakub Słomkowski s. 116 Łukasz Huculak s. 114

& Design

Oskar Zięta, “Plopp” stools, by courtesy of Zieta Prozessdesign

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THE NEW GENERATION They have graduated from prestigious foreign universities, and their websites are in English.

Young Polish designers do not have a provincial complex, why should they?

The fact that they live here does not stand in their way to gain clients abroad.

They design for the biggest domestic and worldwide brands, they receive prestigious awards. Below, we would like to introduce the most important young Polish designers.

Marek Cecuła, the ex-Director of the Kielce Design Centre, has helped us to choose them.

Elaborated by Patrycja Jastrzębska ZIETA PROZESSDESIGN Oskar Zięta Oskar Zięta conducts research on how to produce, transport and plan efficient production processes. How would the world look if objects and constructions were able to be transported while rolled up or f lat and would become useful only if needed? If they were so light that they might be transported by a balloon filled with helium? If they could be unique but at the same time manufactured in an efficient process? The FiDU technology allows all the above. Within it, three-di-

mensional objects are created only with the use of two thin metal sheets cut and welded with the help of a laser and next deformed by internal pressure. The products of this unit are created by a team of engineers, designers, machine construction specialists, production technology, material science, architects and artists.

The team examines, tests and checks the behavior of the fabric during deformation.

The purpose is to elaborate the perfect details, which will serve engineers to build more precise, individualized, yet efficiently produced constructions in the future.

Oskar Zięta, photo: Dawin Meckel, by courtesy of Zieta Prozessdesign

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Sonia Słaboń and Monika Brauntsch, by courtesy of Kafti Design

KAFTI DESIGN Monika Brauntsch, Sonia Słaboń The main assumption of Kafti Design is to act responsibly toward the surroundings.

W hile creating products, the workshop cooperates with local businessmen, craftsmen a nd Pol ish manu fact urers. I n t h is way it wants to contr ibute to the g row th of the local entrepreneurship and promotion of native designing. Kafti is also environmentally friendly, thus recycled and ecological materials are used in the production process. However, the designers vow that they want their prices to be affordable. Their cooperative approach bore fruit in 2007 when their lampshade “A lien” was nominated for the “Śląska rzecz” award. We can also see the local patriotism in other Kafti products; “Berga”, the name of one of their lampshades, means “a lump” in the Silesian dialect, whereas “A l-verd ” relates to a mineshaf t.

Kafti lampshades are sold in a self-assembly version with a manual, photographs and description.

T he compa ny a lso has a n on l ine store with the products of other manufacturers, including foreign ones.

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Kafti Design, “Berga” lamp, by courtesy of Kafti Design

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Tomek Rygalik, “Tennis 1” armchairs, photo: Moroso

Tomek Rygalik, by courtesy of Tomek Rygalik

TOMEK RYGALIK Without exaggeration one can say that this 35-year-old inhabitant of Łódź has already been very successful. He graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of the Łódź University of Technology. He also studied industrial design at the Pratt Institute in New York, as well as product design at the Royal College of Art in London. As the premier Polish designer, he has become a researcher and has held the position of research associate, conducting R&D projects.

Rygalik div ides his time bet ween three cit ies: London, Wa rsaw a nd Łód ź. He is a design management lecturer at the Warsaw

Academy of A r t. He r uns his ow n design business in Łódź. He mainly designs furniture for such companies as the Italian Moroso, Finnish Artek and the Polish Iker; his portfolio includes lamps, audio equipment, microscopes, cutlery and glasses. As he says: “Unfortunately, it sometimes happens that I can’t afford to buy my own products. I would really like to change that. In addition, the majority of these products are not being distributed in Poland.”

The undeniable proof of Rygalik’s success is the fact that his works are a part of the design collection in the Warsaw National Museum.

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Maja Ganszyniec, Paweł Jasiewicz, Krystian Kowalski, Marcin Krygier, by courtesy of Kompott studio

LOVE KOMPOTT Maja Ganszyniec, Paweł Jasiewicz, Krystian Kowalski, Marcin Krygier Studio Kompott was established in May 2009 and in the same month received its first award. Their design “EASY PLUG”- a kind of alternative tub and washbasin plug- came in first in the 2009 Warsaw Young Design competition. It was also appreciated by the jury of the prestigious Royal College of Art; “EASY PLUG” won the “Selected Works” competition in the Innovation Institute of this College.

The designers act accordingly with the idea of design thinking, which means an intelligent, aware designer. They search for witty solutions which are based on prior observations of human behaviours.

The studio conducts thorough research on the relations between the user and the object as well as on the new typology of things.

The “EASY PLUG” design is the perfect reflection of such thinking. This rubber imitation of a plug with the shape of a pebble is spherical on both sides, which makes it easier to plug and unplug the basin without using a lot of strength. It is a perfect solution for people with physical challenges, the visually impaired, elderly or children. Kompott is known for their designs in public areas and projects with big social impacts.

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Love Kompott, “Easy Plug”, by courtesy of Kompott studio

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Malafor, “BLOW Sofa Extreme”, by courtesy of Malafor studio

MALAFOR Agata Kulik-Pomorska i Paweł Pomorski

Agata Kulik-Pomorska and Paweł Pomorski, by courtesy of Malafor studio

MALAFOR, which means Small Laboratory of Forms, was established by two graduates from the Academy of Art. The first projects of the studio were functional objects which might have been produced in short batches, such as “Pieńki”, “Kostka” or “Pipe line”. Currently, MALAFOR designs and sells its own designer furniture.

Their newest design is the “BLOW Sofa Extreme”. Its pillows, resembling inflated paper envelopes, are made of a super-resistant fabric called DARKON; the sails of yachts are made of this fabric as well. Thanks to such technologically advanced fabrics, the sofa may be used outside and is almost indestructible in adverse weather conditions. Other projects of the group which draw attention are: “Active Basket ” – a shopping basket and a briefcase for people on wheelchairs, as well as “Polish Walking” – handles for Nordic Walking Sticks.

“It happens that we create an object for new purposes, but it also happens that our objects create new purposes. We treat the usefulness of our products very seriously, whereas their appearance and idea are less important. We play with them” – say the designers from MALAFOR.

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MOHO DESIGN Ross Lovegrove, Michał Biernacki, Michał Kopaniszyn This is a powerhouse, and not only on the Polish market. MOHO has created a design which has become an icon of Polish design, including a trend for folk in it. We are of course talking about “Mohohej!DIA” – a round rug resembling a folk cut-out. The world has gone crazy over it, which has resulted in many awards for the company. It is the only Polish product to be awarded the prestigious Red Dot Design Award. In 2005 the rug won the “Śląska Rzecz” award in the Product category, in a competition organized by the Cieszyn Castle.

A year later it was awarded with the title The Best Textile by the prestigious internatio-

nal magazine “Wallpaper”. The same year, the Polish magazine “2+3D” recognized it as one of the twenty Best Polish Designers of the last 5 years. This ground-breaking project was also appreciated by the Warsaw National Museum, which included “Mohohej!DIA” in its collection.

The MOHO designers have also set up a second business – CODE Company – which deals with complex creative ser vices from strategy, research, analysis and prediction of trends to designing products and services for implementation engineering.

The company cooperates with the most important Polish brands such as: Zelmer, Amica, MulitBank, mBank, Armatura Kraków, Iker and Agnella. &

Moho Design, “Mohohej!DIA” carpet, by courtesy of Moho Design

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Moho Design team, photo: Wojciech Trzcionka

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1. “Termo” sofa by Tomek Rygalik, photo: Noti 2. “Estrela” lamp, Kaft i Design 3. “Chippensteel” chair by Oskar Zięta 4. A carpet by Moho Design 5. “Chippensteel” chair by Oskar Zięta

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6. “Easy Plug” by Kompott studio 7. “Eight” lamp by Oskar Zięta 8. “Trim” chair by Kompott studio 9. “Mohohej! DIA” carpet by Moho Design 10. “Lemming” armchair by Tomek Rygalik

11. “Explore” armchair by Malafor studio 12. “Koko” nightstand by Kompott studio 13. “Mohohej! DIA” carpet by Moho Design

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Polish design RediscoverED Polish design of the 50s and 60s is becoming more popular than ever. Today, the phone design

by Olgierd Rutkowski, a “Columbus” teapot, or a “Scallop” chair are collectible objects of desire and are of interest to foreign experts.

by Marta Kowalewska

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Design of a telephone, by Olgierd Rutkowski, courtesy of the National Museum in Warsaw

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ost of the objects come from the Institute of Industrial Design, particularly a collection founded in the 40s of the last century under the watchful eye of Wanda Telakowska, at that time the director of the Institute of Arts. It is worth noting what a huge role this institution played in postwar Poland. It was an institute which had been commissioned to “develop guidelines for the economical plans in the area of industrial design”. What does this mean in practice? That institute decided what would be designed in Poland and how. Thanks to Telakowska, the best artists worked for the native design.

Their work developed during the years 1955-1968 – a unique period in Polish history and native design. A fter tough times of war when the countr y arose from devastation, and the socialist doctrine imposed thereafter, times of “thaw” came. This affected many aspects of life, and the artistic environment, the most impatient and hungry for “new things”, immediately seized on those first signs of warming.

The World Festival of Youth and Students, which took place in Warsaw in 1955, was regarded as a visible change. The festival was an explosion of colour, which mastered the grey and gloomy streets of the capital. It was a kind of breath of fresh air, a carnival held in the space of the city. It was an impetus for young people missing freedom. Cabarets were established, fashion and the repertoires of theatres started to change. It was the time of the beginning of festival organisations (the “Warsaw Autumn” and the “Jazz Jamboree”).

Finally, it was the time of the transformation of cafes’ interiors, which, so far, hadn’t served socially important functions, and was at the same time a real challenge for designers.

Ex perimentation was also begun in the fine arts. An independent, original style dominated the great posters and the graphic design of books and magazines. In 1956 the first issue of an opinion making magazine “Project” appeared. It was then that the eminent architect Grzegorz Hryniewiecki stated “We want to be modern”. Modernity was also understood as opening up to the contemporary culture of the West; it was an attempt to take part in the mainstream of the art of the time. Technical progress and scientific discoveries, biological forms seen through a microscope, were inspiration to artists. Designers came up with organic, asymmetrical elongated shapes with rounded edges. Modern, gently curved line can be seen at the exhibition in furniture by Maria Chomentowska (the chair “Little lungs” 1956), Jan Kurzątkowski (a chair from 1956) and Teresa Kruszewska (the “Scallop” Chair, 1956).

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Technological opportunities in Poland in the 50s and 60s were much worse than the ones used in the West. Native artists had almost no access to the latest synthetic materials. So f luid shapes in the furniture were obtained by appropriately formed bent plywood. They were able to form plywood into light sculptural shapes of furniture.

However, Roman Modzelewski and Czesław K nothe were exceptional. T hey had developed their own methods of plastic collection and used them in their copyrighted projects. Other forms referring to current experimental search are those that use metal mesh, lace nylon stretched on a rack or wicker twine.

Decanter and glasses from clear and smoke purple glass by Wiesław Sawczuk, 1960, courtesy of the National Museum in Warsaw

Design

Various transformations of organic forms can also be seen in the field of pottery. Elements of coffee service, “Ina”, by Lubomir Tomaszewski has sculptural shapes. In turn, Danuta Duszniak attracts our attention with her “Columbus” kettles – with asymmetric composition and intense colours of decoration. At the same time, porcelain figurines of

humans and animals deprived of details became very popular. Their rounded shapes were stressed by enamel, shiny material and intense colourful decoration. It is easy to figure out that sculptors are the authors of these pieces.

In some time separate design departments of art academies started to be founded. An exception was the programme established

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shortly after World War II in the Łódź School of Arts. The State College of Fine Arts (later the Academy of Fine Arts) in Łódź owed its unique shape to the pioneering ideas of W ładyslaw Strzemińsk i, who was eager to educate artists and designers ready for close collaboration with industry. Since the 19th Century Łódź had been a centre of the texti-

The “We want to be modern” exhibition, photo by Robert Szaban, the National Museum in Warsaw, 2011

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The “We want to be modern� exhibition, photo by Robert Szaban, the National Museum in Warsaw, 2011

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From the early 60s, artists started emphasising object art. Artists tried to make more individual the area traditionally regarded as craftsmanship.

Vases-bottles from colored glass by Zbigniew Horbowy, 1960-1961, courtesy of the National Museum in Warsaw

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le industry, therefore the School was ordered to educate future designers. The rejection of socialist realism resulted in a longing for abstract motifs, new figuration, colour intensity.

Large areas of f lax or cotton fabrics introduced colour into interiors and changed their character. The exhibition includes projects of several designers, including fabric painted by Magdalena Abakanowicz before 1960.

W hat should be noticed is the industrial equipment, including the hair-dryer “Fama” and the model for a telephone design by Olgierd Rutkowski under the direction of Jerzy Sołtan. Sołtan arrived to Poland after a period of close cooperation with Le Corbusier.

He sought to extend cooperation between the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, where he was a lecturer, the Ministry of Light Industry and certain departments of the Ministry of Heavy Industry. He professed the principle of arts integration. The establishment of an experimental workshop (later on, the Experimental Research Workshop) at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1954 became an important event for the history of Polish design. Several designs had been made there of phones, radios, cameras, even cars, for example, the model of the car “Siren Sport” designed by Cezary Nawrot. Its beautiful body shape can be seen in one of the exhibition’s archival photographs.

Unfortunately, the design followed the fate of most of the Workshops’s prototypes and never entered mass production.

Together with the development of a broad-based, design-oriented education and division into certain specializations, the attitude to this discipline slowly began to change. Representatives of technical and social sciences started to speak up. Close attention was paid to many determinants of serial production, including ergonomics, technology, ecology.

Aesthetic considerations, mainly emphasised by the artists, were moved to the background.

Forms of objects were simplified. From the early 60s, artists started paying more attention to object art. In the area traditionally regarded as crafts, artists tried to be more individual. In the 60s unique and experimental fabrics gained autonomy, and the Polish School of Textiles achieved great success on the international arena. A rtists created extraordinary forms in glass and ceramics.

The year 1968, regarded as a time of closure, is a date of convention, but if you look at the historical and social conditions, you immediately think about the political events unfolding at that time in Europe. &

The “Alfa” photo camera by Krzysztof Meisner, Olgierd Rutkowski, 1959, courtesy of the National Museum in Warsaw

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Marta Kowalewska, art historian, curator, PhD Student in the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, cooperates with A&B since 2006

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Pots made for the polish airlines LOT by Zdzisław Wróblewski, 1968, courtesy of the National Museum in Warsaw

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SCULPTURE FOR EVERYONE Palaeolithic paintings on cave walls near Lascaux delight and inform us about the ancient past.

Polish pottery of the Fifties and Sixties of the 20th Century is also evidence of facts from the past, with the only difference being that you do not need to search for it in caves, while various artefacts are available on eBay.

by Agata Kokoszka

& Design

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fter WWII, Poland gained several “new” porcelain factories, including those in Tułowice (German – Tillowitz) and Wałbrzych, or its current district named Stary Zdrój (Old Spa). Soon it became clear that traditional factories of German exclusive pottery could be transformed and used for mass production, compatible with socialist ideology.

An institution was also established, the name of which recalled Orwellian reality – the Bureau of Supervision of Manufacturing Aesthetics.

It was then soon renamed to become the famous Industrial Design Institute (IDI), which had a substantial inf luence on everyday aesthetics in Poland. Th at was an unusual oasis of artistic creativity, design and education.

A few years later, on the initiative of, inter alia, Professor Wanda Telakowska, director of the IDI, the founding of so-called “design units” was begun at the major pottery factories in Poland. Those were places mainly grouping together graduates of the Faculty of Ceramics and Glass Technology of the Wrocław College of Fine Arts, later the Academy of Fine Arts.

In those units, young and able designers had the opportunity to design and implement their ideas immediately, once graduated. They found places to implement their artistic visions and concepts, and to carry out experiments on technologies and materials. They designed items which featured aesthetics closer to their imagination, thus att ributing quite a new image to pottery manufactured in Poland.

Finally modern The “thaw” in Poland (in the mid-Fift ies) was the time of an explosion of jazz music, abstract art and great hope for the future. Professor Jerzy Hryniewiecki solemnly and strongly expressed it in his now cult article written for the fi rst edition of “Design” (“Projekt”) magazine. He wrote: “The time has come to set up the unwearying reserves embedded in our life and activate the stocks of rich contemporary, technical and artistic thought. For their heavy and self-sacrificing effort the general public in Poland deserves beauty, purity, brightness and colour”.

The ideas promoted by Professor Hryniewiecki were then implemented in the form of pottery designs in the Fift ies and Sixties. The task challenging the young designers was to create small sculptures and utilitarian items available to all.

Those were intended to shape the Poles’ taste and delight both experts and amateurs. The role of plates decorated with abstract paintings was compared to the function which oil paintings served in the past in bourgeois homes. The aim was to enable everybody access to beauty, even under the most prosaic circumstances and in the intimate space of the hearth and home. The direction for the development of industrial design was clearly delineated by Professor Wanda

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Above: The Kiss, 1958, designed by Lubomir Tomaszewski, photo: A. Podstawka, by courtesy of the National Museum in Wrocław Previous page: The Vases, late ‘50s., decoration – Ludmiła Pokornianka, “Wałbrzych”, photo: A. Podstawka, by courtesy of the National Museum in Wrocław

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Telakowska: “New design is the artistic discipline mostly close to humans. Beautiful designs for everyday utilitarian items concern almost all. Those are easier to show than architecture, and are more accessible than modern painting and sculpture”. At the same time, the forms and decorations of ash-trays, vases or coffee sets, referred to contemporary fashions and trends – abstract painting, futuristic shapes typical for the automotive industry, and finally awesome syncopation beats and jazz improvisation.

A Pair of Penguins, 1959, designed by Hanna Orthwein, photo: A. Podstawka, by courtesy of the National Museum in Wrocław

Girls and penguins “Ceramic sculpture is the sculpture for all”.

Th is slogan paved the way for the post-war intimate sculpture in Poland. Apart from utilitarian tea and coffee sets, vases or ash-trays, in the mid-Fift ies, the artists in ceramics and glass works also began to design small items with modern form which then entered into mass production.

They were funny and simplified images of animals, and also sophisticated, synthetically captured female silhouettes.

“Sitt ing Girl”, designed by Henryk Jędrysiak, one of a few dozen small sculptures presented at an exhibition titled “Polish New Look” at the National Museum in Wrocław, delights with its simplified presentation. A figure in a white blouse and carmine skirt is sitt ing “Turkish style”, while nonchalantly leaning backward on one hand, the other one resting on her thigh.

Th is dynamism, balancing on the thin line between equilibrium and the loss thereof, makes Jędrysiak’s sculpture intriguing and att ractive to viewer’s attention. In his works, the artist concentrated on composition and construction issues. He created small blocks which stimulate the appetite for their “real” equivalents. They are surrogates for something larger. They were often intended to perform an educational function, being a miniature, a synthesis of sculptural procedures, formally and materially.

An aspiration to lightness is also noticeable in the ceramics of the “thaw”. Often succinctness causes a given object to awaken positive associations, amuse and absorb. The presentation of an exotic animal species in a simplified form, standing on extended legs or with an overly egg-shaped torso, evokes a smile. Those are perfect examples of the excellent combination of form and content, in the face of limited material and manufacturing opportunities.

Perfect, abstract in form coffee sets designed and manufactured in the Fift ies and Sixties, are represented at the exhibition in Wrocław in vast numbers. Their names, mostly feminine, are also enchanting. “Dorota” by Lubomir Tomaszewski is a set with rounded shapes, concave in places.

The contrast between the porcelain’s white and its claret dark brown coating is softened by the addition of fi ne white dots. The cup handle protrudes out from the vessel body and forms an

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An aspiration to lightness is also noticeable in the ceramics of the “thaw�. often succinctness causes a given object to awaken positive associations, amuse and absorb.

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“Iza” coffee service,1959, designed by Józef Wrzesień, Stoneware Factory in Chodzież, photo: A. Podstawka, by courtesy of the National Museum in Wrocław

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Henryk Jędrasiak, “Sitt ing girl”, 1958, photo by A. Podstawka, by courtesy of the National Museum in Wrocław

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extension thus att ributing a charming lightness, and it’s profi led such that it invites one to reach out for it. The whole gives extremely sensuous and unusual effects. I can imagine that such porcelain allows for an effective temporary loss of touch with sometimes too grey reality.

Beside the coffee sets, many ornamental plates, bowls and figurines were shown in Wroclaw.

They were designed not only by well-known artists associated with the IDI, but also by no less talented artists from across Poland who seldom appeared at the production sites, but designed pottery at the factory design units. “The explosion of modernity introduced the language of abstraction, organic form and live colours to the Polish industrial design of the Fifties and Sixties. However the phenomenon of these designs consists not only in the provision of a testimony for the flourishing of Polish design.

The designs by Jędrasiak, Naruszewicz, Tomaszewski and others are ageless. They were, are, and will be «objects of desire» as described by Adrian Forty” – says, recalling the book titled “Objects of Desire”, Dr. Krystyna Łuczak-Surówka, a historian of art and design, and a private fan and collector of Polish design from the second half of the 20th Century.

The material and the techniques for working it also had substantial effects on the appearance of individual items. Sometimes, simplification of the form, the use of large colour patches or monochromatic decorations had prosaic reasons – for example, they were easier to do, but that in no way diminishes their artistic values.

Ash and diamonds Ceramics from the time of the “thaw” in Poland is the result of the then fresh idea of “modernity”, and to some degree of its fight with the grey reality of that time. This struggle left a heritage in the form of Polish utilitarian art, which we can today discover again, stripping it of the unfair label of failed Communist second-class products. The first such attempt took place last year during the exhibition titled “We Want to Be Modern” at the National Museum in Warsaw. The attendance record was broken then. It appeared that we want to see the furniture, fabrics and ceramics from the Fifties and Sixties, and that we can appreciate them.

You may succumb to the magic of the figurines, vases or bowls shown at the Wroclaw exhibition. It has a real background. The ce-

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ramics – brittle and fragile, but at the same time durable, fire- and water-resistant, can be a starting point to contemporary designers.

It is a testimony to the aesthetic and artistic levels of design in post-war Poland. It seems that with the current deluge of “designer” junk, it is worthy to become familiar with them and enter a longer acquaintance with them, if the vibrations are good. &

Fruit bowl, 1958, designed by Wit Płażewski, Pottery Factory “Włocławek”, photo: A. Podstawka, by courtesy of the National Museum in Wrocław

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STYLE ON THE WEB Outstanding Polish designers clothe figures of the media, politics and the art world. Native fashion is not parochial.

However, we, as prospective clients, are often put off from it by the high prices and boutiques concentrated around just two streets in Warsaw.

Are we condemned to cheap clothing sold by the chain shops?

Of course we are not! If you wish to be dressed stylishly and in an avant-garde way, just search the Internet.

Here pearls can be found on the web.

by Monika Weychert Waluszko Feel Like Sharon Stone Agnieszka Maciejak is a top-ranked designer.

Her creations have been worn by – apart from almost all Polish stars – such personalities as: Sharon Stone, Naomi Campbell, Elle Macpherson and Helena Christensen. Maciejak also designs for theatres. She has her own recognizable style and is not afraid of any suspicion of repetition or humdrum.

Without complexes, she has developed her own brand which cannot be confused with any other.

The panel design of her clothes and famous leggings are her distinctive trademarks. Both male and female models feel good wearing these outfits – they also buy Maciejak’s clothes privately. Anja Rubik, Andrej Pejić or Karolina Kurková looks great when dressed in them, as do those with more plump silhouettes. During the Fashion Week Poland, the model Wiktoria Grycan won the hearts of the public with the presentation of Maciejak’s clothes on the runway. The designer graduated from the Department of Graphic Art of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Her noteworthy promotional ideas also include the “fashion films”. Until her boutique is set up on Koszykowa Street, in Warsaw, orders may be submitted either via e-mail or by telephone, the number of which is shown on her website. Personal contact with Agnieszka Maciejak, who can patiently advise any customer on every detail to be specified or improved, will make one feel like a star.

Agnieszka Maciejak, www.agnieszkamaciejak.com, agnieszkamaciejak.blogspot.com

In the late Nineties in Europe, a new type of clothes shops appeared, arranged in a way totally different than the elegant and expensive boutiques.

The idea of the concept store focuses on the combination of retail sale of unique collections of clothing, footwear and accessories, on the one hand, and the creation of lifestyle on the other. Such shops are targeted at the group of young and middle-aged people who work freelance, or those who are just 54

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designed by Agnieszka Maciejak, photo: Greg Adamski, stylization: Zuza Sowińska-Bania, model: Kasia Lehman/Rebelmodels

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design: TBS, photo: Jucho.pl, model: Alicja Klitenik

interested in their unique outward appearance.

Since 2000, this trend has resulted in a crop of this type of shop. Two of them are especially worthy our recommendation.

Tesko. Do not confuse it with Tesco Judyta Wajszczak is a psychology graduate.

After giving birth to her children, she gave up her occupation in marketing and got involved in the things she enjoys. In September 2010, she initiated her Teskoblog. One could learn from it about Judyta’s favourite places in Warsaw, and also about young designers and various creative projects. Finally, she, as the author of the blog and the owner of a shop, created her own brand of clothing named TBS. These are simple, convenient clothes, ideal for a city walk. Soon she is to debut a new brand named Spring. From mid-April it will also be possible to shop in the real showroom, Teskoblog Store, on Hoża Street in Warsaw!

Teskoblog Store, TBS, Spring, teskoblogstore.com

The Buddha Concept Mały Gruby Budda (Short Fat Buddha) is a typical concept store. It is structured into the following sections: Fashion, Design and Art. You can also hunt for interesting designs in its Vintage second-hand section. The Internet Shop is managed by Aleksandra Wawak – one of the most promising young designers. She has presented her collections at the Sopot Fashion Days and in the Fashion’er Opener Zone. At the Off Fashion Competition in Kielce, Wawak presented her capabilities jointly with Caro Czajkowska. They both studied fashion design at the Academies of Fine Arts – Wawak in Poznan, and Czajkowska in Łódź. Clothing designed by the Wawak/Czajkowska Duo are of the casual style – while mostly feminine, they are at

the same time firmly embedded in a nonchalant rock’n’roll climate.

Mały Gruby Budda Concept Store, Wawak, wawak/ czajkowska, www.malygrubybudda.pl

Graduates of Polish design departments, operating mostly within the Academies of Fine Arts, also gain sound knowledge of the history of art and culture. So they are versatile and interesting. When making their designs, they play with designing wider contexts than only cool fashion trends.

Upside Down? Excellent!

Who doesn’t like playing? Who doesn’t use the “two-in-one” type of buying opportunities?

Agnieszka Dębecka and Karolina Stejuk met each other at the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź. Now, both girls are playing not only with the form of clothes, but also with their nomenclature. Consider the brand name “Cock’n’bull Story”, one of the unusual idioms in the English language. While in use since the beginning of the 17th Century, it means a story or an excuse that’s very hard to believe, a tale, which seems too unrealistic to be believed true. But although it sounds like a lie, nevertheless, it could be the truth.

The designers create fashions based on their unfettered imagination and spiced up with an urban sporting ease of manner. Polyamide jackets, loose trousers, blouses and raincoats look very fashionable, and are at the same time functional and convenient. These designs may be worn upside down, frontward or backward... and will still look great.

Cock’n’bull Story, www.cocknbullstory.com

Gonsior for the Brave

from a collection The Morn, designed by Wawak/ /Czajkowska duo

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Gregor Gonsior graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź. He is the winner of the 2008 Golden Thread (Polish – Złota Nitka) Award in the Prèmiere Vision Category, and a finalist of the 2008 German Usedom Baltic Fashion Award in the Avant-garde Category.

In 2009, he showed his works at the Vienna Fashion Week. He designs fabulous accessories: bags, pillboxes and boots. While balancing on a border between many disciplines, he creates theatrical costumes, paints murals, designs bike helmets, or toys for adults – with names such as Żorsz Satan. The latest Gregor Gonsior collection named “33” for 2012–2013 Autumn/ /Winter seasons consists of twelve complete sets of clothes, shoes and hats. He presented it this January at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Berlin. Such clothes will certainly be worn by strong, self-confident, brave and unique women.

Cock’n’bull Story, photo: Zbigniew Olszyna, make up: Patrycja Skórzak, model: Gosia Tumiłowicz

designed by Gregor Gonsior, photo: Marta Sinior

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Gregor Gonsior, gregorgonsior.com &

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MONUMENTAL GALLERY Gabriela Rembarz, an expert on the revitalization of housing estates, wrote: “The high-rise block housing estate cannot patinate in a natural way as a traditional residential district can, but (...) it undergoes social and technical degradation, while posing an increasingly stronger cultural barrier to development”. So how can one of the largest such settlements in Poland be saved?

Maybe through introducing art therein!

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A Dream-Land Settlement “The social awareness and commitment to place at Zaspa is one of the biggest in Gdansk.

Those who live here like it and consider it a good place to live. The Baltic seashore is nearby, as is a local railway line, and also a lot of greenery” – said Barbara Sroka of the Gdansk 2016 Municipal Culture Institution. The housing development, designed from scratch on the grounds of an old airfield, was at first to become a new city centre. The buildings were arranged in a honeycomb structure and provided with extensive, green courtyards, thus making the enormity of ten-storey blocks not too overwhelming. Each inner space between buildings was designed by a different artist from the Gdansk Academy of Fine Arts. An avenue perpendicular to the seashore was planned to cross Zaspa, with galleries, a Centre of Contemporary Art and a Philharmonic along it, and with a recreational centre in a nearby park.

Some apartments in each block were intended as art studios; and a portion of the residential space was earmarked for cultural purposes. Ultimately, only a part of those ambitious plans was implemented. There is a great neighbourhood in Zaspa, and the inhabitants are frightened by the huge pedestrian footbridge erected there! The rest of the plans failed to reach the goal. Piotr Szwabe says: “There would be nothing special about this large settlement of several thousand inhabitants built from prefabricated panels if not for our artistic contribution there”.

in the paint having to be repeatedly applied onto the wall. The time pressure is also challenging. The Festival lasts for two weeks, and that’s how long the artists have to complete their work. However, notwithstanding those difficulties, some of them return there and take part in subsequent editions, even as assistants or helpers.

A new idea for this year’s Monumental Art Festival is to form a limited group of local guides to show visitors around this quite a large gallery.

A Community Guide Of course, you can explore Zaspa on your own, and you can also find respective maps and information on the Internet, as well as a catalogue describing the achievements of individual artists. But nothing can substitute the opportunity to see the Monumental Gallery in the company of a guide. The guides possess not only extensive knowledge on murals, which would be rather hard a visitor to learn, but they also can interpret any individual painting. They can lead a trip around the Gallery following their own route, often revealing a lot of gossip and interesting secrets, since they often participated personally in or observed the creation of certain of the works.

However, first and foremost their attitude towards the neighbourhood is intimate, since they live there, thus they are emotionally and personally involved in the paintings. Mr. Jarek Orłowski is our guide.

trary, the airship relates not only to the history of airborne warfare, but it also resembles the origins of this housing estate, which was erected on a former airfield” – our guide says. “This mural also has incredible communicative significance… You can tell someone to head toward the «airship» after they get off the train” – he continues.

Piotr Szwabe says: “People often don’t know how to get somewhere. But then they are told by others, go where there are small and large dots painted on a building. I live just next to it”. And thus, the Zaspa murals have become a part of the local landscape. For the most part the residents accept it without reservations. “Of course, people ask whether the paintings have been made for their money, i.e., the Cooperative’s funds, and it’s okay with them when they get a negative reply” – says the Curator. Naturally, during work on the murals, some problems and clashes emerge, he admits. “It happens that a sidewalk gets spattered with paint, or someone’s car is splashed. But we have already learned how to solve problems and to arrive at an agreement on a specific matter”. This year the cooperative’s repair team working at the Estate was mostly impressed by the artists’ action. “The workers were impressed that a single man, or a group of two, could completely paint such a big wall in just seven days. They were shocked seeing how quickly the artists could paint while working all day long from dawn till dusk with only an hour off for a break” – Szwabe says. During their work, all artists stayed in an apartment rented at Zaspa.

The housing cooperative significantly influences both the development of the Gallery and the appearance of individual paintings. In fact, they offer their walls to both the organisers and the artists – always on buildings already retrofitted and provided with external thermal insulation; thus their façades will not change over the years.

The Only Such Gallery The Mural Gallery is unique on a European scale. You will never find so many paintings anywhere else on such a condensed surface.

The curator cares about the uniqueness of the works: “I’m trying to collect good things and good names. It is less important whether they are, or are not, notable and have won prizes.

What’s important is individual character. The artists are tempted by the wall size. Their surface comes to even 400 square metres – that’s a huge challenge. It’s like an alpinist’s approach to a high peak. This is not about profit, but a desire to perform well. They usually never had such vast walls to paint on before” – says Szwabe. The difficulties are posed not only by huge size of the walls but also by their structure – textured plaster – which results 60

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What Do You Think About This?

We are standing before the mural by Mariusz Waras, which is one of the most famous within the collection, since it is visible from the distant local municipal railway station. It was painted in 2009 during the first edition of the Festival, which was dedicated to certain anniversaries.

Waras, who always uses design-templates, referred to W WII. He produced his biggest to date template, showing a gigantic airship dominant over the turmoil of city ruins. “Interesting is the share contributed by the local housing cooperative to this design. Originally, it was planned not as an airship, but a bomber plane. However, the cooperative disagreed because the picture was too bleak. In Poland, where people were negatively indoctrinated for years, such a sad painting could invoke adverse connotations. On the con-

Thus, they became inhabitants of the estate for the two weeks of the Festival and participated in the local life. Of course, they were a kind of local attraction, especially for children, who came to watch the progress of the artists’ work.

Peeking at an Artist A nd, indeed, it is worth watching – the differences in both the technique and the working methods between various artists are fascinating. Some of them design everything in detail. They draw a grid, dividing the space into small squares, making it easier to transfer the drawing onto the large surface. Then they draw contours. This preliminary stage of painting, which provides the artist a basis for subsequent colouring or shading, often takes more time than applying the colours. But there

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Murals by Gdańsk School of Mural, 2010 Previous page: Emil Goś, member of the Gdańsk School of Mural working on scaffold

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Mural by Tomasz Bielak

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One guy came to the cooperative’s president and declared that he is not going to pay the rent any more, since his flat is on the fifth floor, and he feels affected by the black hand seen through his window. And he doesn’t want this. are also those who paint on the spot, and by sight. Prozac, who painted the most colourful image this year – although with a design and using precise brushstrokes – improvised all the time. “This work is like an overf lowing river.

He painted it while gradually climbing down the scaffolding and drawing unrestrained, light contours. Then he sought for the regularities in them and filled in with colours” – says our guide, who lives in a building just next to Prozac’s work. This is a specific painting method usually applied by artists from the South. They work spontaneously and a little bit chaotic, and yet often modify their original assumptions at the last moment. A comparison of work on projects can be seen on the Festival website. It’s visible that in many cases the changes are huge. Those who could not keep pace with the timeline required support in the final phase of the work.

For example, our guide helped Prozac fill in colours within the contours of his picture. In turn, Ekta, the only Swede among this year’s artists, performed exactly in a way which could be expected from a Scandinavian artist who is precise and systematic. He introduced almost no change into his design. He did his work alone and completed it in time.

Mural by Brazilian artist Prozac

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The Devil’s Hand It is not easy to interpret his multi-coloured and geometric painting. The artist himself - although reluctantly – did reveal both his vision and understanding of the leading motif of this year’s edition of Monumental Art, i.e., “Love Is a Temptation”. Ekta considered it with reference to his loving himself. Narcissus is a hero of the mural, who – as the guide tells us – “… is so much focused on himself that he needs no eyes or ears. But he wishes he could feel the sense of taste. However to get his lips back he must eat a piece of himself. That means the beginning of an auto-destructive process, since if he wants to be able to have something, he will have to devour himself ”. This painting, which involves a lot of questions and controversy, is rather poorly legible to the local people, who would like to perceive unambiguous messages in what they see painted on the wall. It is said that some Zaspa residents associate the black hand with the devil.

“One guy came to the cooperative’s president and declared that he is not going to pay the rent any more, since his flat is on the fifth floor, and he feels affected by the black hand seen through his window. And he doesn’t want this” – the Curator says.

On the contrary, the painting by Joanna Skiba is perceived well and is quite unusual for this collection of murals. It shows a fawn, fox and bird, all in a brown tone with gold elements which reflect light in the afternoon hours when the wall is exposed to sunlight. The colour scheme of this work doesn’t draw attention to itself, nor dazzle one’s eyes, and is toned down. “This cool work is moderately aggressive, and the local inhabitants, particularly children, do like it” - says Jarek. However, this wall almost remained blank. The artist, who was supposed to paint it fell ill and couldn’t come to the Festival. In the last moment Skiba was requested to paint on it.

Provision of Messages, Also Political Ones There is a superb view from behind the remains of the former airport runway of the settlement decorated with murals. The painting

by Ozmo – an Italian – draws the viewer’s attention, as one of the few in the Gallery that were painted on an original bare wall sub-base without any primer. It is one example of the murals within the “Anniversary” series, and it refers to the first rock concert held in Poland, in Gdansk. The painting shows the artist’s self-portrait in a Chinese Dragon mask. And although in the Polish culture, such a mask may involve rather strange connotations, it however symbolizes vitality and the joy of life. Rock music is also a sign of revolt against the former communist system – hence the hero’s stance – raised up guitar, and drumsticks held to form a cross, and – not incidentally – the presence of a neighbouring settlement’s church there.

Those “Anniversary” murals strongly refer to the traditions of this domain of art. In the former times of the People’s Republic of Poland, murals served either as advertising or political tools. Such older wall-paintings can still be seen in certain Polish ads promoting the state-owned commercial banks (Pewex and PKO) of that era.

The last edition of the Monumental Art Festival, dedicated to “Freedom in Time of Crisis”, has generated several murals of a political character. Supposedly, the painting titled “New Idol Is Coming”, which was made a few months after the plane crash in Smolensk, was supposed originally to have had a duck in the centre of the wreckage. In the end, there is a picture of a little man with his lips clenched – a kind of a tiny tot? This work can be interpreted as either a symbol of placing new family members on a pedestal, and as a historical and/or political context.

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On the left – mural by Mariusz Waras (M-CITY), 2009, on the right – mural by Joanna Skiba

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Two walls at #303 Squadron Street contain paintings from last year made by artists of the GSM, i.e., the Gdansk School of Mural. The work painted on the occasion of the 30th Anniversary of the “Solidarity” Trade Union explicitly refers to the aesthetics of socialist realism typical of propaganda murals.

It shows a transition from the homo sovieticus to a yet undetermined human of the future. “These works are precise and well thought out” – our guide says. “It’s typical group design but much better developed. The GSM works on them all year and have more time for painting and larger teams”. At the time of our visit to the Gallery, the GSM’s artists were still refining their work. Emil Goś was painting out an inscription on his mural with sprats. The housing estate board concluded that the shape of the letters in the “303 Squadron” did not match its original design. It had to be corrected.

A Cooperative Outlook The housing cooperative significantly influences both the development of the Gallery and the appearance of individual paintings. In fact, they offer their walls to both the organisers and the artists – always on buildings already retrofitted and provided with external thermal insulation; thus their façades will not change over the years. The Cooperative authorities, of course, also have insight into the painting designs. “I receive various proposals and determine whether I like them or not. I must also feel certain that the artist will manage painting on such a large wall. Naturally, the designs are subject to our approval. The cooperative, as the owner of these walls, also takes part in making this choice” – the Curator says. The amount of paint required is calculated on the basis of the painting design. The top of the tallest ten-storey buildings, that is, four hundred square metres, require some 100–120 litres of just the white primer. 32 murals have been painted so far on the Zaspa buildings. The Cooperative has earmarked approximately fifty walls to paintings, thus this should take until 2016 when the final edition of the Monumental Art Festival is planned. Nevertheless, the Curator’s dream is to launch an even more spectacular project. “My dream is to design a mural all over a tower building, from top to bottom, not only the gable wall” – the Curator says. &

Photo by: Jakub Banak Monumental Art Gdańsk, Osiedle Zaspa (The Zaspa Housing Estate) www.monumentalart.pl To hire a guide, do not hesitate to e-mail: punkt@gdansk2016.eu (please, allow one day ahead of time)

Mural by Swedish artist EKTA

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TOP SECRET: THE SUCCESS OF POLISH PHOTOGRAPHY Pieces of skin taken off the deceased and preserved in formalin photographed by a Polish artist. At home they would have caused outrage and become a media scandal. In France, on the other hand, they were last year’s revelation and a commercial success.

by Monika Weychert Waluszko

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aris Photo is currently the world’s biggest and most famous event dedicated to photography and photography only.

Although Paris Photo fair has been running annually for 15 years, Polish artists have rarely been represented there at all. In 2008, Eric Franck Fine Art gallery exhibited Zofia Kulik’s works. In 2010, Polish galleries ZPAF & Co. and Czarna i Asymetria (eng. Black and Asymmetry) took part in the fair for the first time, and Katarzyna Mirczak’s exhibition turned out to be a spectacular success.

Her works were mentioned in many of the fair’s reviews, e.g., Francis Hodgson, a former chief of Sotheby’s photography department, who combines theoretical knowledge with rich 66

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experience in arts economics, wrote in an article for The Financial Times: “My private award for the most eccentric discovery at the show goes to another UK gallerist, Eric Franck. He is showing a startling group of colour pictures

by Katarzyna Mirczak (…) This is a series that cries out for a collector”. And this cry didn’t stay unanswered for long. Soon, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, USA, ordered the exhibition. The Paris edition of “The special signs” sold hand over fist, and the buzz after the Paris Photo Fair is still loud. In March 2011, Mirczak’s exhibition had its New York première. Eric Franck presented the collection during the meeting of The Association of International Photography Art Dealers. In June 2011, the photo

series were displayed for the first time in London. However, Katarzyna Mirczak’s journey to artistic photography wasn’t that obvious. Being a graduate of Jagiellonian University’s Institute of Archaeology, specialising in Egypt and The Middle East, she took part in archaeological expeditions to the Black Sea basin for a few years, where among other things, she was a documentary photographer.

In 2007, she resigned from the Institute of Archaeology and pursued a career in professional photography. She became a freelance photographer for newspapers. During that time she won prizes in competitions organized by such institutions as Rzeczpospolita, Olympus Poland, the National Museum in Warsaw

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Katarzyna Mirczak, “The special signs”, courtesy of Eric Frank Fine Art

and Newsweek. She collaborated with Imago Mundi Foundation, Visual Arts Foundation, Photomonth in Krakow and Visavis.pl Photographers’ Collective. Since 2009, she has cooperated with such publishing houses as Laif.

In 2010 she won 1st Prize Grand Press Photo in the sports category for a picture taken in Rio de Janeiro and decided to end her three year career as a documentary photographer. At the same time, she started working on the series called “The special signs”. It is comprised of photographs presenting pieces of tattooed human skin conserved in formalin. The author found these objects in institutes of forensic medicine in Kraków and Wrocław. Dating from the 19th century, the photographed tattoos were collected from prisoners, John Does and homeless persons. With “The special signs” Mirczak in some way refers to her previous experiences.

In her own words, “It’s hard to resist the feeling of emptiness, when you acknowledge for the first time the falsehood of your sense of reality. When for the first time you stick your head beyond your own safety belt, it’s hard to go back and pretend that nothing has happened”.

It seems, that to create this series, the author used in equal parts both her experience as an archaeologist and a photographer.

Successively peeling off layers of consciousness, she leaves us standing in front of a closed, fixed object, often trivial in its form, but insolently strong. K nowingly, she directed the series toward some cotton candy aesthe-

tics – her works attract with colour, they lure.

The audience has the right to be excited by the form. The specimens have no description attached. There’s no explanation, no story behind this collection nor any decrypted code, which certainly is hidden in these tattoos. Using the contrast between what and how we perceive and the awareness of what is presented in these photos, the author builds an emotion – a feeling of helplessness. We see tattoos as a form of humane expressiveness – ranging from simple to finesse drawings, which in prison conditions were performed with the use of primitive tools and dangerous chemicals.

Each photo in this series presents a specimen of human skin, which leads us to ref lect on directions in scientific research, considered also in a historical context. It makes us think about specimens as well – about the period, for which they can serve science and the time when they become only a useless curiosity, not mentioning the obvious sociological and ethical contexts within which they are sunk.

Currently, Mirczak continues her work in Polish institutes of forensic medicine. Soon, she’ll be able to document all known Polish tattoo specimens. She will, then, finish the series and publish an album. The preparations for her next project are also on the way. The author wishes to rehabilitate crime weapons, which formerly had other functions, e.g., irons, plastic bags, tow ropes. She wants to put them in a new context, give them a second life …

Mirczak sent her portfolio to Eric Franck, one of the most inf luential collectors and sellers on the contemporar y photography market. He runs reputable galleries in Geneva and Berlin, and currently, also his own private gallery, Eric Franck Fine Art. He is a commonly respected expert and advisor to many international collections. He chairs a seat in the advisory councils of Henri-Cartier Bresson Foundation and Tate. Franck engaged himself personally in the promotion of the series and suggested to represent Mirczak as her exclusive representative. In a blink, he decided to include Mirczak ’s works into his display offer at Paris Photo Fair 2010. Judging by his own experience and assessment, Franck took the risk of cooperation w ith a completely unk now n ar tist. A nd it was worth it. Our home art market lacks this kind of attitude. Here, even the success of Katarzyna Mirczak still exists under the category: top secret… & Photos: courtesy of Eric Franck Fine Art Monika Weychert Waluszko An independent art inspector.

She runs the “gallery for …” in Toruń and has collaborated with Polish National Television’s cultural channel “TVP Kultura”.

She writes from time to time.

She was the initiator of the educational TV programme about contemporary art, pleple.tv.

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Andrzej Wajda in Japan drawing view of Kobe, photo by Krystyna Zachwatowicz

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DRAW, DRAW BUT YOU WILL FOR SURE NEVER BECOME MATEJKO* Bogusław Deptuła interviews Andrzej Wajda

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ndrzej Wajda: There are three groups of film directors: Some consider going to the cinema as into the world of images. They are usually educated in fine arts, and I belong to these. There is also another group, not only directors, but from the whole of cinematography, who demand that a film director be proficient in music, for instance, a Hindu woman who makes a lot of films every year, mainly musicals. During a concert in Bombay, I observed Satyajit Ray, a famous Indian film director, and I noticed how excited he was by the performance.

Those are the directors whose foundation is in musical education. Of course, there is also a third group of directors for whom literature is the closest medium, such as Bergman, and who write their own screenplays.

Andrzej Wajda, photo by Bogusław Deptuła

A&B: Why do you draw?

AW: I draw for two reasons. First, because that which I draw is my own. It remains in my memory. W hen drawing, I make myself better aware at the same time of that which moves my imagination. A nd in my film or theatrical work I use drawing because it’s a faster way to communicate with my colleagues. Words can be ambiguous, as in poetry, but a drawing shows explicitly what goes on the right, what on the left, and how the background and the foreground should look. However, the drawings I make for a film are not a so called storyboard, because the aim thereof is something completely different. A storyboard is the work of several authors. It helps the producer, who is not necessarily gifted with an imagination necessary for making a film. W hen seeing the coloured frames of a depicted scene, the producer knows whether a ship should have only the sails, and that the hull is not necessary because it will be obscured by the quay, or only the masts will be visible, or maybe we cannot even afford to buy the sails. All this has to be drawn by someone who draws it precisely so that the cost of the future film can be determined.

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A&B: Which artistic circles have been the most important for you?

AW: Tadeusz Kantor and his group. Their paintings were a bit behind the times version of the newest painting styles in Europe. Kantor brought tachist painting from Paris. Tachisme was then in full blossom. Then, the delayed abstractionists and such painters as Jerzy Nowosielski, who was a completely independent artist and always himself, joined him. This group also included my very young friends from the Academy of Fine Arts: Janek Tarasin and Jerzy Tchórzewski. That was the margins, because there were people there who already before the war were a group of painters – as we might say in today’s language – who had leftish views, and this meant modern painting in those times. Jan Świderski was one of them. There was, of course, also Jonasz Stern, who used to stick bones onto his pictures. In short, this group tried to bridge old and new times and create in Poland art as had already existed in Paris, but was not present here; in any case, not present enough.

The 1948 exhibition was an event in itself that ultimately ended with mandatory socialist realism. Those artists could no longer act officially. They had gone as if underground.

Nevertheless, they presented themselves enough to prove to us that there is this kind of art and this kind of artistic trend.

A&B: So, Kantor and his circle, but who else?

AW: A nother group was the professors of our Academy of Fine Arts, who passed through Józef Pankiewicz’s school, not only in Cracow, but also in Paris. At some moment Pank iew icz opened his studio in Paris as a branch of the Cracow Academy of Fine A rts, and they studied there: Cybis, Waliszewski, Cybisowa, Czapski, Samborski and others. This group, called the Capists, so to speak continued the French painting derived from Post-Impressionism. Their major heir in Polish painting was Eugeniusz Eibisch, who became the President of the Cracow Academy of Fine Arts. Of course, he brought together all those artists who followed a similar painterly way. They are the ones who taught us, that was the Academy of Fine Arts. There also began to form a group there around Andrzej Wróblewski from among the students who sought for some new art, art which referred to our nearest past, to W WII and to our direct experiences. However, the difference consisted in that we were astonished that it

Andrzej Wajda, storyboard to “A Chronicle of Amorous Incidents”

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was he who can perceive and see all that was happening. But there was nobody among us who could ever equal him. This was not the group. Nevertheless, he mostly insisted, and needed ver y much, that others pursue the same way toward the reality... Unfortunately, socialist realism set in at that time and our last hope fell. Soon it appeared clear that socialist realism was not at all attempting to open the art of painting to completely new worlds never seen hitherto, but that it had to be simply an imitation of Soviet painting.

And this is where everything ends. The group split up completely, but Andrzej Wróblewski still pursued his own way. And I did not know what to do with myself, and where to find myself, because none of these groups were close enough to me to stay in Cracow. I became completely lost.

A&B: This was probably a good time to change…

AW: T hen I decided to tr y w ith the Film School (now the Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School), in Łódź. I had never been to that city. I neither knew what the school was, nor who those people were.

It seemed to me a type of an elite educational institution taking only recommended people.

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Nothing of the kind! They enrolled me right away in the second year of study. A ndrzej Munk was only a year above me. But apart from that I could not find my way in Cracow, the process of searching for my way was a creative one. I realised that abstract was not the trend for me. I was not able to develop in me such terrifying images of the world as Wróblewski could, or to paint them on canvas, although I even tried. This Polish version of the French Post-Impressionism seemed to us a somewhat bygone art, because it was art for and to the salon. However the salons had also gone by. These images appeared to us somewhat worn-out. Maybe that was important in Polish painting, because for the whole war, when the real problem was to live and survive to the end of the war, painters made their pictures as if this war was non-existent. And frankly speaking, what were they supposed to do – paint landscapes, not seeing the enemy, not knowing what was happening around?

That was not easy. And I think this shaped them. And when socialist realism came, we found out that we have no chance here, and this is the orientation which the Communist Party will impose by any method to satisfy the authorities in Moscow.

A&B Thus, you left Cracow as somebody much aware?

AW: I left Cracow as somebody personally moulded. I couldn’t have ever attend a school of life better than that – with all I could see there, those individuals – meeting them, talking to them. The best proof was that I found another choice, another solution. And when I moved to the film school, I was still thinking of coming back to the Cracow Academy.

In fact, there was not so much fun at the film school as there was in Cracow. The film school was subject to very extreme censorship.

I can understand nowadays when I look at it today from a distance: it was obvious that our professors wanted to avoid intervention from the local Łódź Communist Party “factors” into the school curricula. They preferred to “blue-pencil” us themselves than to allow someone else to it. And this school, which was then named the Janissary School, paradoxically, was no Janissary School, but it became the beginning of the original Polish Film School, not only in the field of feature films.

A&B: Perhaps you also had the feeling that in art, including the painting, one could never express what could be expressed in cinema?

AW: I did not even think like that. I felt that I don’t paint as well as Wróblewsk i. That was enough for me. A nd if I couldn’t paint like him, then I had no reason to ever touch the subject. And moreover he, with his

“Wajda Archive” stamp

excellent leadership power, awoke in me the conviction that I also should be the head of a group, but those who make films, not painters!

A&B: What did Łódź mean to you?

AW: I regret leaving painting, but the city of Cracow itself. In Łódź, we all studied in one place; we had a film school and lived there.

Thus, the students were totally isolated from the reality of the city of Łódź. I could see the workers’ life there, but they went to their jobs by tram at five o’clock in the morning, while

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I got up at eight, well, sometimes earlier, to catch the first lectures. Therefore, I thought that there was nothing remarkable in Łódź…

I have to thank fate, because it was by some chance that after years my film “Ziemia obiecana” (“Promised Land”) appeared in my life.

Based on a novel by W ładysław Reymont – so realistic – it led me back again to the city of Łódź, to the factories, palaces and streets which – what’s the most beautiful and the most important – had remained intact since the 19th Century. You could simply enter and do the movie there. And that film, thanks to this extraordinary scenery, became one of great dimension. You could simply enter a weaving mill and see there everything unchanged, as it really was in the 19th Century.

They asked me in the West: How did you manage to create such an old weaving mill? How much did it cost to make it? However, such a weaving mill really existed! And they did not believe, because they thought such 19th Century industries no longer existed. But, it still existed there in Łódź and was completely sufficient to meet the requirements of the film-making requirements of that time.

A&B: When preparing to work, do you think in pictures?

Andrzej Wajda, drawing from Japan

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I did not even think like that.

I felt that I don’t paint as well as Wróblewski.

That was enough for me. And if I couldn’t paint like him, then I had no reason to ever touch the subject. And moreover he, with his excellent leadership power, awoke in me the conviction that I also should be the head of a group, but those who make films, not painters!

Andrzej Wajda sketchbooks

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Andrzej Wajda, drawing from Japan

AW: It doesn’t work that way, though some think that it does. First, I always consider what the story I’m going to tell about is. Cinema is an art which develops in time. Thus, you need to construct your story in such a way that the viewer will wait for what is going to happen further. My film “Kanał” (“Sewer”) was a very good example of this, because that astonishing scenery at the same time stimulated action – the soldiers escape through a sewage system, and the viewer is eager to know whether they will succeed. What’s at the end of these sewers? Nobody knows because no one had ever been there before. That’s the reason why this film had to emanate the strength to satisfy the viewers’ curiosity, since it suddenly shifts our central figures, whom we have liked, accepted and even loved, into the scenery of an unacceptable world. Moreover, it wasn’t acceptable to show it in the film. But that was the reality which we tried to show, and to present our Polish reality to the world. And I believe it was truly important, and was precisely captured in this film.

A&B: Let’s go back drawing. As you said before, if you sketch something it becomes your property and nobody can deprive you of it.

Do you ever record any ideas of scenes and images for your films?

AW: Yes, I do. However, in order to record something, you need to know much more, including who the actors will be and where we will shoot. At some point, the future film begins to develop. But at the very beginning it starts with some hardly definable suggestions, most of them coming from the development stage.. We simultaneously consider where to shoot the film, who will be on the crew, and who will play in it. That arises together with the idea for the film, but I have to admit that in my film “Popiół i diament” (“Ashes and Diamonds”), the scene with the shot glasses, which is the most memorable, the scene of death on the garbage heap, and the scene with the sheets, in which we see that Maciek Chełmicki is wounded, were all thought up in the course of making the film. They were not included in the script, but appeared suddenly. What’s important here? The director must stimulate the creative effort of the people working around him. That doesn’t mean that I am the director, and they are the performers.

They also can bring their imagination to the film, if I only reach the conclusion that their ideas are better than mine. Therefore, I require the actors and all my colleagues to actively participate in film-making. Thus, I look around me for those who are willing to take part in this adventure of making a film.

A&B: And to conclude, what do you think about Jan Matejko, patron of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow?

AW: Recently, one day after the fiftieth anniversary of my artistic work a surprising idea came to my mind. The Cracow Academy, irrespective of the steps it takes to modernize artistic life in Poland, was named after Jan Matejko. In the years of my study there, Matejko, with his vision of Polish history, wasn’t any point of reference for us. However, when having at my disposition a movie workshop I could become his continuator. Once, I put my films in a chronological order beginning from the Polish legions marching from Italy in the early 19th Century, as was depicted in my film “Popioły” (“The Ashes”), and ending with Lech Wałęsa putting his signature to the Gdansk Agreement of “Solidarity”, in the early Eighties of the Twentieth Century. I left the Jan Matejko Academy to become the Matejko of Polish cinematography. & * Jan Matejko, also known as Jan Mateyko (1838-1893) - was the famous Polish painter who depicted many notable Polish historical, political and military events. Also patron of the Cracow Academy of Fine Arts, as named after him, and where he was president for many years (translator’s note) 1/2012

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PAINTING NON-EXISTENT THINGS Bogusław Deptuła interviews Anna Szprynger on her working with very fine brushes and the courage to create abstracts

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BOGUSŁAW DEPTUŁA: Is painting a contemplation or rather a manual activity?

ANNA SZPRYGNER: I think both are equally important. I paint because of both reasons. Some moments call me to paint because of meditation, so I sit down and work, but it is also a habit, indeed a physical need to paint. For me, these two means of perceiving creation are mutually interrelated.

BD: Is painting an escape from the world?

ASZ: Escape is not an appropriate word – it’s rather building something new, creation of your own space and reality, and certainly some form of departing from the world that already exists.

BD: Once your images were much closer to nature, now there is no nature in them. Formerly, architecture also appeared in them. Is it an inevitable process of some sublimation?

ASZ: Architecture was a pretext for building images. In the past I wanted to grasp reality, because I was not courageous enough to break with it totally. Conscious painting of an abstract is quite difficult. The question lies not in 76

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splashing on the canvas something non-existent, but in an artistic process which ultimately results in a non-representative composition. I was a little bit afraid of devoting myself to the issues which “do not exist”, because that could be very fishy and dangerous. Now, when I am free of that fear and do not need catching myself in reality, I need sometimes to do something soft and fragile which results rather from nature than from mathematics.

BD: Your images are defined as top geometric abstracts, and what do you think about them?

ASZ: I used to accept this definition, and for sure I somehow identify myself in it. And I already know that I can communicate in this language with other artists-geometrists, and this convinces me that it is a geometric abstraction, although non-self-evident. That has nothing to do with concrete art or purely mathematical geometry, but the thinking is consistent. My artistic work is located on the outskirts of this artistic way of thinking.

BD: Do you always know what will be in a picture before you begin painting?

ASZ: I usually know. For me, although this is my subjective opinion, such a painting is better than others, although it is not necessarily perceived in this way from the outside. Sometimes, when I feel turmoil in my mind, I design a painting during the course of my work, but such pictures have also appeared very interesting. The pictures constructed during the course of the painting process normally pave certain new trends on my way that are often transitional – and through this they are interesting. It sometimes happens that I am not so happy with the final effect, as I wanted to, but just such paintings allow me to enter such a way.

BD: And what’s going on when you attempt to paint a planned picture?

ASZ: I finish the paintings which I have planned to paint considerably sooner, and the effect is more satisfactory to me. The others, which I construct in the course of the painting process, are paid for with heavier work, since I think about each brushstroke while meditating whether it should be put in this place or another. If you think about it, those constructed in the course of painting are perhaps the more important for my work as a whole. Often the benefits from them are much higher for me.

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Anna Szprynger, no title (no. 49), 2011

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Anna Szprynger, no title (no. 75), 2011

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The whole concrete art is in fact based on systems, but I rather prefer certain instability of my work.

BD: Do you draw sketches for your pictures?

ASZ: Sometimes I do. If I have completed painting some pictures, and I don’t know what to do next, then I draw new sketches. But I don’t do this for each painting. It rarely happens that I only draw sketches for a couple of days. And paintings seldom arise from them; though as such they are a record of my thinking process. It also happens that then I do not touch a pencil for the several next months.

BD: Have you ever had the desire to design your own artistic system?

ASZ: That’s a difficult matter for me. Of course, I think about this, and in a certain sense I have constructed it since the very fact that I am so strongly restricted to the brush stroke is a form of a very simple system. This is an imitation, but my mental structure is not focussed on any systemic work. Imposing any strong constraints on myself would be difficult. The whole of concrete art is in fact based on systems, but I rather prefer certain fluidity in my work.

BD: Would it be some enslavement, would you feel bad with it?

ASZ: Probably so. Surely, the very fact of a similar restriction would cause me to lose pleasure in my work. Already now I experience some moments when I am very tired, and I am angry at both me and the fact that I have such a limitation as the brushstroke. But when I try to do other things, it turns out that they are alien and unpleasant to me, thus after a while of doubt I get right back to the brushstroke and then I feel at home.

BD: You use very thin brushes. Even artists sometimes cannot believe that your pictures have been painted with the human hand.

Does that impress you?

ASZ: It somewhat surprises me. At least half of all women use paintbrushes to draw on their eyelids, and they do it much more precisely than I can. I only repeat this technique on canvas, and it is much easier since the canvas is smooth and flat, and that only requires patience, which some have much of, and some have less. Such questions are unpleasant; for me they prove that some painters have rather poor technique. Yet, what I pursue are the basics of painting.

BD: What kind of art is pleasant to you? What kind do you need?

ASZ: I always have fun when watching good geometric abstract, because I see something that I can understand. I know that there is a deeper idea behind it. And although this is very intuitive, I can perceive such art and assess whether it is good or poor. I also like to look at Polish post-war classics. Such contacts with masters give me real pleasure. It is worth remembering those like Fangor, Gierowski, Stażewski or Winiarski. Their absence would be sad to the world. I also love Włodzimierz Pawlak’s art of painting.

BD: Nature is more inspiring to you than art?

ASZ: Definitely yes. I need nature more than art. Nature does not provide for any specific intellectual programmes, but contact with it means also a way of thinking about life and art. Being together with nature is clean, free of any predesigned ideas while being totally open, and a source you can safely draw from, and having nothing suggesting itself. It’s safe, pleasant and infinite.

You can always see something new there, even in things which you have already seen a hundred times. It is something like a renewable source.

Art is something quite different.

When I go to the seashore and enter a beach, then, despite having been there in the same place already a hundred times, I can always perceive something new, apart from the horizon, water and shore lines. Sand, water, sky are always the same three components, and nothing more. Two horizontal brushstrokes. In turn, contact with the arts often means contact with a genius, a human, with their history, attitude towards life and art, and their philosophy.

However, that can be a trap – especially for an artist. If you deal with artistic work, you should primarily fight for an absolute, your own meaning free of any external pressures. But this is very difficult.

BD: And what will you do once you’ve painted everything you have to paint?

ASZ: I’ve thought a couple of times that I was close to such a moment, that I have already painted everything. But then something new comes along and I still have a lot to do. The more I paint, the less I worry about it. I can always return to what I was doing earlier and continue the idea and develop a given motif. Then it turns out that I still have great possibilities, and so I am not afraid anymore and I just paint. & Photography by Błażej Żuławski

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STRONG COLOURS OF SENSITIVITY Szymon Urbański’s artistic work was formed by the painterly revolt of the Eighties.

“New expression”, “new savages”, “Neo-Romanticism”, “neo-brutality” – these various terms for artistic activities do not change the essence of this phenomenon which consisted in opposition against the current “appearance of art” in those years.

by Bogusław Deptuła Photos by Błażej Żuławski

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erhaps it was the “Solidarity” Movement which gave the most important stimulus to those changes, after which nothing more was to remain the same. That was supplemented by news from beyond the western border of the apperance of a new wave of painterly expression which was also born at that time in opposition to the cold post-avant-garde quest for the art of the Seventies. The young artists wished to yell out their youth, energy, desire for change, need of anarchy, emotions, and discord. Such artistic formations as the Gruppa in Warsaw, Koło Klipsa (The Klipsa Team), in Poznan, and the Luxus in Wrocław, acted in the atmosphere of those years.

Szymon Urbański was slightly younger than the Gruppa painters, but it was they who meaningfully influenced his artistic background.

They all attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw at the famous studio led by Stefan Gierowski, an abstractionist who left a lot of freedom to his students in the field of their painterly quests. The students unquestionably respected him, also due to his own considerable artistic achievements which were ahead of those attained by other academic tutors. However, while learning from Gierowski, in the sphere of subjects Urbański drew more from Jarosław Modzelewski and Marek Sobczyk – both the Gruppa members – than from the professor himself, who did not paint representational pictures. He got from his professor rather knowledge about the non-self-evident art of applying colours in painting. And he learned a lot. Meanwhile, he very soon adopted the colours to his own internal symbolic system which he used in his painting. He said in one of the few, and maybe only, interview which he gave in 1991: “Whiteness means emptiness.

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Blackness stands for the lack of brightness, but I prefer dark blue (as my colour)”.

The origins of his totally mature painting works fell in the second half of the Eighties.

That was a gloomy time, because although Martial Law was ended, the Poles still suffered from progressive scarcity of belief and hope.

Discouragement, apathy and complete spiritual stagnation were felt countrywide. Portraits of that mood were depicted in Szymon Urbański’s final diploma series paintings of 1988 titled “Mom Warsaw” (Polish – “Mama Warszawa”). Their subjects included sites visited by the artist: a ticket booth, the No. 195 bus line, a railway station, public toilet – in which large slabs of human bodies were hung on hooks. In the catalogue for the exhibition titled “W polu widzenia” (“In the Field of Vision”) which was shown in Copenhagen in 1991, thus shortly after the pictures were painted, Maryla Sitkowska wrote: “The escalated cruelty and abomination in Urbański’s paintings act as a shock”.

It was perhaps the most dramatic summary of the spiritual atmosphere present in late Communist Poland. More radical and cruel paintings-visions seem nearly impossible as they contain a visionary character in themselves.

They do not illustrate anything literally, but consist in illustrations of a dimension enhanced, overwhelming and paralysing. They were painted with tar, urine and desperation, and became a peculiar culmination of that vanishing, awful epoch, which cast a shadow over the life and youth of not only Szymon Urbański himself.

Yet in 1992, at the Galerie Ariadne, in Vienna, jointly with Paweł Kowalewski, the Artist presented his pictures, or rather assemblages made on sheet metal, with holes drilled in it and

some other elements glued to it, making almost an abstraction, but still describing fragments of reality while aimed at putting them in order.

Then, a sudden break came. Years later, in 2005, Anda Rottenberg, one of the lovers of Urbański’s art wrote: “He just left, and has for many years lost contact with both reality and himself ”. However, he returned in 2002 with an exhibition titled “Nowe obrazy” (“New Paintings”) presented in the “Pokaz” (“Show”) Gallery of Critics. A new and different painter appeared with this exhibition, however, still bound up to that who was known by his previous uncompromising nature and visionary force.

Szymon Urbański turned toward religiousness, but one perceived as extremely syncretic, since both Jesus Christ and Buddha are in the same row in his pantheon. He established one-man painterly order. When speaking about his former paintings, he apparently disregards them. He claims those were painted with evil energy. It seems he possibly destroyed some of his paintings. He dislikes recollecting them, despite that his origins are undisputedly based on them.

He prefers to speak about his newest works as inspired by medieval miniatures, and about himself as monk. Certain features of such miniatures actually can be found in his newest canvases, which are framed with a type of bordure, as such miniatures really were. However, there is still something in them of the Russian avant garde, something of comics, something of graffiti, something of folklore, something of art-déco, something of poster literalness, and for sure still something of the Gruppa figurativeness. Apart from this long recital, these are not all of the components featured in Urbański’s rather exceptional style. The artist himself

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Szymon Urbański, “Paranoia”, 2005

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When speaking about his newest works, he used to say those are inspired by medieval miniatures, while considering himself a monk.

Certain features of such miniatures can be factually found in his newest canvases.

However, there is yet something of the Russian avant-garde, something of commix, something of graffiti, something of folklore, something of art-déco and something of poster literalness.

admits to various inspirations, while not remembering many others. To add, he obviously does not have to remember everything, since it is not his duty to seek for all the motifs which constitute his extremely unique art.

One thing is apparently noteworthy: Urbański has always been a separate artist, an unhumble artist, a disparate artist. Years ago, Maria Janion wrote about the “galley slaves of sensitivity”, and Szymon Urbański for sure belongs to them.

Although ostensibly his paintings could seem strong and unambiguous, in fact, they are masterpieces created by a man who is very gentle and sensitive, but hiding behind strong colours in order to not be suspected of weakness. &

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AGNIESZKA HAS DIED “Since it is me who began to expose myself in paintings, something in them has started to attract me more.

I like flashing myself”.

by Olga Święcicka

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naked girl is lying on a bed crosswise with her palms touching the area of her crotch. In another picture, the same girl is standing with a helmet on her head and next to a Vespa scooter. Probably she is going to ride the city with a handsome stranger.

In the evening they will make love. Then he will depart, as all other men did, and she will stay alone with her dogs. Maybe she will nestle her head into a pillow. Maybe she will again go out to sleep around. The paintings by Agnieszka Sandomierz are like pages in a commonplace book - all covered with drawings. The Painter, with surgical precision, portrays her emotional states. She is afraid of any strong image and challenging scenes. She treats her body as an object of study, while looking at it from all sides, yet composes it, exhibits with photographic flair, however, not to shock anyone, but rather only to familiarize the viewer with the femininity, erotic, solitude, and also the maternity and stability.

Sandomierz’s painting matures in line with herself. Her early works show a frantic youth full of adventures. Successive men scroll through the canvases. “Once, I used to stay in my studio from early morning to late evening and then to go party. That was the way of my life in that time. Later I became settled and gave birth to my children. Having two little human beings whom you should carry about and be responsible for – all that made changes in me. I am not so slap-happy anymore, and I cannot spend so much time for play. My time does not belong only to me but also to my children. I am a different woman now”.

Maternity is an important motif in Sandomierz’s artistic work. As she says: “That Agnieszka has died in me”. That sexually liberated, sociable and brave woman already vanished, whereas a new one, calm, matured and strong lady has emerged. Once she gives birth to her first child, such motifs as sex and casual lovers disappear from her paintings, whereas such images as children, pregnant women and dogs appear.

The colours became gentler, the brush strokes changed into more round ones. Sandomierz’s painting totally altered in terms of the methods of showing the world. And the Artist’s life has undergone the same change. Being popular, sought-after and frequently exhibited before, she has suddenly disappeared. She is no more invited by art galleries, her paintings stopped selling, and the galleries exert pressure on her to return to her previous, acute style. I am furious that something has ended, and that nobody will try the new things I have to present. Nobody thought that those could be equally good and interesting.

They said: “Listen, this is fun, but you better get back to your previous style”. The galleries were not especially interested in my new paintings.

They all withdrew, so I withdrew, too, and ceased 86

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to impose myself. It was painful, and I felt hurt”.

However, despite all those difficulties, she astonishingly succeeded at a minor non-commercial exhibition titled “Baby Boom”, during which she sold the most pictures ever in her life. So, she has accustomed maternity into her art of painting.

Self-fidelity is one of the basic features of Sandomierz’s creativity. The change in her style was not a marketing-calculated step, but a phase of her maturation. “It would be difficult for me to go back to that something which is no longer mine, to the motifs which ceased to be associated with my life. I paint the moments which I wish to retain with me, but not those which the galleries expect from me”. None, however, should perceive Sandomierz’s painting as her life-chronicle. “This is not some photography.

In my paintings I include certain synthesis. Of course, I write a history using them, but I am a painter who creates art not to just catch certain moments, but also because I have concrete conceptual-ideas. Those have to be visually attractive; I’d like to see in this way whether I have come true. Sometimes a thing inspires me artistically because it has a cool colour, layout, but those are not always these «important moments». My paintings are perceived as very intimate, and often I can hear «My goodness! What have you shown here!?». I do not agree with such an approach, since what have I really shown, but only a human body, while not exceeding good taste? Of course, there are also emotions, but I would not say that I have already emanated everything from myself. And I still have my own “taboo topics”.

Her diploma work titled “Bodily Environs” scandalized professors of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. The Academy was not prepared and ready for a series of paintings so intimate and bold, nor entirely was the Artist herself: “That was quite a traumatic experience. I think that with my diploma I closed a certain period of time, including my quests for exploration and the school, as well as the desire to do everything at any cost. I painted intimate scenes, so in some sense that was the beginning of my own style, but the form of my later paintings is more gentle and easier for perception. I aimed for the painting series of my diploma work to strike the viewer, and I succeeded, but it has also hurt me, by the way”. She was also hurt because of the opinion of the artistic circles, which were critical on her provocative form of presentation.

There also were opinions that this is a cheap trick, since dazzling the audience with sexuality is the easiest way to attract a viewer. Maybe that is true, but not everyone could be able to afford it. The Painter has coped with her traumas, depicted the faces of people close to her, showed the places and items important to her, exposed herself, and allowed for peeping at and touching her. Of course, everything has its price.

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Agnieszka Sandomierz, no title (no. 6), 2009

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Sandomierz’s painting goes through various phases, sometimes toward cartoon, sometimes toward realism, while focussing on detail. At other times, it is more developed; however, her intimate world always remains her utmost inspiration. Now, as she says, she is the “mom”, and she harps on about this topic in her canvases.

Revealing her private life in her paintings has not always been approved of by individuals close to the Painter. “My parents poorly cope with my art.

Of course, they seek to engage, used to come to vernissages, but that is difficult for them. At some point my pictures become embarrassing to them in terms of acceptance. For sure, they were proud

of me, but considered my painting a profession, and did not wish to speak about this”. The Artist recalls: “My mom asked me once: «Do you need to do this?», and when I replied that I do, our discussion ended. She accepted it”.

There is no more Agnieszka in the most recent Sandomierz paintings. Instead of her known face, now there are animal masks, owl, wolf, and lion – the animals looking like hunted ones which have hidden inside the Painter’s personality. There is no longer emptying, but there is an in-depth descending, a recourse into the interior. After a period of the calm, and the maternity period, a new person is being born once

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again – a reserved and more experienced one.

“Before, the contact with viewers came to me more easily. Now I have withdrawn. I was totally absent from my last exhibition, in Wroclaw.

I did not want to participate in the vernissage or to speak out. Now, I am mostly a mom sitting at home, cooking lunch, taking care of my children and painting my pictures in a little bit different parallel world. Less of me is in my painting, and also less of this painting is in me. I no longer need to talk about my art. I prefer that my paintings speak for themselves”. & Photography by Błażej Żuławski

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MY WAY IS FULL OF SURPRISES Paweł Drabarczyk interviews Stanisław Młodożeniec 1/2012

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Stanisław Młodożeniec: Preferably as a Newsaw-Waryorker (laughing). I grew up in Warsaw, and I attended Artistic High School at Szwoleżerów Street, near the Łazienki Palace and Garden Complex. A long time ago, there was the Cadet College in that place, and now there is the Museum of Polish Emigration. I visited this building recently and met with my former classmates. At that moment we all felt as in the old times, and although being fifty, we ran around those esteemed Museum halls. We recalled both our classrooms and the premises where we used to smoke cigarettes secretly.

Warsaw, I am interested in that which has preserved the spirit of the city as I remember it. A lot of things have changed their shells. Many of them look great, for example, this Krakowskie Przedmieście Street, where we are sitting. But a lot of them have lost their character. I am keen on what has preserved it, including parks, the Vistula River, allotment gardens, old tram depot, and advertising signboards. And I also include a lot of New York in my paintings.

I had sufficient time to watch this city. In 1983, thanks to my friends I managed to leave Poland and arrive in NYC, after a short stay in Paris. I don’t paint events, but rather impressions. I snap tons of photos, and then choose the most interesting ones to develop motifs, the feedstock of my work.

gree, my brother Piotrek began his study at the Faculty of Graphic A rts. He became a graphic designer and paints pictures, too. I like his work very much.

A&B: So, we can find fragments of poetry in some of your paintings, and also certain forms in some others in which certain viewers discern the alphabet of some hermetic language.

SM: Really? Thus, I would be very anxious to know what they read in these characters. What emotions?

And what have these paintings said to them?

A&B: There is also music in other of your paintings.

I still don’t feel that I have reached the time of artistic maturity.

I do one thing, say painting something in a certain way, then I get interested in something different and I desire a change, as if I were still a kid. The years have caused me to no longer reproach myself for being inconsistent in my behavior.

I believe I am following a way full of surprises, and that it is a good way for me.

The Museum Curators cracked up laughing. And just here, next to your Editorial Office, during my student times, we often stayed in the old Harenda coffee house. May I say after Rimbaud: “Nobody’s serious when they’re seventeen. On a nice night, the hell with beer and lemonade...”. I still remember our talks, discussions, listening to tales and songs sang by the Warsaw Old Town bards. I also met with my friends from both the Academy of Fine Arts and of the University of Warsaw. The Academy is over there, just around the corner! Lots of memories...

And New York is already half of my life, I have been living there from 1984. At the beginning, just after arriving there, I worked as a bike-courier. I got to know the city geography quickly - hundreds of sites. Once I carried a parcel to Keith Richards, and then another one to Bill Preston. I even saw Warhol walking with Basquiat and Haring at West Broadway. I delivered a lot of letters, packages, and even once a huge frozen marlin to the Sutton Hotel. My children grew up in NYC. I found my place there.

I live in Northern Manhattan, where the Harlem R iver f lows into the Hudson R iver. Sometimes I look at this river as if it were the Vistula River, in Warsaw, and also at Central Park as if the Łazienki Palace and Garden there. Yes, I am a guy from Warsaw, but I feel like a New Yorker, when in New York...

A&B: So, you became sort of a chronicler of the city...

SM: “Urban” themes have always been important motifs in my work. I painted streets, market places, funfairs… And then, in New York – the River, park, bikes, sites and people. Recently, I drew some things about Warsaw for an exhibition in the Gallery of Graphics and Posters on Hoża Street there. As for

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A&B: On 24 August 2011, an Exhibition titled “The Młodożenieces - Jan, Piotr and Stanisław” was launched at the Hoża Gallery. I think we cannot avoid a question about your artistic dynasty?

SM: I grew up in a home full of paints and books about art. There was a studio with a big table that my father used to sit at and work. I remember also a colorful circus drawn with wax crayons on the room wall by my father for us children. Poetry was important in my young years. I read Baudelaire, R imbaud, and the Polish poets: Wojaczek, Śliwonik. My grandmother, Wanda Arlitewicz, was a painter and she told me much about my Grandpa – a poet. I encountered the lines of those of the Futurist school, including Jasieński, Czyżewski and my grandfather. I was four when he returned from England in 1957. A year later he died, but I can remember him. I recall then, I gave him a drawing in which I depicted a manikin in violet sitting in a yellow bath tub, and all of that was on a red background. A volume of his selected poems includes “Wyskok” (“Excess”), a fragment of which follows: “Good colorful God scattered painted gems for me, so I play and enjoy them as a scallywag. I throw my brush into the air up to the highest f loors. I pitched a camp for my thoughts amongst stars, and I lean my head on the Sun and my heels on the Moon...” Recently, I wrote all these into a picture painted on a circular outline. Into another picture, showing my high school, I wove part of another poem titled “Melancholy”. It goes like this: “Girls have long eyelashes when daydreaming. Melancholic melodiousness stretches their fingers longer. When you ask them anything, they just shake their lashes and lie moody on a chaise longue”. When I was working on my painting de-

SM: Music has always been important to me. At the beginning, jazz, rock and reggae were in Poland.

We listened to those in Warsaw, while thinking, of course, about the United States – such giants as Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, and Thelonious Monk, whom I have compared to Pollock, de Kooning or Mark Rothko. Something like Coltrane and Velázquez at an Edith Piaf concert...

When working in my studio I like to hear music all the time. This surely translates somehow into my paintings. I usually begin a “musical” painting with its title, which determines its predominant feature and nature, its composition, for instance “June Boogie”. I painted the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, King Oliver Band, and Jelly Roll Morton. As regards the series of non-representative paintings, I am sometimes afraid that it is such an easy, light and pleasant music. I am glad when something is successful, it sounds of jazz and gives freedom, fresh breath and improvisation. Unfortunately, I feel a lack of classical music, and even protest songs in my paintings. But, I believe, they will come yet.

A&B: It also happens that you paint from photos...

SM: Yes, I have liked photography for a very long time. I look at photo-albums and also take a lot of photos myself, and then I depict the impressions from them.

A&B: Whom do you think of as your personal great masters?

SM: Picasso, Brueghel, Bosch, Vermeer, Velázquez and Goya were always my gurus. And also Cézanne, Modigliani, Utrillo, Soutine. Also important for me is what has gone on in the United States since

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Stanisław Młodożeniec, “January”, 2012

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I grew up in a home full of paints and books about art. There was a studio with a big table that my father used to sit at and work. after World War II. Pollock, de Kooning. And the great Rothko. Liechtenstein, Warhol. Tadé Makowski, Strzemiński, Nikifor, Cwenarski, Wróblewski, and Nowosielski are among the Polish painters.

There are paintings which have a magical inf luence on me, including, amongst others: the “Baptism of Christ” by Piero della Francesca, “Allegory with Venus and Cupid” by Bronzino, “Girl in Red Hat” by Vermeer, “Bridge at Clichy” by van Gogh,

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“Broadway Boogie-Woogie” by Mondrian, and also Rothko’s paintings... the enchanted paintings.

A&B: And what influence did the Warsaw Academy have on your artistic formation?

SM: The Academy – that was a wonderful time.

I first studied at Professor Michał Bylina’s studio.

Then I took lessons under the direction of Jacek Sienicki. They both bring warm memories to me. Dra-

wing was taught by Professor Kruczkowski and his assistants – Mark Sapetto and Wiesław Szamborski. The Faculty of Design Graphics was managed

by Professor Halina Chrostowska. At her studio I learned how to do etching, aquatint and linocut.

I reproach myself that instead of learning painting technique with the excellent and well liked Professor Wojciechowski, I used to spend time with silly experimenting. That’s the reason why many of my

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paintings “got offended” – they blackened and became dilapidated. And although I managed to bring a few of them back to life, unfortunately, I did it applying a not very professional method, with the use of polyurethane glue.

A&B: Could you indicate any turning points on your painting road?

SM: On the turn of the 20th and 21st Centuries, I started working on a long and still continuing series of coloristic artwork that I would call attempts at abstraction. In the meantime, since perhaps 2004, I have continued a series of small pictures in clusters of several on chalky paper, about 56 x 70 centimeters each. I call them “flash brushes” – in-

stant flash brush snapshots. The joy consists in fast, a la prima painting of several – between six and nine – motifs on paper. So far, I have painted a lot of these “flash brushes” and I like doing them.

A&B: I found, especially after the presentation of your paintings at the Warsaw Center of Contemporary Art in March 2011, that your artistic work is very diverse. You pursue abstract painting, but sometimes your work is also figurative. There are colorful things, graphics, and also drawings. To what degree is that deliberate? You can’t decide to follow just one path?

SM: This may sound a bit coquettish, but I still don’t feel that I have reached the time of artistic maturi-

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ty. I have been painting for a long time. The fact is that I still feel as if I am drifting here and there. I feel like I’m somewhere between work and fun. I do one thing, say painting something in a certain way, then I get interested in something different and I desire a change, as if I were still a kid. I abstain from one method for a while and then come back to it after some time. I look back and I see that it was always the same - several paths: realism, play with colors, attempts at abstraction, portrait. The years have caused me to no longer reproach myself for being inconsistent in my behavior. I believe I am following a way full of surprises, and that it is a good way for me. & Photos by Błażej Żuławski

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ARTIST PLAYER “I like games and puns. You have to know how to have fun when painting” – says Maciej Wieczerzak, an artist who declares at the same time: “I want to be a person-printer”.

by Olga Święcicka Photo by Karolina Wdowiarz

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t is noteworthy that the artist means a colour printer, because colours and their contrasting combinations are the most important in Wieczerzak’s paintings, with all their thick contours, hues borrowed from cartoons – pale pink, celadon, intensive blue.

These colours attack and slosh on the canvas.

You need some time to concentrate and identify certain shapes from this race of various

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components. Once you find one, it becomes easier to identify more, such as numerous skulls, penises, and vaginas jumping out at your eyes. The Artist plays cat and mouse with us. He smuggles something here and hides something over there. This is just the essence of his pictures. They have to keep both the artist and the viewer amused, although his creative process doesn’t look like a game. He says:

“The most important is to be able to get into a rhythm. I paint a lot. I’m well organised.

I work 8 hours a day, practically all week. I get up at 6 a.m., and before 8 I am already in my studio. I check e-mails first, then prepare myself and start painting. At 2 p.m. I take a one hour break for a siesta, and afterwards work again. Then I have dinner with my wife, and again work from 10 pm until about midnight,

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Maciej Wieczerzak, “LUDO I”, 2011

His adventure with painting began with ... an injury.

He could no longer train for swimming, so he took up art. The body and his injury would later become the major inspiration of the artist. so as to not oversleep the next morning. Of course, sometimes there are hard days when I have no ideas, but then I mobilise myself even more and get back to work. I cannot stop, but can only add some variety to my time. I usually paint 3-4 pictures at a time”.

Not only is Maciej Wieczerzak ’s artistic life puritanical, but so is his painting technique. He paints usually f lat, poster-like pictures. The colours tightly fill in their contours.

There is no room for half-light, subtleties or transitions between hues. The painting re-

sembles an advanced drawing produced with the use of computer to some extent. This association is in fact accurate, since the artist actually never separates from this device. His creative process begins with a small sketch, which he then scans into drawing software.

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The colours attack and slosh on the canvas. You need some time to concentrate and identify certain shapes from this race of various components.

The Artist plays cat and mouse with us.

Using a computer, he refines the lines and contours and then fills them with colours to see what the paint will look like on canvas.

Finally, when he is fully satisfied with the computer image, he takes to painting. He displays the image on a canvas with the use of a projector, step by step, line by line, patch by patch, so as not to lose anything. He does it precisely. The colour which he uses must always be of the same shade as that on the computer. Therefore, he doesn’t use a palette.

He mixes paints in little tomato concentrate jars. They are handy and capacious enough that there is always sufficient colour for painting a given fragment. Wieczerzak has his own methods for everything.

“I thought I’d be a sportsman” His adventure with painting began with ...an injur y. He cou ld no longer train for swimming, so he took up art. The body and h is inju r y wou ld later become t he major inspiration of the artist. However, before 98

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Wieczerzak matures to painting, several essential events happen in his life. First, he sees the film “Dance with Death” about Basquiat, and then the dream to paint germinates in his mind. Then he attends courses at an artistic high school in his hometown of Mielec and begins to discover the artists who are most important for him: Caravaggio, Rembrandt, and Goya. Finally, at the University of Rzeszów, his future wife, a sociologist, shows him a text by Bauman that will initiate his fascination with this philosopher. A ll of these events, paintings and situations will grow in him and wait for the appropr iate moment. Maciej comes f rom a family of workers, so he highly values hard work. “I don't believe in luck. If you wait for inspiration, walk around, think, then you w ill never get it, because if it does come, then something may distract you, and it’s all over. I work as in a factor y. I think that painting often depends on forcing yourself to work ”.

He forced himself for quite a long time. He painted still lifes in order to develop his technique.

He pored over portraits to master his hand. Finally, he came to the point where he wanted to say something different, from himself. He began working on a series titled “Candy Shop”, inspired by the motifs of sex and death. The theme of a skull was the leading motif of these pictures, which became his “hallmark”. Sawn up pussies and big dicks attack the viewer from Wieczerzak’s canvases. The world created by the artist is full of sexual violence. Aggressive colors, template symbols and strong messages constitute his style. “Many people think that my paintings are stylized as graffiti. I, however, never think so about them.

I would be afraid to go down town and paint on walls. I also often hear that it’s pop-art, but I also cannot agree totally on this point. It is true that I refer to pop-culture symbols in my pictures, but on the other hand, I never apply ready-made components. One could then say that automatism is closest to me, as well as the creation of surrealistic effects, but that’s also not a principle”.

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Maciej Wieczerzak, “Still life with boar�, 2011 Above: at work

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Maciej Wieczerzak, “Still life with fish”, 2011

The only principle is to steal That means to observe, copy and imitate as much as possible. Then strip of meaning and reprocess through myself. Ever ything can inspire, but most important is to have your mind always open. So, there are pictures illustrating epigrams by Fredro, and also well-known my ths and legends – even the Wawelski Dragon – and Baroque still lifes.

Everything, of course, in cartoon style, although Maciej never read comics. Similarly, he deliberately never watched cartoons. He didn’t have to, because he was struck by the “color world” in passing – in advertisements, tempted in shops, beguiled at school. If the artist had to indicate any major source of his artistic inspiration, he would undoubtedly point out Bauman, with his concept of culture as a supermarket, where everything has been literally stuffed, also as in Wieczerzak’s paintings. We find there characters from children’s fairy tales and games, and also various religious, pop-culture, historical and

modern items. “I like diversity. Combining graffiti, cartoon, and MTV stylization, I attribute a new quality to already known elements”. What quality? Maciej doesn’t specify.

“I move in artistic circles. People who explain balderdash about art annoy me. For me, painting is mainly technique, and I am striving to get it to perfection. Of course, I'd like for my pictures to mean something. I try, however, to cut myself off from the concept that every picture must be the work of a lifetime. Painting should not defend by interpretation, or kilograms of theory, but by the image”.

A lthough Wieczerzak does not want to impose any interpretation, he often provokes them, as was the case with the series “The Dicks and The Pussies” with which he finalised his studying at the University of Rzeszów.

The paintings shown at the diploma exhibition were structured into t wo categories: masculine and feminine. The canvases were juxtaposed with each other. They fought and f lirted with each other, while becoming a

commentary on the contemporary modern world dominated by sex, which, however, lures and frightens.

Games on canvas Trying to involve the viewer in a game is an important aspect of Wieczerzak ’s painting. An element of a puzzle can be seen in the series titled “Vanitas Vanitatum et Omnia Vanitas”, as inspired by Baroque vanitative still lifes. The fun lies in finding little animals. Each canvas presents a still life with a different animal, however, finding it in the confusion of contours and colors makes this effort quite difficult.

Wieczerzak’s painting is difficult to read clearly. It mills around between a simple computer printout and baroque, overdone artwork. Technique and precision can be felt in them, but there are also templates and automatically processed signs. It is simple and at the same complex, just as this artist’s credo: “I want to be a color printer” – both surprising and bold. & 1/2012

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TOUCHING THE SECRETS OF NATURE Katarzyna WoĹşniak interviews Agata Kleczkowska

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ART & BUSINESS: When did you feel that painting is your path?

AGATA KLECZKOWSK A: Very early, when I was still a child. My parents noticed that when I sat at a sheet of paper with some crayons or colouring accessories, I submerged entirely into another reality. I disappeared and entered my own world. For my parents that was always a moment of rest and a quiet time, but also satisfaction that their kid was dealing with something that really absorbed her. I did not bother anybody at that time, and drawing brought me lots of joy. Thus, my parents enrolled me in art lessons. Only children seven years old and up were eligible to attend these classes, and I was still six. However, my parents somehow managed to get around the age limit. Those classes were held once a week and were very important for me. I preferred to miss dancing class or extra English lessons for the sake of spending all my free time drawing something.

When I was fifteen I commenced regular lessons, and then I passed examinations for an arts high school. I felt this was my path. I avoided calling it openly and thinking about myself as an artist. However, I already felt the need to express myself through painting. My mom protested a bit. She opposed any such orientation, me still being a young girl. She preferred wider perspectives and choices to be open for my development. However, it was me who made the decision. There are some people who consider painting a profession with no future, but my opinion is that everyone has to enter their own life-path, regardless of what others say. Even before I qualified for the arts high school, I decided to study at the Academy of Fine Arts. I was eager to refine my method and technique; that was extremely important to me.

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I prepared myself firmly and for a very long time for high school qualification examinations. My parents’ friend, a sculptor, helped me much to this end. He showed me around art galleries. Very often we visited the Warsaw Centre of Contemporary Art (CCA). He was a little bit crazy, as an artist can be. He taught me much and emphasized the combination of both fun and art, and direct contact with the latter. I remember that he often turned my attention to a bike which was a part of an installation at the CCA exposition. The bike had a strange, complex mechanism which was fascinating to both of us. I can’t recall the name of the author of that work, since the most intriguing for me was how somebody could ever hit upon an idea to invent such a machine?! Of course, the bike was an exhibit, but whenever we both appeared there, my guide tried to mount the bike and ride around the exposition room. The exhibition service crew chased him over the CCA premises and unsuccessfully tried to throw him out. He replied to them that as an artist he had to verify whether this masterpiece was actually operational. Although I almost died of shame there, nevertheless, I also had a lot of fun. Besides, my visits to the CCA provided a perfect space for sociological observation. And that remains in me to date. I observe humans and their behaviour, while trying to understand what force they are driven by.

away to attend preparatory workshops for academy studies. These special lessons gave me a foretaste of my future professional work. I was tempted by the high level of teaching requirements, which were totally different than those I had experienced so far. I’m not going to say that I was better, but I was more attracted by this new environment in which I believed I could spread my wings. I was still considering graphics, but painting was a natural choice for me.

Thus, I decided to go to the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. I worked hard and was accepted at my first examination attempt. I have never regretted my decision. I allowed the thought that I would have to do something else to earn money, but painting has always been most important to me.

A&B: What are your remembrances of the high school years?

AK: That was the time of my evolution. Moreover, this period has still not ended. I am still taking shape and working on myself. The classes were absorbing and interesting, but for as long as I can remember, I always had my own world.

About the end of high school I started f leeing

A&B: Other art disciplines don’t inspire you?

AK: Of course they do, but I can express myself best through painting. I like reading very much.

I love books. Magic realism fascinates me the most. Reality is sketched there. It is not even the issue of fantasy itself. I quest for something above and beyond it, but within the framework of the reality that surrounds me. This may even

A&B: So, you express yourself through paintings?

AK: It’s decidedly easier to express myself in this way. Painting allows me to convey what the words would be never capable of. A painting describes pure emotions, peculiar primitivism, our perception, myths and everything which has formed us. It’s convenient for me that our culture is dominated by the visual, especially when it’s supported by sound, movement, glimmer, neon light. I strive to draw from the tradition of visual associations, but it is easier for me to paint something than to speak about it.

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Agata Kleczkowska, no title, 2012

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Agata Kleczkowska, no title, 2011

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sound strange, but Stanisław Lem’s science fiction enraptures me absolutely, but the fantasy with unicorns less so, though for sure it can be a source of visual inspiration. I am interested not only in Polish literature. Gabriel García Márquez is an example of an excellent writer in whose work regular, everyday life interlaces with the reality of the beyond: for example, the ghosts of the dead sit at a table. This is speaks to me and appeals to my imagination. This is probably the power of magic realism: its strength can be conveyed in painting. And rather not ideas but feelings are essential here. It’s easier to paint emotions than to speak about them. At the sight of a painting emotion appears, sometimes doubling us over. And you will never experience this from reading a book, but even if so, the path to reach this emotion is longer, thus causing yourself to enter a different state than that which comes through visual stimulus.

A&B: What did you find in art when you were a child?

AK: Drawing took me into the world of imagination, seclusion and identity. If my wish was to be a princess – I drew the princess, if I wanted to have a dog – I drew the dog. I fulfilled my big dreams on sheets of paper, mainly those related to animals, which I depicted most frequently.

A&B: Why are animals the major characters in your canvases?

AK: They are fascinating to me as different forms of existence, so different from humans. While filled with only positive feelings, they are always close to nature, a harmonious part of it. Even if they bite or attack, they only do it in self-defence.

If there is anything dangerous in them, it’s completely natural and beyond any moral judgements.

I consider this a magical expression of life. I’m an atheist, but I believe in some universal order which manifests in nature, in the trees. I believe that everything is recurrent – from the Cosmos to the smallest cell. I cannot abstain from a pathetic note here – when I paint animals, my goal is to make an icon of them and to pay specific tribute to their hidden forces, which personify the power of nature in them. I’m not a vegetarian for no reason.

I’m also fascinated by issues related to shamanism. This was the topic of my diploma thesis.

Magicians often used animal images in their magic rituals. Siberian shamans had magic staffs with carved horse heads, thanks to which they transitioned into the spiritual world. There the staffs changed into real horses that carried them through other worlds which were unavailable to common people. Each shaman had his mother – a bird of prey which appeared when the man was elected as shaman. Such adoption of a new social and magical role was equal to a symbolic death. The animal protector came back once again when the shaman actually died.

Old beliefs, myths and rituals fascinate me.

I find something real and magical in them, something we reject because it’s, not trendy, awkward, incomprehensible, or superstitious.

Animals always played a symbolic role in magic rituals, imitating a return to the origins of the world. Animals are of key importance in all initiation rites. It’s extremely fascinating how certain features of animals got into human language, including also the language of politicians.

Animals continue to help us name the world and to set its boundaries. Although they surround us

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on an everyday basis, they continue to exist as fabulous and somewhat mythological beings, but mostly magical ones. To this day, some of their behaviours are mysterious to us. I am mostly pleased that the fables and fairy tales are still read to children, thus bringing the animal world closer to them, which stimulates the development of children’s awareness and identity.

A&B: Are your canvases a manifesto?

AK: You may consider them so. They are an expression of my faith in the magnitude and power of the animal world. We should watch animals and learn from them empathy, the ability to live in a herd, to be close to nature, and even joy. Dogs or cats often help us. Parents divorce, kids bang the doors, people constantly pass by each other, but your dog will always come to you an put his head on you knees, and simply be. He offers his presence and support selflessly. I grew up together with a golden retriever who died during the summer holidays two years ago. Thanks to him I came to understand that, irrespective of any unpredictable event, he would always be happy because he had me. As for me, the most important was that I could count on him. I could always snuggle my face into him, thinking that if he enjoys being with me, then I am important to him, and things are not so bad. What was important for him was clean and primal life, in other words, the joy of existence and fun, and not the envelope in which people surround themselves.

He needed neither stick nor ball, I was enough for him with my all slightly defective human presence. & Photography by Błażej Żuławski

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Andrzej Cisowski, “Rubik’s Cube”, 2011

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IMAGE ARCHEOLOGIST Andrzej Cisowski draws inspiration from comics, poster, pop-culture and religion, and he mixes that all together in his paintings. His artistic work is set, first and foremost, by meeting with masters – German neo-expressionists and by Jean-Michel Basquiate, whom he met personally.

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t is hard to imagine a time which could be better for studying painting than the years of “painting hunger”. In the mid-Eighties, Andrzej Cisowski joined a group of young savages. Disobeying all principles became his leading principle. He created painterly report from a place where grotesque seemed to be the best weapon to combat hopelessness. His earliest works were exhibited in the Dziekanka House and the Promotional Gallery in Warsaw, and at the Zderzak Gallery in Cracow. When about to graduate he became noticeable. However, his free spirit did not allow him to settle down.

He recollects those years in the following way: “A law on mandatory military service had just entered into force. Every male graduate was obliged to perform temporary service in the army. I wondered what to do. In an act of desperation, I went to Düsseldorf. I carried several slides not necessarily the best quality, showing my works. I presented them to Professor Konrad Klapheck, who said that I could continue my studies with him. I hardly believed it was going so easily”.

Drawing from the best ones Cisowski began studying with A.R. Penck another legendary representative of German art.

Studies in Düsseldorf appeared a breakthrough in Cisowski’a artistic work. Beside A.R. Penck and Konrad Klapheck, also Jörg Immendorff and Markus Lüpertz were tutors there. His stay in a place so diametrically different provided Ci-

by Agnieszka Rayzacher Photos by Błażej Żuławski sowski an opportunity to distance himself from all that he had left in Poland. That “restart” gave him a stimulus to further development. In his artistic work of the late Eighties, awkward figures painted with jagged lines, performing absurd actions, and set in a quite undefined environment, appear in his works. They are under the patronage of the spirit of Dubuffet’s and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s artistic works. The latter, less than two years older than Cisowski, has up to now remained his artistic guru.

In the early Nineties, Cisowski’s paintings are still distinguished by their Basquiat madness. Inscriptions, absurd stories and painterly anecdotes appear in them. These are provided with extraordinary titles. The artist begins to reveal literary fascination and capabilities which will develop for several subsequent years. A characteristic sense of the absurd becomes his speciality. This appears in a specific way in his collages and installations that are presented in 1995 at the Small Salon of the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw.

“Paintings” on tablecloths Cisowski is able to completely close his period of fascination with Neo-Expressionism. His artistic work gains its individual character. However, fondness for his peculiar, carefree manner, the unrestrained inclusion of texts into the tissue of painting, and a very specific sense of humour remain in him from former years. His passion for archaeology has a fundamental influence on his

painting. The artist discovers, borrows, repeats, mixes and collects. However, Cisowski is hardly concerned about the area from which he gains images and motifs. Citations gain complete autonomy, taken out of context they are governed by their own rules, create new meanings and tensions amongst many other passages. The artist places a photo taken out from a Soviet storybook next to a holy picture, and an African mask near a motif from a 19th Century drawing. A Nazi bares his teeth right beside a figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary engrossed in prayer among children native of Japanese manga and heroes from American comics of the 1950’s. Around 2003, given the need to refer to the current structure, a broad series titled “Painted Tablecloths” appeared. The artist began painting on patterned fabrics, tablecloths and shawls. He treated the inscriptions on the fabrics as a challenge. In “Painted Tablecloths” he generally depicted surrealistic figures of children, which he composed into a static structural outline of a fabric that, depending upon the motif, functioned as a f loral border, mascot or a base housing formal experiments.

Painter of photography Photography-derived painting forms an important thread within the new artistic work of Andrzej Cisowski, which he creates partly by means of projecting the master photo onto the surface of a fabric. This method was in use as early as in the Sixties by hyperrealist painters. For Cisowski it is just one of the elements

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The artist places a photo taken out from a Soviet storybook next to a holy picture, and an African mask near a motif from a 19th Century drawing.

A Nazi bares his teeth right beside a figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary engrossed in prayer among children native of Japanese manga and heroes from American comics of the 1950’s. of work on the piece. He deprives his newest works of colour, or on the contrary – introduces a non-realistic colour, highlighting with it certain elements of the presentation. Also, he often introduces into this borrowed photographic medium components typical of him, including those originating from absurd humoresque, co112

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mics or poster. He mixes aesthetics, discourses – pictorialism with austerity and photographic realism, politics with a formal joke. When referring to photography, Cisowski refers also to that which was in the past seen, preserved and reported by someone. He tells somebody’s story already changed by a photographer’s eye and

sensitivity. He refers to somebody’s memory, or rather to “non-memory”, since the photos he uses don’t have the status of icons. They originate from so many sources – Soviet storybooks, newspapers, magazines, travel books – that there is no way to find a key which the artist uses when making choices. One could discern in this

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Andrzej Cisowski, “The Conference”, 2011

Andrzej Cisowski, “Eroica”, 2010

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strategy inspiration from “Atlas” by Gerhard Richter, however Cisowski does not put much attention to archiving and presenting a photo or a cutting. He treats them as some of many images, being however important since they are sources of inspiration to him, but constituting only one of many elements in the visual mess surrounding us.

Playing with the viewer It seems that to Cisowski the most important fact is that – following Duchamp – “the viewers create pictures”, thus the viewer “brings their own input into creative process”. This artist le-

aves us alone with this iconographic bestiary, while giving us to understand that from now on everything will depend on our knowledge or imagination. Perhaps the pictures he depicts as pieces of a puzzle fit into the archive of our memory. Perhaps we store within it something similar thanks to which a chain of associations is set up – including references to our life or to the images, photos and shot-frames which have remained there. Thus, Cisowski restores to us certain images, and at the same time he “turns” them over, shifts their meaning, and makes the space open to new senses and interpretations.

Besides, there is something else which is given

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back to us again from these photographically-originated images. Walter Benjamin wrote about the images processed mechanically by both photographic and film methods that become deprived of their aura. Cisowski returns in some way such an aura to us, and makes the reproducible image come back to us again as a unique work of art. This gesture includes within itself a feeling of the absurd and perversity, thus a boyish feature which has always accompanied Andrzej Cisowski’s artistic work, and that, as a mature artist, he has never got rid of. & zdjęcia Błażej Żuławski

Andrzej Cisowski, no title (no. 6), 2010

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I DO NOT KNOW THE ROLE I PLAY Kuba SĹ‚omkowski tells about his maturing to call himself an artist, fascination with human otherness and searching on the canvas.

Katarzyna WoĹşniak listens.

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ART & BUSINESS: You paint, compose music, make films. You’re a well-known Warsaw performer. Which one of these artistic disciplines defines you the best?

JAKUB SŁOMKOWSKI: Painting is in the first place. The reason may be that it doesn’t come to me easily. I worked quite a long time on my technique; nevertheless it constantly changes. Painting prevails over other disciplines by which I express myself.

I consider performance a communication channel in which a mature artist can do the best. However I am continuously learning. Nevertheless, I think I am at such a stage that gives me the right to speak in my own way. I didn’t have such a need before.

A&B: The role of parents is to show their child as much as possible and allow it to make its own choices. And how was it in your family?

JS: As long as I can remember, I was educated towards painting. As a child, I allegedly revealed my passion for visual arts. My parents noticed this early on and invested a lot of energy and faith in my personal development. They paid much attention to me, and they sought for a good teacher for me. The best turned out to be Mieczysław Knut. He completely changed my perception of life and introduced me to a world so far unknown, new and fresh to me.

A&B: What had the strongest effects on you?

JS: I still appreciate his good pedagogic approach and understanding. It is the “eye massage” (laughing) which I still remember and use in my work with students. He put me at a window and told me to look far away and to change the perspective and move from one plane to another. To now, the Warsaw District of Wilanów, which I saw from the window, acts in my mind as a space to be structu118

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red into frames. In the background, I always heard some classical or other music. This training helped me to open myself and perceive, but not just only watch. Knut protected me and provided me a lot of freedom.

A&B: Who else influenced your personal development?

JS: My parents did. They showed me much and devoted a lot of attention to me. I was curious about the world. I had a variety of strange ideas which, unfortunately, resulted in my scraped knees. My mom used to work in the garden and greenhouse.

She is an experienced plant breeder, and she always showed them great care. She attaches similar importance to objects. At home she painted. In turn, my Dad opened my eyes to the world of theatre.

I put into my painting. I do not run away from marking a hand motion, and when a piece of horsehair from the brush remains on the canvas, I don’t remove it. That is the weight of the event, stopping a while, and at the same time proof that someone has worked on the painting. It provides naturalness, and at the same time the picture becomes a living object, not only an illustration, but something that has its own history.

A&B: Your paintings are proof that you have highly developed spatial imagination.

JS: I am a lively and searching creature. I cannot really settle down in one place. I think that I could have been influenced by my childhood. I never spent summer holidays at home, and even weekends were spent away from it. We often travelled here and there, and that was an opportunity for me to get to meet new people and make new observations.

A&B: When did it occur to you that painting would be your permanent occupation?

JS: It was in Spain, during an ERASMUS programme scholarship. There, an artistic awareness began to awaken in me. Moreover, as a boy I liked listening to abstract, surrealistic stories. Those had strong effects on the state of my spirit. I read a lot of comics, and I loved those which resembled the atmosphere of the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tales. I’m not afraid of corporeality, however spirituality fascinates me more. Once I planned to become an actor.

Nowadays, I’m trying to implement that dream all the time: sometimes I think of life as if it were a movie, or about me as someone who has a certain role to play. I am an actor, and sometimes also a director. And I’m trying to combine these two features in a non-typical manner.

A&B: Thus, your imagination was shaped by movement?

JS: Yes, that’s how it’s been for as long as I can remember. Later on, there were horror films, macabre plays, and also music. Theatre was of fundamental importance to me. Despite that, I try to create static paintings. They have their weight, and at the same time movement is present in them. It gives them life, but it originates rather from my energy, which

A&B: An actor works within his or her internal space.

JS: That’s probably why I feel the need to produce atmosphere, give off the climate of an internal landscape, but far from anything ethereal and real.

My fascination with space began early. Blind man’s bluff was my favourite game. Masking the eyes is a motif which I use repeatedly. The reactions of people to a painting cut-off from the known

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Jakub Słomkowski, “Leftovers”, from the “Beast” series, 2012

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are unpredictable. It’s necessary then to activate the imagination and watch with the internal eye.

My fascination with surrealism lies in unexpected change in perspective. Buñuel’s films had a shocking impression on me. I was surprised how smoothly and correctly reality can be observed and what an efficient observer the author can be to record details which have gone stale and which we have been unable to notice on an everyday basis.

It might sound strange, but surrealism seems to some degree to be something natural. The human is also such a strange creature. We supposedly wish to be ideal or classical, we start families, choose investment funds, mobile network operators and accident insurance. But there is a daredevil living inside anyone of us. It comes out in some after years, some try to kill it in themselves. But sometimes I wonder whether I am ultimately normal, and if so, whether any such category as normality is a raison d’être. My lack of resolve to take action, such as taking a risk, and my certain dilemmas between tiptoeing and having my feet firmly fixed on the ground in terms of the creation of a new reality – are probably also reasons for my interest in surrealism.

And abstract? Ironically, that came late to me. One source is the Reina Sofía National Art Museum, in Madrid. I also visited the Prado Museum, where I saw the Old, Masters and spent hours gaping open-mouthed at Goya. I saw abstract in his paintings. Sometimes I saw it also in Rembrandt’s.

A&B: Early or late Goya?

JS: Late. At the beginning, I often visited the Prado, since something drew me to Goya. However, there are also paintings by Brueghel and Bosch. It was in Madrid that I started painting my abstracts, and I noticed that there are many who paint in this style, although usually not very well. They splash and waste paint, and what they produce is simply ugly, not aesthetic and off. One of my friends, who, instead of going to class, went to a cafe and painted with coffee, I never pursued such techniques. That was totally beyond my understanding. I tried to adhere rather to the academic principles of painting technology. I admired his courage to search, and then I also tried to act in the same manner. It was in Spain that I first played with natural tints. I mixed ink with sand, painted with what I scraped from scorched wood, and I did not search especially for shops with paints. Abstract has the power in it that makes it impossible to repeat what you have already done. Abstract is a combination of chance and the personality. But also personality that makes it possible for chance to arise.

A&B: Was that a breakthrough in your path?

Spain and Reina Sofía?

JS: Yes. It was due to direct contact with these paintings and looking at them live. But there were also quite different people, the Spanish light, and the power of openness. Spain made me aware that none could talk about painting without having

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pe from the dark series, to which, however, I am going to go back later on. I am keen for colours to be vibrant and refined, and at the same time natural. It’s not easy to achieve such an effect, and this effort has to be preceded by many trials and experiments. That’s the reason why such a long time is needed to produce a series.

A&B: What do you mean saying “refined”?

JS: It can hardly be defined, but that’s the lowest common denominator to which I strive to bring all my canvases. One must work hard to produce a colour, since it cannot be achieved by means of a single dab of paint. Thus, I take care about the craft. Several layers can refine the colour, and at the same time create a depth which corresponds with a given theme. This is similar to the depth of amber, which always has something inside to be discovered.

communed with it. You will never be able to speak about a canvas when having only seen a picture downloaded from the Internet. You need to be with them live, face to face. I experienced this with Bacon. When I saw a reproduction of his work in a newspaper, I threw it in the trash. And when I first stood before his painting, I felt such a strong bond with and perception of his art. This also made me aware of the depth of a culture trap we have fallen into. It’s thanks to the Internet that everything becomes instantly and generally available to us, but virtual at the same time. Courage is needed to learn art and face up to the canvas. Later on, I experienced Rothko’s space, and I felt the same feeling. The live contacts with his canvases were an unforgettable lesson.

A&B: Do you feel that you have passed a particular stage of maturing?

JS: Perception depends on the person who is viewing a picture. When a new phase opens to me, it doesn’t necessarily mean my further maturing.

I’m still looking for and working on myself. Now I’m preparing a series titled “Jonah in the Belly of the Fish”. I had Jonah in my mind before, but in a fable-like form inspired by cartoons from my childhood that showed two boys swallowed by a whale. I would like the colours of my current series to be darker, looking into the depth of the ocean and into the fish’s interior. There will also be a bit of naturalism, since I don’t refrain from it. I allowed myself to abstain from corporeality and began painting coloured abstracts other than the paintings I’ve done so far. Paint is spread over canvas in a similar manner, but the colours are refreshing, magical and fabulous. It was my esca-

A&B: Dalí defined Beauty as “the sum of the awareness of our deviations”. And what would your definition be?

JS: Beauty is a while – an ideal moment – in which we feel good with that which surrounds us. What’s important is how effectively a person communicates with the surroundings. The essence lies in a flow of understanding. It could also be something frightening in form. It doesn’t have to be aesthetically pleasing. It depends only on us to what degree we will be able to comprehend something that we see. And to what extent that “something” will cause us to feel that we are a part of that picture.

A&B: Are the visual arts supposed to provoke such a moment?

JS: Partly, yes. This is perhaps the secret of the communication between the work of art and the viewer. A painting begins to speak to us when we realize that it is also looking at us through the eyes of the one who created it and filled it in with his personality. That moment in which the recipient realises that what he is looking at has been taken from the author’s world of imagination can also be Beauty. And now he is no longer alone with his vision, there is somebody who thinks and feels in the same way. It often happens that you wish to stay forever with a certain painting, whereas you consider others only investments. Sometimes paintings are of importance to us because they reduce our loneliness. We have some feeling toward a specific picture. Beautiful is the moment when you encounter such a feeling. That is also creation.

A&B: In what sense?

JS: I can paint a picture. But I’m a painter only in a certain context: that is, when someone looks at my canvases and tries to read my thoughts, seeks communication with me through my vision. That means the viewer also creates me. & Photography by Iwa Pawlak

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by Maria Poprzęcka

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It happens rarely indeed that a young artist, since almost the very beginning of his creative path, has been able to define a distinct painterly idiom. However, this is just the case of Łukasz Huculak. Regardless the changes that his painting has undergone, and still undergoes, there is no trouble with recognising his canvas. Since the first glance we already know – it is Huculak. Nevertheless, when it comes to describing traits of this idiom, they occur to be not so easily captured. We can only indicate few clues Huculak’s paintings provide. These clues may be misleading. The artist, who appreciates “strangeness and unambiguousness of the external world” so much, after all defends also unambiguousness of his own world. He prefers leaving onlookers in uncertainty, in sway-

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ing feeling of reality and unreality, materiality and immateriality, certainty and confusion.

Emptiness and silence “…if I have some dreamed-of pictures in my mind, they are surely empty or almost empty, nevertheless, there is a kind of energy – the relations, though accidental, comprise absolute necessity; the energy that results, excuse my bombastic tone, in metaphysical illumination...” – Łukasz Huculak says, being interviewed by Bogusław Deptuła.

The concept of a picture that has “nothing or almost nothing” in it is a very old one. The most peculiar anecdote about artists told by Pliny is about noble rivalry between two legendary Greek painters: Apelles and Protogenes. Apelles had a wish to

get to know his rival Protogenes who used to live on the island of Rhodes. Apelles did not find him in a studio, instead, there was an old servant looking after a big board ready to be painted. When she asked whose visit she was supposed to announce, Apelles replied: “this one” – and grabbing a brush, he led with it an extremely thin, coloured line on the board. When Protogenes returned, after having seen the line, he was certain that it must have been Apelles only, as no one else was able to perform so perfectly. But he faced the challenge. With another colour he led an even thinner line in the middle of the first one. After his comeback Apelles declared he had been beaten up, still not surrendering, with the third colour he cut out the previous lines. At that moment Protogenes, admitting that Apelles

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had won, decided to hand the painting over to the following generations,to be admired by everyone, especially painters. It got burnt – as the story is continued by Pliny – “in the first fire of Cesar’s house on Palatine. But before it happened, we had a chance to look at it sufficiently enough. It was large indeed and did not comprise anything but the almost invisible lines, therefore, among fine works of many painters it made an impression of an empty picture; but that was why it attracted everyone’s eyes and looked more precious than any other painting”.

Pliny’s tale is not only a praise of antique artists’ hand skills. It is also an excellent remark on force of emptiness in a picture: “though it made an impression of an empty one (…) that was why it attracted everyone’s eyes and looked more precious…” Łukasz Huculak’s painting is distant from geometrical, pure abstraction, which has its prefiguration in perfectly drawn lines of competing painters. However, quite similarly, what attracts most in many of his paintings is this very emptiness. Emptiness which is the only visual equivalent of silence. And this silence that fills up emptiness seems to be a constitutive trait of Huculak’s paintings. And it is not only for this reason that many of them, following old genre classifications, are “still lifes”, called by us in polish “dead nature”. To talk about muteness of a picture may seem to be a paradox, as pictures are naturally silent. Painting is surely “silent poetry”. Therefore, a picture should be silent to become poetry. The artist is aware of this. Empty spaces in his pictures are dominated by silence.

Stains of a wall Cable, Stick, Ceiling, Stains, Floor, Litter, Dirt – these are titles of Huculak recent paintings. Cable is a bowed twig set in contrast with a straight line, which horizon alike parts the wall from the floor.

The twig casts a faint shadow. And it is all. Stick – white, leaning against the wall in the corner of a room, built of three grey planes. It casts a shadow that draws the second in this painting triangle. And again it is all, despite for a stain of dripping white paint on the wall. Stains, Ceiling, Dirt these are only amorphic, achromatic, shapeless forms.

These minimalistic paintings indicate yet another, also old clue. “…when you look intently at walls covered up with stains or at stones variously mixed and you want to picture a scene, you are able to find similarities with various landscapes decorated with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, great plains, valleys and hills varied in shapes (…) Such walls covered with disordered stains happen to be like voices of bells – in their chimes you are able to find any name and word you evoke in your imagination”.

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ideas, arousing a painter’s mind to new concepts…” Łukasz Huculak does not paint various landscapes decorated with mountains, he does not depict rivers, rocks or trees. He paints only fungic stains, damp drippings, flaking-off walls, lichen on plaster.

And only this. With this gesture of stopping, giving up, restraining from further painting, viewers are left with a wide open space for imagination. He leaves them with freedom of invention. He gives away an impulse to find “charming ideas”. By suggesting ambiguous and complicated shapes, he arouses and animates mind. The one who is looking has a chance to create his own picture of “infinite number of things” he is capable of evoking in his imagination.

“Floor” can become a stormy sea, “Dirt” – expanse of the sky, “Ceiling” – a dimmed, distant landscape.

Each of these paintings become our own “soul landscape”, the only and unrepeatable one.

Gutai The picture entitled “Stick” looks like painterly documentation of a conceptual installation. It is also the case of Litter – torn white sheets of paper scattered about in a narrow, sharp-angled tight space. Is it a memory of the Foksal Gallery from the beginning of the 1970s? It is surely a paradox.

Conceptualism and a painter working in traditional techniques, giving his pictures a look of old, fainted frescoes? Is it possible to reconcile textural elements, sensual painterly matter to conceptual idea of rejecting the work’s materialisation?

And yet Łukasz Huculak himself leads us to this conceptual clue. One of his pictures is entitled Gutai.

We find ourselves in a so admired by Huculak space of neither a sort of a gallery, nor a kind of an abandoned and neglected palace. There are a few strange

objects exposed in this space. A cylinder, a rod thrust in the floor, a rectangular construction making up a sort of a croft. These hard straight shapes serve – alike traditional sculpture postaments – as bases for cloud-like, immaterial forms hovering above. The universe of matter stands up for immaterial world. Geometry gives birth to the formless. The measurable and the tangible transform into the undefined and the elusive.

The Japanese association Gutai, active since the 1950s to the beginning of the 1970s, nowadays, from the perspective of a half of a century, is perceived as a group with the most subversive potential.

Iconoclastic, destructive, transgressive actions of Gutai members, plucking from all traditions and conventions, both related with creation and artistic life, in their radicalism they went further and more courageous than Euro-American artists, Conceptualists or Fluxus’s activities of that time.

However, by evoking the Gutai group, Huculak places his peculiar installations in a degraded, still distinctly gallerylike space. Does he want to say that even the most rebellious opposition to institutionalisation and commercialisation of art ends up with an aesthetically suspicious defeat in a gallery? The Gutai association have stayed for numerous museum canonisation, great retrospectives at Jeu de Paume in Paris and at the Venice Biennale three years ago. Is the initiated by Huculak dialogue with Conceptualism a perverted one? Or is it such an equivocal tribute as “Hommage a Morandi”, where we can see a „Morandi-like” still-life in disintegration? Huculak’s paintings do not answer these and other questions.

His pictures actually pose them. & Photography by Łukasz Huculak, Paweł Olearka

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dOCUMENTA 13 in Kassel s. 132 Luis Ramon Marín s. 138 Bernardo Belotto s. 142 Edible paintings s. 148 Jacek Santorski – The Art of Living s. 150

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Goshka Macuga, “Of what is, that it is; of what is not, that it is not”, 2012, photo: Roman März

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THE BEST PLAN IS NO PLAN The next such event will not be held for half of a decade! The dOCUMENTA exhibition is organised every five years. This is the biggest cyclical exhibition of contemporary art in Europe – it has a nature of totality this year.

And it’s taking place with great success, having no coherent concept of the whole.

Anna Jastrzębska “Art is defined by both what is present and what isn’t, and what are the opportunities to do something, or not to do something. It is determined also by what it cannot achieve”. These words by the Curator of this year’s event, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, are the key to perceiving the phenomenon, which undoubtedly dOCUMENTA 13 is. The expression “phenomenon” is not an exaggeration, since when going to Kassel one should be prepared not only logistically but also physically. When moving between the Fridericianum, Neue Galerie, documenta-Halle, the Orangery, the extensive Karlsaue Baroque Park, the squatter sites and the courtyards dispersed over the city and occupied by artists, to finally reach the Hauptbanhof station – one needs to have both an athletic body and a well-trained spirit (meaning a mere understanding of contemporary art worldwide). This year, the exhibition additionally is expanded to Kabul, Cairo, and Banff in Canada, but fortunately this is only for volunteers, and not to be reached by foot. This event is extraordinary not only in terms of its size: the duration of this exhibition, taking place since 1955, is one hundred days and, what is obvious, it is a real financial monster. Its budget is 30 million Euros, just a few crumbs compared to the 16 billion Euro cost of organizing the Euro 2012 on the Polish part. This explains the frequency with which the exhibition can be held in this German city with a population of 200,000.

Could you imagine that such a great project organized once every five years would have no leading motif, nor theme holding the whole thing together? Then, do imagine! The Curator from the USA, mentioned above, admitted during a press conference accompanying the inauguration of dOCUMENTA 13 that she had no clear vision of the whole when preparing the event.

Blows Paradoxically, it appears that she adopted the best strategy possible. By refraining from a rigid structure, she was free from artificially matching individual works to her vision. Thanks to that, the projects presented (sometimes entire narratives and expositions) can resound in all their diversity with the power due to them. In this way Christov-Bakargiev simultaneously strongly reminded that contemporary culture has no single “centre”. And as is commonly known, the lack of a centre makes it possible for everything to become “the centre”, since the great peripheral has a great potential for centralisation. And across geography, history and policy, Carolyn establishes new centres of interest and reverses the relationships which we have been accustomed to.

She places the important and the unimportant, the close and the distant, and finally, the present and the absent on the same plane.

To become convinced of this, it’s enough to go to the Fridericianum – the major exhibition area

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of dOCUMENTA, the actual brain of this event.

The entire ground floor of the building breathes an air of emptiness. Whiteness, freedom and space govern there. Only at the entrance can you feel a subtle, but refreshing and pleasant breath of wind. However it is not a draught, but a work

by Ryan Gander. The air flow generated by equipment installed outside the building recalls freshness, changes, and the inf low of the new (“Wind of Change”, as sung by the Scorpions).

At the same time, it is an excellent introduction to a discussion about the material and the intangible, the present and the unavailable, that will continuously appear in Kassel. The permanent tension between the intangible presence and the tangible absence is one of the most perceived elements of this exhibition. And we’ll see this after a while, upon entering the room which the wind leads us to. The only element physically present is a display case containing a letter with a message from the artist, who is absent there. Busy Kai Althoff was not in a position to come to Kassel, so in his letter he wanted to explain his absence to both the Curator and himself. He writes: “I am aware I will never again be invited to such an event” – and this confession is another accurate diagnosis of contemporary art. While having his day but desisting to use it, the artist feels that to some extent he has been doomed to oblivion; if you missed the chance, a new one will never be

granted to you. However, contrary to the prediction, as a matter of the perverse Curator’s logic, Althoff got a chance in Kassel, even though he didn’t take advantage of it. The absent can also speak there. Do you remember Bakargiev’s words that were cited before? Being is equally important as the unavailable.

Absence The work by Goshka Macuga, a Pole, is maintained in the same spirit, being one of the central points of this year’s event (although as you already know, this year there is no centralism there).

A huge tapestry covered with a black and white digitally printed inscription is titled “Of what is that it is; of what is not that it is not”. It shows a collective portrait of the participants of a banquet in front of a ruined palace in Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan. There are a lot of possible interpretations of the work presented, beginning from a snake shown in the foreground that recalls the biblical symbolism of temptation, through trust and healing, to a metaphor of the human power of thought, as hidden in the figure of a philosopher who is modern and represents progress, as if separated from the group represented. However, a fragment of this most interesting story is again missing. The second part of this work, a similar Gobelin implemented in Kassel, with the Orangery in the background, a specific pen-

Kai Althoff, “A letter to Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev by Kai Althoff”, May 24, 2011, Photo: Roman März

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dant, without which we cannot read properly the first image – was shown in Kabul. Its far-distant world seems completely unrealistic and non-cohesive, but thanks to such a work it came into being many times during the exhibition.

An installation by Mariam Ghani from the US perhaps more explicitly shows this extraordinary presence in the absence of actualization. The artist compiled pictures of the Kabul Darum Aman Palace – strictly speaking, the ruins thereof – together with the presentation of the Fridericianum interiors as reconstructed after the devastation of war. The past, which no longer exists, can be found in a reality which is distant, and somehow illusory. What is present has been hidden in the being material, but already absent. The artist seems to ask whether a relationship can be formed between these. Mario Garcia Torres, who created a project relating to the Italian artist Alighiero Boetti, accompanies her. In the Seventies, the latter managed a hotel in Kabul and became famous because of Gobelins embroidered by Afghan women showing the maps of a geopolitically changing world. They were exhibited this year at the London Tate Modern Gallery, and one of them, “Mappa” of 1971, can be admired in Kassel. At the same time, thanks to the said García Torres, Boetti Hotel One was opened in the Afghani capital city for the duration of dOCUMENTA. Do you need any other comment?

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William Kentridge, “The Refusal of Time”, 2012, by courtesy of the artist, photo: Henrik Stromberg

Mario García Torres, “Have You Ever Seen the Snow?”, 2010, by courtesy of the artist, photo: Roman März

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Julio González, “Tête plate”, 1930, “Danseuse à la marguerite”, 1937, “Homme gothique”, 1937, photo: Roman März

Tacita Dean, “Fatigues”, 2012, photo: Nils Klinger, by courtesy of the artist, Marian Goodman Gallery oraz dOCUMENTA (13)

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Maria Loboda, “This work is dedicated to an emperor”, 2012, by courtesy of Maria Loboda, photo: Nils Klinger

Dancing Of course, there is much more such unreality and ephemerality at the German exhibition. It is hidden at different levels. One of them is revealed in the installation of Maria Loboda titled “This work is dedicated to an emperor” in the Karlsaue Park. Cypress trees planted in pots create an incredibly mobile sculpture. The trees reposition, they migrate through the baroque garden, and at the end of the exhibition they wind up in the Orangery located on the opposite side of the Park.

If you wonder how much art is in this activity, then you need to know that sometimes there is no art at all in dOCUMENTA. The composition of the work shown there includes, among others, genetic research by Alexander Tarakhovski (an installation made up of many test tubes and

a monitor showing the DNA sequence), or experiments by Anton Zeilinger based on quantum physics. No less important than science or technology in Kassel are also: agriculture, renewable energy sources, economy, and theory of policy, language, and literature studies. The Great Absent – as it might sometimes seem – Art, lends a helping hand to all these disciplines, assumes the role of host among the guests invited: puts its arm around them in a tender embrace, encourages them to establish mutual relations, and at the same time, seems to take them over as if they could be its sub-domains.

It is difficult to avoid banality when noting that the Kassel exhibition, with all its multi-discipline, ambiguity, overproduction and polyphonic features, forms a true mirror of contemporary art. With its lack of single narration,

multi-context, multitude of images, the wealth of diversity at dOCUMENTA fights to attract the viewer who is not able to see everything there. Yet the recent project by William Kentridge – “Refusal of Time” – has to be mentioned here.

In this five-channel video-installation (with a “breathing elephant” in its centre) images fight each other in an extraordinary procession, an ecstatic dance. Some replace others, break off, pulse, scroll constantly, capture space and the viewer’s attention. Just as in the title of the text written by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev for the exhibition: “The dance was very frenetic, lively, rattling, clanging, rolling, contorted, and lasted for a long time”. Such is also the choreography of this whole event: impetuous, captivating, resounding and waving. And seeing it takes a long time. &

Anton Zeilinger, “Quantum Now”, by courtesy of Fakultät für Physik, Universitat Wien, Vienna Photo: Krzysztof Zieliński

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LUIS RAMóN MARÍN: PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE KING AND THE REVOLUTION Each time when the conservators, who were so far unaware of the Author’s name, held in their hands the photo-prints taken from Marin’s archives which remained forgotten for many years, they believed those to be masterpieces produced by one of photography’s masters. Could there be any better guarantee of the value of his photos?

by Paweł Drabarczyk

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he first air show in Madrid was dedicated exclusively to the representatives of the authorities and journalists. The public was not invited to the show, and in late afternoon on March 23, 1910, a crowd of almost three thousand rubbernecks could only from a distance watch how the French pilot Lucien Mamet tried to lift his aeroplane over the Ciudad Lineal aerodrome. However, he reached only below a nine-metre altitude in the first three tests. Once finding a failure, he changed into another plane and then performed two high flights without trouble, thus buying the hearts of those who watched him from the ground. Luis Ramon Marin, a twenty-six year old press photographer was, due to his professional occupation, one of the few viewers invited to the show.

He was just beginning his professional career, full of paradoxical events. He was proclaimed a great artist, a press photographer, but not until several dozen years after having passed away.

However, this chronicler of events and customs of these times in Spain remained forgotten for a long time. He meticulously collected his archives of photo negatives which were yet quite recently completely unknown to literature in the field of history of photography.

He was not too much older than the pioneering titles of the Spanish illustrated magazines.

Born in a family of military physicians, he had the opportunities to educate, and – who knows – maybe he even saw the first ever photos published in the “Blanco y Negro”. The turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries caused a real earthquake within the circles of the Madrid photo-studios. Business competition suppressed too much the abundant number of labs specialised in portrait photos. Many of them tried then to rapidly enter into the mainstream of challenges posed by the developing newspaper market. Marin, a newly baked graduate – an agricultural engine-

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Luis Ramon Marin: “Installing the Zaragoza-Lérida-Barcelona telephone wire” Huesca, 1928 © Marin.

Fundacion Pablo Iglesias

er – was one of those young, able people who felt their photographic vocation and were intent to join the army of professional photographers. He trained at studios of many of Madrid’s famous photographers. Though it is not certain when he achieved his self-dependence, it is known that in early 1908, when he began to keep, on a regular basis, a detailed registry of newspapers which employed him, as well as a book of his proceeds and expenditures, he was already a professional.

He began with illustrated theatre and military magazines. Also, later on, as his reputation grew, he never refused to provide services irrespective of thematic profile or the political colour of a magazine or a newspaper. His photos were published in both the republican “España Nueva” and the conservative “ABC” daily, Catalonia’s “La Vanguardia”, but first and foremost in the Madrid “Informaciones”, for which he served as the “court” photographer in the Twenties.

Marin’s salaries grew gradually but steadily. His popularity increased slowly but firmly, and his continuously greater popularity provided for numerous jobs. However, the position of this Spanish photo-journalist was unstable.

From 1903 until his death, and also in the years of his most intensive activities, when he provided to the “Informaciones” more than a thousand photos annually, he simultaneously occupied a post as a government official.

He mediated in the trade in photos purchased from foreign agencies. Sales of his works in the form of view-cards provided him a large proportion of his income, even better than he expected.

As the rules of the photo-journalist profession got strong, the “ancient” Nineteenth Century habits had inexorably gone out of date.

On May 7, 1922, in one Madrid square, a bull named Pocapena fatally mauled Manuel Gra-

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Luis Ramon Marin: “Balloon Challenge”, Madrid, 1913 © Marin. Fundacion Pablo Iglesias

The archives containing more than eighteen thousand negatives had been for years lying in a home hiding place. Once discovered, they enlarged the Pantheon of the photo-masters of the first half of the 20th Century by one more star, i.e., Luis Ramón Marín. nero, a bullfighter. This tragedy faced by that nineteen-year old popular character reached broad press ref lection. The “Informaciones” daily described the event and illustrated it with three photos by Marin that pictured the dead body. There were also five other images included, as taken by other photographers, featuring also Granero’s portrait made just before that deadly event at a studio operated by Kaulak, a vanishing star of the Madrid photo-circles of that time. “The last photo of Granero” is undoubtedly an excellent portrait of this bullfighter. It enraptures the viewer with his imposing physique and costume, however it stands out from the language of contemporary press reportage. Other photos better fit this new convention. Those show the moment when the unfortunate is lifted up from the ground, and then during his transportation to hospital. Other photographers, likewise

Marin, also focused their lens on Granero’s dead body. We are not mistaken in seeing in these different types of photographs signs of evolved thinking aimed at a photoreport being captured in various development phases and the role of the photo-journalist on the site of the event.

The air show at the Ciudad Lineal aerodrome in the spring of 1910 kindled the imagination of young Marin and initiated one of the dominating topical threads in his artistic activity. During the next few years, he visited such air shows and balloon challenges with a camera in his hand and finally boarded an airplane to photograph his country from the air. In time, he gradually bought a car and motorbike to be able to get quick ly to the centre of events. Machines and technological progress fascinated him. However, he didn’t feel obliged, unlike the spiritual countrymen

of the futurist Marinetti, to disavow, in the name of speeding cars, love for „Nike of Samothrace”, and he retained recognition of the motives traditionally approved as admirable and beautiful. He judiciously gave his talent to the pioneers of new sporting disciplines and ballet dancers. His photos encompassed members of the royal family hand in hand with their subjects. Sometimes he recorded in his camera a crowd gathered in the street, and somewhere he focused on a detail: the palms of the actress Celii Gamez, “just after Giovanni Tassani foretold her future”. The avant-garde writer Ramon Gomez de la Serna posed for him on a circus trapeze. Josephine Baker slightly opened the door of her dressing room to him.

Surely, it would not be easy for him to call himself an artist w ith a clear conscience.

And although today’s critics can discern in

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his works the reverence and concentration typical for the ancient masters, or sensitivity shared with the futurists active in his times, one must not forget that the domain of press coverage photography and that of the fine arts were mutually separated by a border hard to overcome. Only posthumously did he get his entrance card to join the artistic Parnassus, when the world had again changed its hide.

Ironically, it seems that his artistic output defined by his photographic language contributed to the reevaluation, by the power of which such photos as “Balloon Challenge”, or “Telephone line Zaragoza-Lerida-Barcelona, kilometre 412” may nowadays be called “art”.

We will certainly learn about this from the manuals to be yet written, and the indexes to be yet supplemented with the name of this Madrid photographer.

Marin structured his archives into such categories as, amongst others, “Weddings”, “Portraits”, and “Aviation”. We could distinguish yet another more separate category from this archive, “Beaches”, since there are many photos showing people at the sea-side. The way by which Marin formed and developed the language of his artistic expression is recorded in his archives. It is the history of a sustained return to the same motives, and within them – an unremitting reiteration of takes, over and over again until effective, and when the light, composition of items, gestures and grimaces, have entirely satisfied the Master’s continuously increasing stringent criteria.

In 1936, Marin put the first glass-plate photo-negatives in his new, separate thematic category titled “Civil War”. He started documenting the siege of Madrid, and went to the city outskirts, into the front-line, taking photos of strutting, fighting and injured soldiers, the communist fighters wearing chequered workman’s shirts and raising their clenched fists, and also, demonstrators gathered under their banners, as well as evacuated women and children wrapped in blankets during a rather not so mild Castilian winter. Marin did not take part in war himself. His car became the only known non-artistic contribution by this fifty two year old photographer to the back-breaking hardship of fighters defending the Second Republic. His car was commandeered

by Colonel Ortega of the Fourth Corps of the forces loyal to the Government in Madrid during the first days of combat, and then was quite soon returned, but in pitiful condition.

A photo taken on March 28, 1939 documented General Franco’s troops entering Madrid.

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Luis Ramon Marin: “Hands of Celii Gamez after Giovanii Tassani foretold her future”, Madrid, 1933 © Marin. Fundacion Pablo Iglesias.

Luis Ramon Marin: “King dancing at the la Venta de la Rubia.”, Madrid, 1916 © Marin. Fundacion Pablo Iglesias.

sector in Spain had undergone a deep metamorphosis. Many press titles vanished, including “Estampa” and “Blanco y Negro”; what is worse, certain editors vanished, too. New newspapers emerged, dominated by members of the National Movement. The “Ley de la Prensa”, i.e., the Francoist Press Bill, passed in the spring of 1938, limited freedom of speech, and licensed editorial activities.

However, there is no evidence proving that Marin himself was politically oppressed. Quite opposite, it seems that various connections he developed through many years when focusing his friendly lens also on highly placed people could have helped him to maintain his official job at the Physiopathology Station.

However, he feared for his archives. He kept the negatives orderly and drew-up guidance

and inventories thereof. Sometimes he took photos. His seven photographs present crops at the Yepes farm near Toledo. Photographer Luis Ramon Marin passed away on November 4, 1944 during stomach surgery. Marin’s widow decided to hide his archives away from the world, and at least from the eyes of Caudillo. These eighteen thousand negatives were concealed behind a kitchen wall. They had to wait there until Spain could cope with the impact of traumatic fratricidal battle, take off the girdle of dictatorship, and be capable of looking in the eyes of its own history, or at least not abstain from excellently expressive memories of all those signs of eventful life retained by the camera of that moustached Madrid photographer with eyes of a piercing and bit swashbuckling glance. &

& The unknown masterpiece

CANALETTO & CANALETTO The painter known in Poland by the nickname of Canaletto, in reality called Bernardo Bellotto, was a nephew of a famous Master, Antonio Canal – the first one actually to use the nickname. Canal vel Canaletto – what a brand it was! And Bellotto had only just started to built his own. In our cycle Unknown Masterpieces we present you to Bellotto’s Self-Potrait – a genuine showpiece of his painting artistry.

by Grażyna Bastek

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n 18th century Venice numerous vedutists, painters specializing in featuring urban landscapes, were prospering well. Why, then, Bernardo Bellotto – a nephew and the best disciple of Antonio Canal, the most famous painter of Venetian vedute (views) ever – left the town remains a riddle. Trying to solve the riddle, researchers put forward varied hypotheses. One says that it was a decreasing at that time demand for Venetian vedute that made Bellotto leave. According to another suggestion, the true reasons can be found in his personal life, i.e., the death of his subsequent offspring, which, however, seems to be an extremely insufficient explanation as the death rate of newborns in the 18th century was very high. Yet, we are not in possession of any source information that could explain the artist’s sudden departure from Venice. Perhaps the answer lies in his character and temperament – ambitious, talented and hardworking, the artist wanted to have a career bigger than what he could have expected in Venice. The work of numerous Venetian vedutists, unless they found a thriving art dealer or permanent patron, came down to painting for sale on a free market popular Venetian buildings and places, usually in the form of small-format paintings, i.e. “post-cards”, bought by aristocratic travelers on their Grand Tour.

In 1746 Antonio Canal left the town and moved to London, which happened through the agency of his patron of long standing, the painter Joseph Smith, who ever since the 1720’s had been commissioning paintings from Canaletto and acting as an agent between the artist and the English buyers of his art pieces. In the 1740’s, when as a result of the War of the Austrian Succession (1749-48), the number of visitors to Venice dropped, Smith commissioned a series of graphic caprices – landscapes of imaginary places – and helped Canaletto move to England. In London the artist was closer to his clients, and for almost 10 years he was painting views of their residencies.

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Such was also the career that Bernardo Bellotto chose for himself. Similarly to his uncle, Bellotto used the nickname of Canaletto. He left Venice in 1747 to never return to his home town. Having started the travel arrangements in April 1747, the artist went to Dresden on reconnaissance to negotiate the terms under which he would be hired at the Elector’s Court.

In Dresden – the capital of Saxony and of the Electorate of the Reich ruled by the Wettins – many remarkable artists lived and worked at that time. The person who brought Bellotto to Dresden and put in a good word for him to August III was probably the diplomat, writer and art connoisseur – Francesco Algarotti. August III and his first minister Count Heinrich Brühl became the most generous patrons in Bellotto’s long artistic career.

The terms that the young artist was offered in Dresden were excellent. He was appointed a court painter and given an extremely high salary – 1,750 thalers per year. He also got a snuff box set with diamonds and filled with three hundred Louis d’or coins, all of which made his emoluments much higher as compared with other artists working at that time at the Saxon Court (another court painter, Alexander Thiele, achieved only 1000 thalers).

Commissioned by August III, Bellotto painted views of the city, Pirna and Königstein Fortress. The King’s commissions that Canaletto carried out within his regular salary were big-format paintings on canvases as large as 133 x 225 cm. Most of the pieces painted for the King were equally meticulously repeated in the form of replicas for Minister Brühl.

Researchers of Belloto’s oeuvre agree that the first part of his stay in Dresden constituted the peak of his prosperity and career. For the Court’s demand, he also produced monumental “portraits” of the city and royal estates. The landscapes were not, however, portrayed with

minute realism. As a court painter serving the Court and its propaganda, Bellotto idealized the depicted places. When painting Hofkirche in Dresden, a church that was still unfinished then, the painter based on its architectural designs and models. Many times he also decided not to paint objects that screened more important buildings. The artist used this technique also when painting views of Warsaw. In his “View of Warsaw from Prague” (Warsaw Royal Castle), similarly to his Dresden vedute, some church or town hall towers are painted higher than they arein reality, and some buildings are portrayed from a better angle, as far as the viewer’s perspective is concerned.

In 1759, during the Seven Year’s War, Bellotto came to Vienna, traveling through Bayreuth where he possibly expected commissions. In Vienna his clientele initially included mostly aristocrats and after some time also the Emperor’s Court. The views of Vienna as portrayed

by Bellotto also were not merely realistic depictions of the city. Many contain allusions to important events, i.e., the view of Schönbrunn Palace with a scene featuring the Austro-Russian armies’ victory over the Prussian army.

War events, which hastened Belloto’s decision about leaving Dresden, considerably affected his career. When in Vienna, the artist received a message about his house in the suburbs of Pirna in Dresden being bombed. The damages were huge, as in the rubble the artist’s chalcographic plates, as well as a number of drawings and paintings were lost.

In 1761 Bellotto left Vienna for Munich. He was recommended to the Wittelsbachs’ Court

by Empress Maria Theresa’s letter. In Munich the paintings for the so called Electoral Rooms in the Munich residence were created. Yet, the artist’s stay in Munich did not even last a year, and at the end of 1761 Bellotto came back to Dresden, the city now considerably ruined by

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Bernardo Bellotto called Canaletto, “Fantasy Architecture with Self-Portrait of the Artist in Patrician Attire”, photo by A.Ring, B.Tropiło, thanks to the courtesy of Royal Castle in Warsaw

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the events of the Seven Year’s War. The time of the artist’s incredible prosperity was over. The death of his generous patrons, August III in 1763 and some time later Count Brühl, ended the patronage of the Court that Bellotto had so far enjoyed, causing a slump in the demand for vedute painting serving the Court and its representation. After his many endeavors, the artist was given a job in the newly opened Art Academy in Dresden where he worked as a teacher of perspective. His prestige considerably eroded, and his salary decreased threefold, from the 1750 thalers achieved at August III’s Court to 600 thalers. He was no longer commissioned

King. So I am begging you to do him this favor.”

Bellotto came to Warsaw with his son Lorenzo and with a disciple. It was probably the beginning of 1767. Quite unexpectedly Warsaw became the last stop of their journey. Introduced to the King by Bacciarelli, Bellotto received an invitation from Stanislaw August to stay in Warsaw on good conditions – a salary of 400 ducats per year, 150 ducats for accommodation, 120 ducats for the carriage, 40 ducats for home heating and an additional 120 ducats, most probably for theater.

It was much more than Bellotto’s remuneration in Dresden. In Warsaw he was the only vedutist.

Bacciarelli being a painter of portraits and alle-

from the Temple” were created in two slightly different versions. The second version of the paintings, also forming a pair, is now located in the collection of Maria Borletti-Viemercati in Milan. The painting “Fantasy Architecture with Self-Portrait of the Artist” has one more replica, at present in the collection of Walter P. Chrysler Jr., yet not accompanied by its twin painting, and it is not known whether the painting that could complement it to form a pendant was lost or never created.

The three versions of “Self-Portrait” and two of “Christ Expelling Merchants from the Temple” represent a peculiar exception amongst numerous replicas of the artist’s own works that he pain-

Bellotto’s “Self-Portrait” together with “Christ Expelling Merchants from the Temple” are in themselves masterpieces of a kind created, however, not by a debuting journeyman but by a mature artist. They represent refined displays of Bellotto’s artistry, intended to make an impression not only on the professors of the Dresden Academy during the exposition in 1765, but also on potential patrons. to paint views and, more than before, he painted capricci (caprices) – compositions of imaginary architecture, yet often referring to the buildings he knew from reality. The architectural fantasies that Bellotto painted at that time constituted compositions containing complicated, merging architectural structures, extending deep inwards and characterized by distant perspectives. In architectural scenographies that filled up whole canvases, the artist placed scenes with human characters, yet the main role in these paintings was played not by the characters but by the refined architectural structures.

Probably due to unsatisfactory work at the Academy and because his paintings did not sell, Bellotto, who was no longer a young painter, started to look for another job. Incidentally, he had never learned German. When in service at the Court he spoke French, and when working at the Academy, he had his lectures translated for him by his son. By the end of 1766, he took paid leave from the Academy and went to “try his luck” in Russia, as he expected better profit and more interesting commissions at the Court of Catherine II in Petersburg. His life path took him to Warsaw. About his plans concerning his arrival to Warsaw, we learn from a letter of Giuseppe Rosa to Marcel Bacciarelli, who was then a court painter at the Court of Stanisław August.

He knew Bellotto from the times of his work at the Saxon Court. In the letter Rosa entrusted Bellotto to Bacciarelli’s care: “Mr Canaletto will visit Warsaw on his way to Russia where he is going to try his luck. So I told him to find Your Highness and to seek support from you, and thanks to your recommendation also from your 144

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goric paintings, Bellotto was given a chance to regain the kind of prestige he had had in his best Dresden times, and he could now expect new, interesting series of commissions. And that is exactly how his stay in Warsaw, the last place where he lived and worked, looked. We owe him for a series of Warsaw views intended to be placed in a specially adapted room at the Royal Castle.

This biographic introduction is quite telling of the origins of two paintings constituting a complementary pair, i.e,. the painting “Fantasy Architecture with Self-Portrait of the Artist in Patrician Attire” and “Fantasy Architecture with Christ Expelling Merchants from the Temple”.

Both paintings were given to Stanisław August as a gift from Bellotto, most probably when the artist was being introduced to the king. The two art pieces make up a pendant – they were intended to form a pair, and so they complement each other as to their composition, their subjects together alluding to Bellotto’s life and artistic work. The artist might have expected these two excellent caprices to play the role of his showpieces, displaying his artistry in creating sophisticated architectural compositions filled with staffage, which in both paintings constituted a meaningful element. It expressed Belloto’s ambitions and highlighted his role and position as an artist. In his “Self-Portrait” the painter portrayed himself dressed in the attire of a Venetian patrician, possibly a prosecutor, and on the pillar, right behind him, an inscription from Horace’s “Ars Poetica” can be seen – a proclamation of poets’ and painters’ artistic freedom.

The painting “Fantasy Architecture with Self-Portrait of the Artist” and its twin work “Fantasy Architecture with Christ Expelling Merchants

ted. They are all of similar format and most probably were not painted to a special commission but as a specific manifesto of the artist seeking new patrons. It seems highly probable, however, that Bellotto painted them as gifts for his potential patrons and, at the same time, showpieces of his painting skills.

One of the pairs was exposed at the Dresden Academy. The remaining works must have been created some time later, yet still before the artist’s journey to Warsaw. Researchers argue about the order in which the works were painted. Yet, the order in which Bellotto’s art pieces were created does not seem particularly important, for each of the versions was painted following the same laborious scheme – transferring the composition from the preparatory drawing into the painting and always carrying out the process of painting according to the very same procedures, first reconstructing the architectural elements and then complementing the picture with staffage. The architecture in all the paintings with the artist’s self-portrait is identical; the paintings differ only in the details concerning the depiction of human figures and inscriptions placed on posters posted on the pillar shafts.

The starting point for the two architectural fantasies – the one with the painter’s self-portrait and the one depicting Christ, as well as for their later replicas – was to make detailed preparatory drawings, both of which have survived and are now kept in Hessisches Landesmuseum in Darmstadt.

The drawings show both a precise outline of the architectural parts, and the disposition of human characters. With the use of parallel lines the artist marked those parts that in painting were intended to be plunged into shade or half shade.

The unknown masterpiece

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Bernardo Bellotto called Canaletto, “Fantasy Architecture with Christ Expelling Merchants from the Temple”, photo by A.Ring, B.Tropiło, thanks to the courtesy of Royal Castle in Warsaw

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Working on the two paintings, Bellotto used motifs taken from his other compositions, whose sketches he still kept. The monumental architecture of “Self-Portrait” is the outcome of transforming and juxtaposing elements inspired by Libreria Vecchia in Venice and Zwinger Palace in Dresden. This architectural creation – a hybrid of various motifs inspired by numerous buildings – Bellotto repeated in his drawings and paintings created in the second Dresden period. He also exploited the same human characters and groups of characters in numerous painting compositions, transferring them from a special sketchbook. We can fi nd the characters from “Self-Portrait” – the aristocratic couple, the dog, the old man leaning against the pillar and the woman with a child – in other of Bellotto’s works. The artist simply “pasted” human figures into varied paintings, paying defi nitely more attention to working out and reconstructing a refined architectural composition.

Bellotto was much more talented with regard to painting views and architectural visions than as a painter of characters. In Venice it was common for vedutists to collaborate with painters specializing in painting people and staffage (referred to as machiette). The characters in the paintings of Bellotto, who did not make use of machiette specialists’ help, are often anatomically inaccurate, “unshapely” and look like pasted-in figurines, not matching the ideal architectural vision.

Technical examination of “Fantasy Architecture with Self-Portrait of the Artist” performed by the National Museum in Warsaw revealed several technical secrets of the master. The artist used a grid method to transfer a preparatory drawing made on a sheet of paper (presently in the collection of Hessisches Museum in Darmstadt) onto the canvas. A system of grids covering the sheet of paper in accurate proportions was then repeated on the primed canvas. It was a method that the artist frequently used to help him project a small scale drawing to a larger scale.

The lines forming the grid, as well as the drawing on the canvas called an underdrawing, have been discovered with the use of neutron-autoradiography. The underdrawing lies on the primer, playing not only a technical function but also an artistic one, as it provides an elastic ground for the paints. The artist also made use of its color and optical qualities when trying to achieve the accurate color scheme of the painting. The ground in “Self-Portrait” is composed of as many as three layers. The fi rst layer represents the typical bolo veneziano, so willingly used by Venetian painters. This intensely red ground, whose color comes from the color of red soil, shows Bellotto’s attachment to diligent Venetian technique. The red of the first layer is broken by the olive beige of the second layer and the pearly grey of the third one. All the three layers are extremely thoroughly smoothed out. Their mutual interpenetration and 146

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Bernardo Bellotto called Canaletto, “Fantasy Architecture with Self-Portrait of the Artist in Patrician Att ire”, detail, photo by A.Ring, B.Tropiło, thanks to the courtesy of Royal Castle in Warsaw

showing through creates an interesting optical impression of a warm shade of grey-brown. Th is warm neutral color constituted an excellent ground for painting stone architecture in full sunlight, and the refined way in which Bellotto painted the air depths proves his attention to faithfully reflecting the illusion of space. So the painting’s depth is achieved not only by neatly drawn perspective in the underdrawing but also by air perspective, a subtle modeling based to a large extent on the ground color.

The architecture in the painting is realized in an extremely delicate manner. In the areas of half-tones Balotto made use both of the color effect of the ground and of the precise drawing.

He covered the shaded parts with a thin layer of half-transparent and glazing brown paint (i.e. transparent). And the illusion of the strongly lit wall is created by spots of thickly applied light paint. The colors of the foreground are more vivid and warmer, the effect being achieved by adding vermilion (red pigment). The further grounds are light, cold, their delicate color resulting from the presence of lead white and marble dust in the paint. The artist took to painting characters at the end, as he did in the drawing on paper and in the underdrawing.

For painting, the artist used two kinds of paints: oil for softly worked parts of the painting and for glazes, and distemper with a glue base from stone trees to draw thin, precise lines and minute details.

Usually, characters and scenes depicted in Bellotto’s caprices and vedute are of litt le importance; they are decorative elements adding life to the presented architecture. However, the main characters in “Self-Portrait” and in “Christ Expelling

Merchants from the Temple” are extremely important. In “Self-Portrait”, where the artist painted himself as a dignitary strolling along the piazza, the characters accompanying him have been recognized as Boletto’s son, Lorenzo, and a servant called Checo. The inscription on the poster posted on the pillar right behind the main characters contains a quotation from Horace’s letter “To Pizons”, known also as “Ars Poetica”, evoking the idea of artistic liberty of poets and painters. It must have been intended by Bellotto as a proclamation of his own artistic freedom. The inscription in the Warsaw painting says PICTORIBUS /ATQUE POETI /QUIDLIBET AUDENDI / SEMPER FUIT /AEQUA POTESTAS, which Tadeusz Sinko translated as follows, “Painters and poets have always been given freedom (and rightly so) to boldly create whatever they want”.

On the pillar there is also a theater poster saying: RODOGUNE /TRAGE../de CORN ..., referring probably to Pierre Corneille’s tragedy “Rodogune”, whose main theme refers to a ruthless fight for power.

The paintings “Fantasy Architecture with the Artist’s Self-Portrait” and “Christ Expelling Merchants from the Temple” wonderfully complement each other as to their composition, and they are composed in accordance with the principles of combining works of art into pairs, yet the very juxtaposition of their themes is surprising, especially that “Christ Expelling Merchants from the Temple” is the only religious painting in Bellotto’s oeuvre. Such a combination can be explained by looking into the artist’s situation in Dresden: the scene of Christ expelling merchants from the temple – or: expelling artists betraying the ideals of freedom from the temple of art – complements the quotation from Horace’s “Ars Poetica” used in “Self-Portrait”.

There was a tradition in the artistic development of old masters according to which an artist at a certain moment of his career created a masterpiece, tour de force of his journeyman skills, a proof of successfully completing a several-year-long period of studying. Bellotto’s “Self-Portrait” together with “Christ Expelling Merchants from the Temple” are in themselves masterpieces of a kind created, however, not by a debuting journeyman but by a mature artist. They represent refined displays of Bellotto’s artistry, intended to make an impression not only on the professors of the Dresden Academy during the exposition in 1765, but also on potential patrons. We do not know how the professors responded to Bellotto’s paintings, and we can only imagine that the works did not cater to a new classicizing taste of the times of Mengs and Winckelmann. Yet, the works appealed to the Polish King, and perhaps that is, to a large extent, how the artist regained the position of a court painter, a decent salary, prestige and the opportunity to paint vedute ad naturam, as he himself called his city views. &

& The edible paintings

Joseph de Bray, “Eulogy of the Herring�, 1656, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

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The edible paintings

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SIMPLY A FAST HERRING During a fast, herring was a man’s best friend.

In the XVII century it was such an important dish that it turned out to be the theme of a painting.

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n the Netherlands, an evangelical country concerned about religious rules in everyday life, food was one of the most important issues, while paintings, in absence of photography, TV and video, played one of the most important public roles, even more important than we ever thought. They could be the manifesto, the declaration, the confession of faith and basic values.

However, this painting is really special, because, not only does it show a very realistic or even appetising view of marinated herring, but it also admires it in a poem.

It was painted by Joseph de Bray, an artist from a famous artistic family.

We can indicate only three of his paintings, among them the one from the Dresdner Painting Gallery collection, tilted “Eulogy of the Herring”, 1656.

The author of the above-mentioned poem was the artist’s uncle, Jacob Westerbaen, a theologian, popular preacher and doctor living and working in Harlem. He specialised in food poetry, emphasizing also the qualities of local agriculture and breeding.

Antoni Ziemba wrote in his monograph “Illusion and realism. The game with the spectator in Dutch art, 1580-1660”: “The poem based on the painting praises the herring’s look, shows easy ways to eat it, suggests eating it with beer and glorifies its medical properties.

Underneath, in a separate cartouche, we can read the conclusion: simple, familiar food is better and healthier than most sophisticated dishes”. Both, the painting and the poem are also a kind of manifest of the advantages of a modest life over huge and immoral eating, as frequently portrayed in lavish paintings representing municipal guild banquets or royal

by Bogusław Deptuła feasts, and in still life paintings filled with all available goods, of which the red lobster remained the most vivid example.

You can’t find any of the previously mentioned things, looking at the painting by de Bray.

On the contrary, there is a modest, fast meal.

However, it looks beautiful and carefully served. You must note the perfectly white and starched tablecloth. In the foreground there is a clay dish with chopped herring, slices of bread with butter, a piece of cheese served on a delphic earthenware plate, quartered onions, and additionally a glass of beer and a sizeable clay pot for it. The simplicity of the meatless meal contrasts with the unexpected background that the artist painted in his picture. It is a stone tablet with carefully engraved verse praising that modest animal. Writing poems to a not very poetic and rather smelly fish is either an act of desperation or an exceptionally well thought out treatment, but even if so, still very surprising.

As already mentioned, herring often showed up in the paintings of that era. In the painting by de Bray marinated herring is shown, however, smoked ones were more frequently painted, because it was a simple and extremely democratic meal, what’s more – a meal consumed by both the poor and the rich. The herring expressed a specific table democracy, since everybody could afford this fish. At the same time, its beautiful, silvery skin covered with scales was an attractive painting exercise for an artist. Fish often recurred in scenes from fairs and kitchen interiors, but also in more modest scenes with wooden tubs and pots. Their modesty irrevocably heralds belt-tightening as a result of poverty and the coming fast.

Fish invariably had many symbolic meanings, about which it is impossible to forget. In Chri-

stianity fish is a symbol of Christ and the feast of the Eucharist. At the beginning of Christianity, believers were also called fishermen. And the very name of Christ was presented as a rebus ICHTHYS, translating the Greek name for fish, ichthys: Iesous Christos Theou Yios Soter - That is: Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Saviour.

For the Jews, in accordance with what had been written in the Book of Deuteronomy, fish were kosher food: “From everything that is in the water, you will eat anything that has fins and scales”. In many cultures, fish were a symbol of fertility and, served at wedding feasts, had a positive impact on the spouses’ offspring.

Indeed, today in the Dutch streets, the easiest meal is herring served directly from a booth on the corner. In more sophisticated places it is served together with the famous shot of gin, poured from stoneware bottles which often become the subject of paintings. However, a roll with pickled herring, matias, or spicy one, decorated with slices of fresh onions, possibly with something pickled, is an excellent and simple solution, which evidently loses out to different global fast food formats. But for the natives, in that herring rush, the centuries old tradition of fasting, modesty, Protestantism and, in some way, democracy, are hidden. Everyday eating habits from the streets of The Hague and Amsterdam are strangely close to the magnificent painting tradition.

Thus, eating a herring during a fast, we should not only remember the fish as the eternal human comrade but also as an animal filled with so many different meanings. Today fish are a symbol of a healthy natural food and living in harmony with nature, which is still gaining new supporters, which I point out, wishing tasty reading and fish. & 1/2012

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& The art of living

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The art of living

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The art of living

YOUR RULES OF CONDUCT

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y life-motto is to live consciously – while listening, watching, feeling and trying to be quick to react – and in my belief, from the time I commenced providing business consultancy services, I can manage this now even better than I had done ever before. Meanwhile, I noticed that I used to dedicate considerably less time than I did previously to so called introspection – pondering over me more deeply, analysing my feelings, thinking motives and patterns, and my nature in general. When I afford to become in unity with an objective, task, or an issue to be resolved, either together with a team of trainers, or within a project group at my Company, then my “ego” disappears. There is just a problem, an issue, common seeking, decision-making, or developing specific products. My self-consciousness and self-correcting mechanisms activate only when something is going wrong, and a disturbance appeared, or someone commenced an unsuitable step, or made a mistake… Thus, the rules and principles I present below are rather an attempt at ex post restoring that which drives me naturally on an everyday basis, influences and assists me, than the results of regular selfreflection, long-lasting analysis or survey. These are the principles I learned from my everyday reading and business practice, and what I copied from others and then adopted and reprocessed as being useful, in spite of my personal abilities, experience, all the opportunities and constraints, and also my needs within the system of values I used to profess.

I do not really know whether these rules could become also the PRINCIPLES FOR YOU? However, I would be rather eagerly learn about that which has driven YOU, than to acquire a believer in my Decalogue. So, please, try to think about this, what in your opinion is most important in your life. What are the places for business and work in the space which surrounds you? What are the values you try to believe in, and in what way do you do so, and how effectively? Then, you will for sure encounter no obstacle in defining YOUR list of the rules of conduct…

I have intentionally mentioned nothing about wasting your time or mine. I am convinced the time and energy and capital, to some extent, are our common resources that we have managed on a global scale. But of course, I must start with the man in the mirror…

by Jacek Santorski 1. The principle of concentration W hile selectively, and meekly, accepting the facts, I used to choose and concentrate on these activities which simultaneously conform to three criteria: firstly – adhere to really good performance, secondly – put your heart into it (I am interested in both the subject matter and the people whom I work with), thirdly – from the point of view of simple business criteria – the actions I take generate income, driving my economic engine (thus I do not have to input any additional payment into them), and they also serve my customer. That means I have to desist from a lot of activities and expenses which could satisfy only my individual ego.

It also means a refusal and withdrawal from unprofitable relations, and also reduction of contacts with these people who waste their and my energy (for example, meaningless talking). I try to refuse categorically, but gently, in a way that does not affect my partner’s ego, and to be soft towards people while remaining rigid against problems. I never undertake actions for money, if it’s not within my interests, or I don’t know a lot about what my customer has ordered.

2. The principle of BATNA (following Fisher and Ury) The Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA) serves me when I negotiate ad hoc contracts and cultivate viable relations with partners, but try to avoid being doomed to our common partnership. Thus, I do care about entering alternative business contracts (orders, supplies, partners), of course, while being loyal to the partner in these relations or negotiations. I build strength sufficient enough to afford pointing out to the partner an option alternative to my offer, and that makes me enter the relations without becoming emotionally or financially dependent beyond the contractual terms and conditions. I assume that even the best relations have involved a positive splitting up… So, that ensures that my heart is engaged in my job, and has time and energy good enough to address my partners, customers and suppliers respectfully, because I feel no compulsion in relations with them, since they became my partners by choice. And I know one more thing – I am aware of the limits of my resistance to stress, the fear against breaking the bonds, the harm caused by splitting up, and the tem-

porary loneliness, and yet I can integrate these parameters into the decision on potential parting or affording myself to be under deadlock in business relations, if these have ceased to be profitable, or have no more met other criteria of the hedgehog concept.

3. The principle of “empathic abstinence” Thanks to the consistent adherence to principles one and two above, I have enough time, energy and resources to be able to follow my mission efficiently and in style. At the same time, I endeavour to understand the feelings of the individuals whom I refuse something or demand something from. I give voice to this, care about both the atmosphere when parting and the refusal conditions in a manner which secures saving a partner’s face. To the extent possible, I try to redress any emotional loss of people with whom I split up, but not at the expense of any important goals or values.

4. The principle of the Intensive Care Unit (“ICU”) In my book titled “Love and Job” I advanced the thesis that a regular, healthy and honest life in the present times shall require heroism. In a period of recession and crisis affecting many clusters of social and economic life, unexpected changes, as well as emerging new needs and opportunities while facing scarce time, energy and capital resources, the requirement to manage business in a reliable way involves mobilisation, discipline and cooperation similar to that necessary to operate a hospital Intensive Care Unit or a Surgery Block. Also, the associations with a climbing expedition, going in for individual and group extreme sports, and with the art of fighting, are all helpful to me to concentrate attention and completely eliminate the jobs (and contacts) which relate to wasting energy, money and time. In this context, I can understand roughness, which I have for years experienced from my surgeon friends and have also learned to appreciate on the part of entrepreneurs. Yet, I avail myself now to apply it, too. Meanwhile, I try to remember that while being the more resolute, communicating by shortcuts, cutting wasteful talking, speaking bluntly about my expectations and opinions, I can still care about the sense of pride and respect of my interlocutor or listener.

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5. The principle of simplicity – do not attempt to make things decorative!

Even if my customer-partner expects so, I never promise more than the person could absorb, and more than I could provide thereto within a long-term relationship. I always remember that any complimenting or commending somebody will raise suspicion when these are being done without due sense. I do not pretend to be a missionary, and while acting with honest and transparent intentions and motives, I must not declare that I am driven by a mission to transform the world surrounding me and to help people live in a manner more aware and happy. I eliminate from my vocabulary spiritual and psychological expressions, and try to make my speaking straightforward. The same concerns the materials, offers and reports.

Both effectiveness and elegance go in hand with self-restraint. Thus, the moments when I truly open myself to people become more important for them. And I repeat these words almost an every day. My tendency to gushiness and to use an excessive bulk of expressions and gestures had to be then contained, also when I elaborated on wording the recital describing this principle…

6. The principle of solidity – always take care of details I always feel very sorry when it appears that somebody might be hurt by me, while I had not intended to do so. That is usually the case due to my negligence when, for instance, I failed to call somebody back tonight, although I promised to do so, or I forgot to settle accounts with somebody (since the amount due seemed trifling to me), or I have not replied to another mail… Life teaches us that a thing being trifle to me could be of key importance to somebody else. I want to keep a cool head against claims made by emotional vampires and avoid taking responsibility for the spiritual status of the individuals who feel unappreciated or excessively susceptible to rejection. What I can do is to – firstly – promise less, and secondly – remember more.

7. The principle of selfless respect A universal principle calls for continuously winning your customer on an everyday basis.

This principle applies to suppliers, internal customers, the reciprocal relations between the superior and the subordinate, and also those bonding mutually as “partners for life”. Following this principle would not be difficult where your business partner is acceptable, your relations are profitable, and if you do really care about someone. In the above context, acting in style focuses on taking care of your dignity, however, without any courting; revealing initiative, but while contributing no more energy than 152

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your partner does; approving possible objections, with simultaneous presentation of your own requirements. The higher level of expertise concerns the relations, which bring no apparent benefit, and that are no more interesting to you in terms of business. Thus, devote some time to an employee whom you know is leaving the post; take care about an additional value at termination of such an employment; address with respect those whom you meet accidentally, irrespective of their social status; thank somebody even for a minor present. Beware of discrediting people who are dependent on you, even if you are under stress… Show respect to those who think differently than you, because they believe that something else is important and strive after something different… Expression of respect in business relations with people makes the communication process easy (see – Marshall Rosenberg model of non-violent, or compassionate, communication). I remember, jackal’s language and that of giraffe differ not only on the level of what and how they express, but also what and how they perceive (hear). If someone is insulting or carping at me, or criticising, I can always ask myself (and maybe also that someone), from what perspective I am just being seen when that person experiences hostility toward me. What are the values driving him/her, and what are the interests this person considers endangered? In case when I am dragged into a squabble, I may say: “YES, you’re right. And if I could perceive the world from your perspective, perhaps my conclusions would be the same as yours. Let us then talk about our perspectives and settle our common criteria. Thus, instead of mutual proving who is right, let’s solve this issue together!”.

8. Less is more. Don’t go over the top!

The “Less is more” motto was adopted to describe aesthetic tactics of arranging the numerous necessary components of a building in order to create an impression of extreme simplicity. However, it is adaptable to many fields of activity. Moreover, it is pragmatic, ethical and aesthetic, and examples of its application may be as follows: • when talking about business, listen more and speak less; • when showing a presentation, use one visual per each 3-4 minutes; design three instead of ten agenda items; • the shorter is the offer, report, or minutes – the better is the chance for it to be really read by your busy partner; • for illustrations, plaques, decorations – do not make a Christmas tree from the wallpaper of your computer, or bookshelf, or car!; • chic discrete principle is essential for elegance – remember this when using make-up, jewellery, or gadgets;

• perfumes and colognes – leave a barely perceptible trace after yourself, but prevent others from smelling your fragrance when you are just about to come in sight.

Is that sufficient enough?

P.S. Remember the old Chinese proverb: “A fool doesn’t know what he says, but a wise man doesn’t say what he knows”.

9. Friendly distance ATTENTION! Keep a cool head against the hedgehog concept! Resoluteness, concentration, humbleness...? YES, but not to the extent which makes you proud of your humility! The “ICU” Principle? Y ES, but remember that business is not a struggle for survival… avail yourself a moment of carefreeness, generosity, or unplanned expenditure.

“Determine your values in order to get to know what you are desisting from” – wrote the Dalai Lama.

“Do not grow attached to either doctrine” – warns Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Zen Master.

“He must not be condemned. He just simply failed to withstand his duty” – said Rev. Professor Józef Tischner when speaking about a husband who left his wife…

I try to take care – especially when making assessments and incorporating notions of a category into my vocabulary – that the issue in question never be considered with an excess of gravity. Nobody is perfect, and I am not better than anyone, yet I can tolerate both my and my friends’ mistakes. However this must not mean confusing understanding mistakes and tolerating excesses. DO smile often and cordially together W ITH people and TO people, but never AT them. I regard – and I also warn my friends about it – that, as a psychologist, I could abstain from abusing my professional standing to passing judgements on moral assessments, labelling people, and using just professional or clinical approaches (i.e. considering only pathology). I know individuals in business and consultancy circles who, although they seem rough, realistic, and criticising – can, where necessary, keep up their friendly distance toward themselves and others, and who have never insulted a person. My Partners and Friends are among them, and since I have learned much from them, and in appreciation of this fact, I dedicate this article to them from the bottom of my heart. & Jacek Santorski, health, societal and business psychologist; manages, jointly with Dominika Kulczyk-Lubomirska, institution named Grupa Firm Doradczych VALUES (The Values Institute of Business Psychology).

& Collecting

Being an art collector s. 156 Charles Saatchi s. 158 Viennafair s. 168 The Story of the Sotheby’s s. 174 Dariusz Lewandowski s. 178 Shchukin – Art Visionary s. 184 ImaginARY Collections s. 190 Managing the luxury s. 198 Risk matters s. 200 Wealth management s. 204 The Masonic Verses s. 208

& Collector

[....] TO BE A COLLECTOR Show me your collection and I’ll tell you how much money you have.

This seems to be the shortest, the bluntest, but also the most real definition of a collection.

by Bogusław Deptuła

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he history of mankind is in a way a history of accumulating objects, first the indispensable ones, later also many others, which are signs of status. Let’s look at the most spectacular form of accumulating objects, that is: collecting art. Though in colloquial language the differences between accumulating and collecting are fading away, it must be said right off that the difference between the two is very significant, maybe even decisive. Collecting is a very conscious process; it is the implementation of a concept which the collector set for himself. The most perfect implementations can even be seen as a mission.

We collect practically everything, but only some sets become real collections. Let’s talk then about conscious collecting – after all, this is what it is all about. You can collect either beer bottle caps or old cars, stamps or cold steel, autographs of celebrities or inter-war wood engravings. The sets including the first type of objects can grow with minimum expenditure, whereas the second type requires some investment. I don’t want to reduce everything to money, but it is difficult to ignore the financial aspect completely. Bearing the introductory statement in mind, we can go on.

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It seems that collecting the works of Old Masters is still most prestigious. To make matters more interesting, this is where we, the Poles, have made a significant contribution to the world’s collections during the last few decades.

One of the largest private contemporary collections has been built up by Barbara Piasecka-Johnson. A part of it was shown in 1990 at the Royal Castle in Warsaw in the famous exhibition “Opus Sacrum”. Another one, “Opus Profanum”, was to ensue, but the collector, disheartened by the reception in the country, decided not to present it. As a result, we did not see her collection of modern art classics and, what follows, other, not only religious, subjects.

While amassing her collection, Piasecka surrounded herself with a team of specialist advisors. Although she herself is an art historian by education, detailed issues related to authenticity of the purchased works and the attribution, that is, assigning the works to the correct artists, are so complicated that specialists are needed. All the more that buying the most famous artworks means spending between a few million and tens of millions of dollars. One has to admit that Piasecka was extremely lucky. The value of the works purchased by her, already expensive at

that time, has now increased enormously. Moreover, currently on the global art market there are, in fact, less and less outstanding works of art which would be of such a high, even the highest, class.

In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, when this collection was being assembled, the works of the classics of modern art were the ones most sought after by private collectors. The works

by Old Masters were not of that much interest.

Currently, these proportions are far more balanced and, even though there still are differences in favour of modern art, the art of Old Masters has enormously gained in value.

We should not forget, however, that the most expensive single work of art is still “Arlequin”

by Picasso, sold a few years ago for 103 million dollars.

A sort of antithesis of collecting is the collection of Mr and Mrs Porczyński, which was given the name “The Collection of John Paul the Second”. Before we saw it, rumour had it that this was a world-class collection. Built up by a dilettante, whose financial resources were much more limited, it turned out to be quite a disappointment. What’s more, it gave rise to a serious dispute, going well beyond the milieu

Collector

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Collecting undoubtedly has much in common with addiction.

A collector’s internal desire to own new works grows stronger. of collectors and art historians. Karol Porczyński, chemical engineer by education, did not employ any specialist to help in assembling the collection. When buying the works of art, he was guided by catalogue descriptions and, because of this, he fell into a trap. The descriptions contain the name of the master and, most importantly, such terms as “technique”, “copy”, “based on”.

Hence we can often come across a description such as: based on Rembrandt (the Netherlands, 1606-1669). In spite of highlighting the name of the master, this does not mean that we are buying a Rembrandt painting. We purchase a canvas inspired by his work and painted by an author of a much lower rank. This is one of the simplest explanations but probably not the only one. One has to admit that the collection of Mr and Mrs Porczyński includes some really valuable and interesting paintings. Could buying them be a pure coincidence then?

In Poland, most frequently the native art is of greatest interest to collectors, and this is understandable and natural.

History cast its shadow: the years of communism in Poland were marked by separation from normal market mechanisms. No big money meant no major collectors. The first who propagated the idea of collecting was undoubtedly Wojciech Fibak. A celebrity, a very famous person, very popular, added a new, snobbish/celebritish touch to collecting. And this was great, because this promotes collecting. The rich and famous should have their own collections, and these collections should, in exchange, make them more famous, and the other way round.

In the age of capitalism more and more private collections started to appear. Possessing paintings, or generally works of art, became indispensable for building position and prestige.

However, there is still a glaring disproportion between what hangs on the walls or is shown to the wider public at homes of wealthy people and the value of the house itself. I myself visited a house which was redecorated for many millions, in the heart of the capital city, where it was impossible to find even one quality work of art.

I want to emphasize this: I am not talking about something expensive but having artistic value.

In the enormous reception area of the living room on the ground floor, the walls are covered with posters - not the best solution. And this is where the initial thesis of this text is falling apart because while we are dealing with a very wealthy person, the taste and artistic consciousness

of this person failed to measure up to the financial means. The helping hand of a designer was also lacking, or he/she was not pushy enough.

The final effect – depressing.

Matters of taste are very delicate. We let ourselves be deceived by advice heard from friends or relatives, advice which can be either useful or misleading. We do not want to offend our auntie who is a painter, but maybe her painting should be placed in a more private spot, and we should look for something else to put in the living room, something that would complement its representative character. Noblesse oblige!

But if we wanted to give a word of advice to those who begin to collect, what should it start from? Start from visiting a museum and a gallery: these are the first and necessary steps. Collecting urges us to broaden our knowledge, develop our good taste – it is simply unavoidable.

Be not paralysed by your own lack of knowledge or your incompetence. Try and look for something that you like. Gallery employees are usually talkative people. This is an inseparable element of their profession. They are willing to answer questions, to explain, to give advice. Of course, it is possible that we will land in a gallery with dishonest or incompetent employees.

How to avoid this? Don’t stop after visiting just one, the first gallery, and also check it on the Internet. This may not sound great, but I guess we can assume that nowadays this is what the first, initiatory, visit may look like. Nothing, however, will replace personal, physical contact with the work of art of which we are to become owners.

I wouldn’t dare persuade you to give it up. I believe too strongly in the power of art, its aura, and in what is most difficult to write about: the unspoken that sometimes occurs between people and works of art.

Usually collecting starts from a natural desire to decorate the place where we live. It is often the case that after decorating all available walls, and in extreme cases even the doors and ceilings, the nascent collector keeps buying.

Collecting undoubtedly has much in common with addiction. A collector’s internal desire to own new works grows stronger.

The best way to begin is to start collecting Polish art. We cannot make ourselves miserable, though, by collecting something that does not suit us, something that is totally against our character and preferences. Find the golden mean, the middle ground between your taste and possibilities, and what in recurring opinions is considered valuable. Let’s not forget here that

art, even though it calls itself eternal, gives in to fashion to the same degree as fashion itself.

Obviously, it is easier to buy works of renowned artists than to look for emerging talents on your own. The time for this may come later, when we become more familiar with the forever-changing world of art. Our taste will be transforming, and our collection will also be transforming in a natural way.

Some things will stop bothering us. We will discover and understand that the pieces we couldn’t even look at some time ago attract us more and more, revealing secrets and values unavailable to us. Most probably we will then start getting rid of the works which we so readily paid for in the past. They will fly from the main wall of the living room to the bedroom or corridor, and finally they will end up behind a wardrobe or in the attic. This is the price we pay for emerging consciousness.

The art dealers will be trying to talk us into buying the works of those artists whose paintings they have in stock. This is understandable.

There will be situations pretty surprising for untrained collectors: the prices of works by an artist unknown in wider circles will unexpectedly soar in his/her patron gallery. This should arouse our suspicion because we often come across overrated names, and these are the ones we should definitely avoid. We will be surprised many times, but we should not be daunted by such surprises.

Of course, thanks to shrewdness, luck, gained knowledge or something else, you may get a piece way below its real market value. This, however, happens very rarely, and I would like to warn everyone against the offers of antiques fairs or internet websites that seem too good to be true. They normally are, and usually these are fakes, not pearls for collectors – you are more likely to find these at charity auctions, but only organised officially, and with the help of competent people who can guarantee that the works of art we buy are authentic.

I may have started a bit brutally stating “show me your collection and I’ll tell you how much money you have”. If we want to decide ourselves what we collect instead of being guided by specialists, we should be in constant contact with art and broaden our knowledge, because there is never too much of it. Obviously, many specialised institutions may support us.

The reason I started from money is that I wanted to finish by saying: show me your collection and I’ll tell you who you are. & 1/2012

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BE LIKE CHARLES SAATCHI He does not attend vernissages and admits to having no taste. Nevertheless, for more than a quarter of a century he has determined trends on the art market. The millionaire and art super-collector – Charles Saatchi – is able to successfully promote a fashion for everything: from decaying cow heads to faces with genitals instead of noses.

by Anna Jastrzębska

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H

e has successfully promoted dozens of artists, who are the best paid today, such as Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and Wilhelm Sasnal. His every movement in the field of art is carefully watched by numerous collectors and gallery owners: when he buys everyone else buys, and when he sells the market shakes. Like a stock exchange, he plays with the prices of masterpieces of contemporary art, but when asked whether he feels responsible for their excessive overpricing he responds: “Yes”, or “I’m sorry – I don’t”. He dislikes being interviewed, but he loves buying things. He also loves his third wife, Nigella Lawson, a celebrity and goddess of cuisine. He doesn’t doubt that “Jesus loves all, but Charles Saatchi the most”.

Many art collectors would like to be like Charles Saatchi, but not everyone can be. But it’s so simple! It’s enough to...

Change everything you touch into gold However, nothing will pour from an empt y even Solomon (meaning: “You cannot squeeze blood from a turnip”), thus to begin you’d better have a handful of your own gold.

How to get it? It is not difficult. The best would be to found a PR agency and develop

Feel the right moment Twenty years ago no one in the UK admired modern art. Quite the opposite, people laughed at naked individuals walking around galleries and someone buying old bricks, claiming they were works of art – says Waldemar Januszczak, one of the most popular UK critics. The reviewer for “The Times” has no doubt that Charles Saatchi is one of the most important figures who contributed to changing this state of affairs.

The huge Saatchi Galler y building had a completely different nature than most other galleries, which people were accustomed to.

The free entrance and state-of-the-art works exposed in a post-industrial factory area in which at one time paints were manufactured, proved to be a key to success. Soon the Gallery on Boundary Road became very fashionable.

At the same time, the UK economic situation improved. After the memorable recession of the Eighties, people, including young ones, started getting wealthier and thus could afford the luxury which purchasing works of art is.

The young and rich Saatchi took aim at just this perfect moment. He initially collected and exhibited such artists as Donald Judd, Anselm Kiefer and Richard Serra. However, the stable prices of the masters’ works soon bored him, as he was used to earning rapid and overwhelming

Together with the works of those two, Saatchi bought a mass of works of the younger generation of artists, including: March Quinna, Rachel Whiteread, Sarah Luca and Gavin Turek. Beginning in 1992, he organized six exhibitions named commonly the “Young British Artists”, which became a kind of trademark of the group. The critics favouring Saatchi allege he spotted new phenomenon in culture. However, those who can’t stand him murmur that all he did was to create the impression that he discovered a new phenomenon in culture. Andrzej Osęka is right when saying: “He neither promotes artists nor pulls out any talent from the shadows, as dealers used to do. Saatchi creates artists”. Indeed, he perfectly knows that: “The work by an unknown artist that consists of a glass case with a decaying cow’s head inside, surrounded by swarm of flies, is difficult to sell, until the artist becomes a star”.

Produce scandals skilfully In 1997, wide publicity arose around Saatchi because of a sensational exhibition titled nomen omen (Sensation) at the Royal Academy which attracted a record number of 300 thousand visitors. The exhibition of works by young UK artists caused a controversy even before the opening. That was nothing strange since Saatchi’s artists specialized in provocative and iconoclastic works . Dinos

His every movement in the area of art is carefully watched by numerous collectors and gallery owners: when he buys, everyone else buys, and when he sells, the market shakes. a campaign by means of which a famous politician comes to power. You may be inspired by the campaign which resulted in Margaret Thatcher taking power in the United Kingdom in 1979. In that time the Saatchi & Saatchi Co., as managed by Charles and his brother Maurice, ridiculed the Labour Party, which was competing against the Conservative Party, with T V spots announcing that ”Labour isn’t working”. The popularity of the brothers rose rapidly and enormously high.

Charles instantly earned 100 million pounds, and in view of the fact that he always liked spectacular transactions, he started buying out competitive PR agencies for the millions earned. In the mid-Eighties, the Saatchi family-owned agency became the biggest in this sector. Currently, its branches operate in eighty countries. Then, Charles, who used to say: “I always want new candy” reached for sweets of the highest quality – he decided to become an art collector. In 1985, he opened a private art gallery in London, which has been attended by more than one million visitors each year on average.

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profits at his PR agency. After several years of collecting valuables, he became interested in the art work of young and thus cheap artists.

Probably, no one believed then that those would soon become the most expensive ones.

Buy for 100 pounds and sell for 100 thousand To acquire new works, Saatchi immediately sold his current collection of masters and bought, amongst others, a decaying cow’s head and a tent! Damien Hirst, a 25-year-old Academy graduate who was trying to enter the art market, was the author of the first work titled “A Thousand Years”. The second project, “Everyone I Have Ever Slept 1963-95” by Tracey Emin, had the form of a tent in which the names of her lovers were embroidered. Both works went on to become icons in the history of art, and the artists earned unmeasured amounts of money on them. Hirst is nowadays one of the most famous and best paid contemporary artists. His tiger shark, caught near the Australian coast and which is immersed in a big aquarium filled with formalin, is priced at one million pounds.

and Jake, the Chapman brothers, showed figures of naked girls with penises on their faces and anuses instead of mouths. Chris Ofili, a British artist of African origin presented the “Holy Virgin Mary”, shown as a black woman whose breasts he made from elephant faeces. Impetus was given to the scandal by Marcus Harvey’s portrait of Myra Hindley, widely known on the British Isles as a child killer. Harvey used a rubber stamp in the shape of a tiny child’s hand to create a huge picture of the criminal. Long queues formed before the Gallery, and emotions were heating up over information that someone tried to destroy this or another painting presented in the exhibition.

After two years “Sensation” went to the United States and was shown at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York. The attacks there focused on Ofili. Explanations that the African origins of this artist justify the use of elephant excrement were for nothing. Discussions about the morality of art lasted for months, and that obviously strengthened the dynamism of sales. Through Christie’s auction house Saatchi began to sell his works from the YBA collection for hundreds of thousands, and some for millions, of pounds.

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Act extravagantly When in 2004 “The Independent” announced the death of the art of painting (allegedly killed by conceptual art), less than a year later Saatchi decided to publish something quite opposite: “The Triumph of Painting”. That was the title of a long-term project consisting of a series of three exhibitions during which the works of the masters of brush were shown (Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, Martin Kippenberger, and Luc Tuymans), as well as those by other less known artists. There are different theories about this sudden declaration. Piotr Sarzyński, a journalist for the “Polityka” (Polish – “Policy”) weekly aptly noted: “Saatchi used the apogee of fashion for the YBA. He sold out all their works and gained high profits, and then sought for new investments. Just as he once perfectly sensed a social demand for something new, exciting and distinctive, now he realized that people need some rest from radical artistic visions focusing on blood, sex, death, violence and manipulation”. The collector’s superb intuition and sense of momentum were revealed once again. A Pole, Wilhelm Sasnal, was invited to participate in the second part of the exhibition titled “The Triumph of Painting”, however, the expression “invited” seems not the most appropriate here. “I never had contact with Saatchi.

I didn’t see the exhibition, which I consider a show of power, that he could have any painter and buy every painting. Neither I nor the galleries who represent me had a connection with this gentleman” – said the Pole in one of his interviews. Nevertheless, that does not change the fact that a year after Saatchi showed Sasnal’s artistic work, the magazine “Flash Art” ranked this painter as the first in the group of 100 most important young artists of the world, as selected by curators and dealers. The millionaire promotes and destroys with equal ease. It would be enough for him to quickly rid his collection of a certain number of works by a given artist in order to blight his/her market success. For example, he did so with the Chapman Brothers. In the mid-Nineties, he bought the works of this UK Duo for a million pounds, and less than three years later, he resold them at a fraction of their original price to the Christies auction house. The effect is that nowadays there are only a few who remember those eccentric stars, Dinos and Jake Chapman.

No wonder that his policy of aggressively promoting trends invokes extreme emotions.

Some even believe that “Saatchi” simply means “to walk over everybody”. The belief is so strong that when in May 2004 a fire broke out at the Saatchi warehouse where the YBA works were stored and more than 100 works burnt up (the losses were estimated at 50 million pounds, while the whole collection was valued at 250 million) the media speculated as to whether he himself participated in burning down the huge warehouse in order to raise prices on the market!

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Charles Saatchi, by courtesy of the Saatchi Gallery Previous page: Dirk Skreber “Untitled (Crash 1)” and “Untitled (Crash 2)” from the exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery “The Shape of Things to Come: New Sculpture”, by coutesy of the Saatchi Gallery © Dirk Skreber, 2009

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David Altmejd, “The New North”, from the exhibition “The Shape of Things to Come: New Sculpture”, photo thanks to courtesy of Saatchi Gallery © David Altmejd, 2007

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Damien Hirst “Black Sheep, Divided”, photo: Stephanie Pilick, PAP/DPA Previous page: David Batchelor “Brick Lane Remix I” from the exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery “The Shape of Things to Come: New Sculpture”, by coutesy of the Saatchi Gallery © David Batchelor, 2003

He swims neither upstream or downstream. He just simply swims in his own swimming pool. And since this swimming pool is the most luxurious one in the whole area, everyone wants to swim there. But this is not his concern.

Save energy In 2003 the Gallery was moved from Northern London to the County Hall in the South Bank, and in 2008 transferred to Kings Road, Chelsea. In the meantime, Saatchi discovered the Internet – disgracefully too late, as he admits. He immediately noted the opportunity to use this medium for both art promotion and money earning purposes. The Your Gallery (w w w.saatchi-gallery.co.uk), inaugurated in 2006 and in which each artist and art dealer can put their works up for sale, has the profile of a bookstore website that enables direct contact between artists and collectors. Soon it became clear that Saatchi once again hit the nail on the head and filled in the existing market gap. The website gets 50 million visits per day on average. However, the super-collector does not buy there. He refrains from getting involved on the website.

Besides, he always preferred walking around

artists studios and galleries in search of talent.

He realizes that combing the web to look for works of art could be considered an occupation for the lazy. W hen speaking about this, he quotes the words of Winston Churchill, who, when asked about his secret of life, replied: “The conservation of energ y. Never stand up when you can sit down, and never sit down when you can lie down”. It appears that Saatchi adopted this method. He never fights with anyone, dislikes delivering tirades to journalists, and feels bored when he must explain what he has done or what he intends to do. W hen asked whether the art of painting is dead, he ostentatiously responds with yawning... He swims neither upstream nor downstream. He just simply swims in his own swimming pool. A nd since this swimming pool is the most luxurious one in the whole area, everyone wants to swim there. But this is not his concern. Also, he is not worried abo-

ut those who do not like to use his swimming pool. When in 2006 he said to the head of the Tate Modern that he was going to transfer a part of his collection to the public gallery, and Nicolas Serota replied that he had some different plan to use the newly expanded Tate premises, Saatchi acknowledged it shortly – “Oh”. That ended a matter which was for a long time blown up by the media.

No matter how Charles Saatchi is estimated as a figure, noone can deny his positive contribution to changing the image of contemporary art in the United Kingdom. “Norman Rosenthal, Director of the Piccadilly, Nicholas Serota and Charles Saatchi – those three were lucky when they landed in London at the same time, had positions, money and similar artistic tastes” – Waldemar Januszczak says with belief. “There would be neither Tate nor the Turner Prize without Saatchi” – he adds. & 1/2012

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CENTRUM KAR TINGOWO-BIZNESOW E

THE BEST KART TRACK IN POLAND

CENTRUM KARTINGOWE GRAND PRIX CH BLUE CITY LEVEL +3 GRANDPRIX.COM.PL

& Interview

VIENNA IS ART HEAVEN Vita Zaman and Christina Steinbrecher, the artistic directors of the most exciting art fair in Europe, present its concept, success, and the development of contemporary art focusing on central and south-eastern Europe.

by Agnieszka Antoniewska A&B: What are the good and the bad sides of organizing VIENNAFAIR The New Contemporary in Vienna – the city of cultures crossing?

VITA ZAMAN: The wonderful aspects of organizing the fair in Vienna are the rich traditions of art, world class institutions, amazing infrastructure and the beauty of the city itself. Vienna is truly a European travel hub, and it is so easy to get here, and the allure of Vienna’s history is

Vita Zaman and Christina Steinbrecher

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irresistible. The gallery scene is very strong and international. The Viennese character is unique and very authentic; people care about art and culture a great deal and thus make an excellent audience for an art fair. The downside is that the market is very local and quite traditional (on the other hand that makes it interesting), thus the fair relies on international collectors.

CHRISTINA STEINBRECHER: After Moscow, Vienna is art heaven! Great infrastructu-

re for contemporary art, incredibly mature handling, and management of the creative industry are all over. It’s amazing how contemporary art is integrated in the heart of a city where you feel the pulse of tradition and contemporary life. It is a very stable environment which is proud and acknowledges its achievements. I really enjoy working in this environment. A mature situation gives less opportunities and space for experiments as it’s hard to excite someone.

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Krišs Salmanis, “Danto’s Peak”, 2012, Illustration for “After the End of Art” by Artur C. Danto, by courtesy of Alma Gallery, Riga

Esther Stocker, “Freedom”, 2012, photo: Di Paolo, by courtesy of Oredaria, Rome

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Aneta Grzeszykowska, Jan Smaga, from the Private Archive series, 2012 © Raster gallery, Warsaw

A&B: What is the specificity of VIENNAFAIR The New Contemporary?

CS: VIENNAFAIR The New Contemporary uses its strategic advantage of history and of being the hub for the Eastern European market. About 30% of the galleries we have are from Eastern Europe; this was also the case in the previous years. Also, you can enjoy me170

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eting collectors and art professionals who are working and living in a natural environment for collecting. A ntiques perfectly co-exist next to contemporary art.

Our mission as well is to groom new and young collectors as we have many exciting galleries participating which work with young collectors.

VZ: It is a very “personal” art fair. It is not as crowded as Art Basel or Frieze, and viewers can really discover new names and new galleries and form relationships with art dealers.

A lso, it covers a unique geographic region more extensively and represents the latest developments from dynamic art cities such as Istanbul.

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Sergey Ogurtsov, “Rene Daumal suffocating at Chateau-du-Priere palace”, 2012, from the series “Tiny Homes of Being”, by courtesy of Gallery 21, Moscow

A&B: Did any special artists emerge during the fair in the past years?

VZ: We gave a chance to a very young and emerging video artist, Colin Snapp from New York, to collaborate with the Austrian electronic music legend – Tosca. Bruce High Quality Foundation is very well known in the US, but it will be interesting to see how their work will translate in Vienna and in an art fair context. We included some cutting-edge galleries and are sure that they will bring very interesting artistic positions. I personally discovered a lot of new artists from the program of Austrian galleries that were really inspirational to me, like Daniel Knorr or Ernst Caramelle.

CS: We do another curated section of the fair to stimulate markets that we are looking to work with, with their artists, galleries and collectors.

We do a project named Vienna Quintet, where we feature artists from Kazakhstan – Galim Madanov and Zauresh Terekbay, Azerbajdjan – Khanlar Gasimov and Altai Sadigzade, Georgia – Tutu Kiladze and Ketuta Alexi Meskhishvili, Belarus – A.R.CH. and Sergey Zhdanovich and Ukraine.

Andreas Mühe, “Adonis”, 2011 © Andreas Mühe, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012, by courtesy of Dittrich & Schlechtriem, Berlin

A&B: What are the curatorial assumptions of the fair?

CS: Our curatorial assumption is the eagerness to learn, to learn of new artists, galleries, new geographies and approaches. We extended our approach to the East; we now work with the Turkish market on a constant basis and go even further East. We invite all participants of the art world to participate in the network and in a collaboration, set up the Art Industry Forum.

VZ: For me, the inspiration for the experience of designing the fair is Lawrence Durrell’s book “The Alexandria Quartet”, which reflects on the poetry of globalized living and puzzles of local art. We wanted the fair to be unique and build on its relationships with Turkey and central Eastern Europe

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Sławomir Elsner, „Panorama 26”, detail, 2006 © Sławomir Elsner and Marc Jancou Contemporary, New York/Geneve

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and expand relationships with Russia, the Caspian region and, potentially, Iran. We also wanted the fair to feel like a place where views can be exchanged, relationships formed, cultural narratives traded. We want Viennafair to be more personal, intuitive and open-ended and to include crossover points with different modes of cultural production such as music.

A&B: What is the distinction and competitiveness of VIENNFAIR The New Contemporary in the presence of other art fairs in the world?

VZ: The beauty of Vienna, the extremely high quality of Austrian contemporary art galleries combined with a snapshot view of the most interesting development from the so-called “East” is a very unique premise for a good art fair.

CS: There is no other fair to combine the East with the West in such an elegant and interesting manner. Every year the fair features the avant-garde of today and exciting young positions.

Artists, gallery representatives, art professionals and collectors find conversation partners of the highest quality and eloquence.

The density and quality of the cultural events in Vienna are incomparable. &

Florian Neufeldt, “IM NACKEN”, 2011, photo: Di Paolo, by courtesy of Oredaria, Rome

VIENNAFAIR The New Contemporary Vienna 20 – 23 September

Ivan Plusch, “Cadre”, 2011 © Orel Art, Paris

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Auction at the Sotheby’s, Photo PAP/EPA/Fiona Hanson

SOTHEBY’S – HOW TO SELL ANYTHING It was the Mid-18th Century, and an epoch of great change slowly approached. Soon humanity would hear about the Categorical Imperative, the Great French Revolution, the Declaration of Independence and some quite new philosophical concepts, as well as about the live genius of Mozart and… Sotheby’s Auction House!

by Michał Dziadosz

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o, it was a time of many inventions, discoveries and pioneering work. A lot of useful economic and business phenomena appeared in that time – those remain operational until today. Also, in that time Sotheby’s Auction House began its activity, firstly as a company with local coverage, although managed under a different name, but provided already with essential potential. Rather of a limited-scope, Bake-

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r’s Company, founded in 1744 by Samuel Baker, a London book dealer, was initially concerned exclusively with auctioning books and manuscripts. It was not the first ever Auction House in the world, however, it has survived up to today under the name of Sotheby’s as the most renown and prestigious.

Swedes were precursors in this sector, and they established subsequently: Stockholm’s Auktion-

sverk (1674), Goteborg’s Auktionsverk (1681), and the Uppsala Auktionskammare (1731). However, it is not essential who was the first. Stockholm’s Auktionsverk specialised initially in trading in goods satisfying the basic needs, including foodstuffs (sic!). Baker’s bookshop began with a specific task. As usually happens in this type of case, nobody for sure supposed that the auctioned selling of several hundred precious volumes from

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Staffs of the Sotheby’s Auction House hold painting by Joaquin Sorolli, Photo PAP/EPA/ANDY RAIN

the library of a noble born citizen named Stanley would begin such a multi-disciplined and age-longe story, which nowadays Sotheby’s might vaunt. This commonly known company name derives from the family name of the owners, who in 1778, once the founder passed away, took over the business, and in 1804 expanded the company by means of branching the typical bookselling profile by coins and reproductions.

A breakthrough came in 1913 when Sotheby’s managed to sell Frans Hals’s painting for the record-breaking (at that time) amount of nine thousand guineas, and the Auction House began its course by a slightly different route. After the Great War it clearly expanded its activity profile to integrate other art branches, including painting. That is the way its gradual worldwide expansion started, being in fact sometimes temporarily slowed down by historical disturbances. However, it has been continued up to now, consistently and constantly. In the 19th Century, and also later on, the configurations of the Owners, Partners and the Board changed in a natural way. In the 19th Century, the core of the most important names was formed undoubtedly by: Samuel Sotheby, John Wilkinson, Tom Hodge, Geoffrey Hobson, and Peter Wilson, and in the recent decades, subsequently by Alfred Taubman and Francois Pinault.

I ncor poration of the New York Parke-Bernet Auction House in 1964 initiated the expansion on the US market. Thirteen years later the New York Sotheby’s Branch was established, which up to today has been one of the Company’s two major headquarters. It took the stock exchanges by storm: including, subsequently, in 1973 when shares were emitted in London, and in 1988 when the Auction House entered the US stock market.

Today, Sotheby’s controls the majority of the worldwide auction market jointly with the less up-to-date Christie’s, which is, however, the only other Auction House of a similar age.

In 2000, the total turnover from auctioning works of art amounted to about four billion USD, with the share of these two aforementioned companies accounting for 90%. In 2008, they sold 929 of the total 1064 works of art worth more than one million USD. In 2005, the income of Sotheby’s itself was as much as 514 million USD, with the profit reaching 62 million USD. In 2006 and 2007, the turnover of the Auction House rose rapidly (in 2007, the proceeds of 918 million USD resulted in a 213 million USD profit!), to stabilise at the level of 692 million USD in 2008. Currently, Sotheby’s achieves annual income ranging near 2 billion USD. It is not only a good

old company but also a powerful corporation, ranked in the New York Stock Exchange, and having dynamically active branches in several dozen countries, such as France, the United States, Australia, Italy, Canada, Germany and Russia, as well as Asian ones. Its activity is not limited, however, to its official seats. It also often has its representations in luxury buildings and hotels.

Despite a long standing tradition and aspiration towards preser v ing its prestigious image, the Company, its Board, unlike other younger competitive companies, was not afraid to expand the Company’s Internet profile by auctioning. Thus, in 2000, the world was acquainted with the taste of the first online auctions. During two pioneering years of operating the sothebys.com website, items worth almost 100 million USD were sold in this way, including, for instance, the first copy of the US Declaration of Independence, which was auctioned for the record-breaking amount of 8.14 million USD. Despite the more international nature of today’s Sotheby’s, you can still find in its image a lot of traditional components based upon its British goodness. After all, the very origins of this Auction House come from Great Britain.

It was only in 1983 that Sotheby’s was bought

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by Alfred Taubman, a US businessman and art collector. However, its principal seat is up to now rooted at New Bond Street in London.

It is for sure British associations which inspired the creators of a comedy thriller titled “Mickey Blue Eyes” made in 1999. Its main character, M ichael Felgate, por trayed by the well-known actor Hugh Grant, is, up to a certain moment, full of distinction and also hilarious in his outdistanced attitudes as an employee of English descent of the New York Auction House. The similarities in the real and legendary Sotheby’s, on one hand, and the film Auction House, on the other, are not directly indicated here, but the parallelism subtly implies itself. Yet, the film includes a scene in which the logo in question apparently appears for a while. The Sotheby’s seat is torched by mafia competing in the art market.

“Mickey Blue Eyes” is not the only moving picture in which the Sotheby’s logo runs through. You can see it shown in a more direct manner in one James Bond film (“Octopussy”, 1983), in which the legendary Her Royal Majesty’s agent takes part in the auction of one of the famous and precious Faberge eggs. The auctioning actually takes place at Sotheby’s. The seemingly fantastic script of this “Bond” is not unlikely – at least as regards the value and the sublimation of the item up fictitious auction.

When having a look at the Company’s current website or its 2010 Catalogue, you can easily feel dazed by the excellence and diversity of the assortment presented there. Looking through the episodes in history, one could hardly grasp only a part of the goods which have passed through Sotheby’s for the past 266 years. It is noteworthy to mention here the most famous auctions of paintings that were organised by Sotheby’s. Those included works of such painters as Vincent van Gogh, Casimir Malevich, Pablo Picasso, Amadeo Modigliani, Mark Rothko, Paul Cezanne, Peter Paul Rubens, Pierre August Renoir, Gustav Klimt, Claude Monet, and also Stanisław Wyspiański, a Polish painter. Beside painting, other curiosities may be added, including auctioning the jewellery of the Princess of Windsor, which was sold in 1987 for more than 50 million USD, mementoes from the film “Star Trek”, a book by Nicolas Copernicus, “De revolutionibus orbium coelestium” (“On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres”), for which in 2008 the amount of more than 2 million USD was paid, or the famous, almost complete, skeleton of Tyrannosaurus rex, which changed owners in 1996 for almost 8 million GBP. & Michał Dziadosz – composer, arranger, musician, author, graduated from Faculty of Polish Studies, University of Warsaw. He was a leader of the “Iluzjon” art-rock group

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Dinosaur’s skeleton a put for auction at the Sotheby’s, Photo PAP/EPA/SOTHEBY’S PARIS/HO

Film creation of Audrey Hepburn put for auction at the Sotheby’s, Photo PAP/EPA/Yoan Valat

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A MANAGER iS LIKE A PAINTER Dariusz Lewandowski – managing partner of the financial services firm Lewandowski Pyffel & Partners talks to Bogusław Deptuła.

ART & BUSINESS: Finance is magic, art or perhaps pure mathematics?

DARIUSZ LEWANDOWSKI: It is certainly not magic. Finance is actually a lot of charts and combinations, but the essence is the comprehension of what stands behind the numbers. The financial result “on paper” in fact is not of fundamental importance. The manager’s task is to understand business. The art is to assess a situation, take a decision, to convince investors, to trust, to invest, to take control and in the end to achieve an above-average rate of return. This is art indeed.

A&B: In connection with this, do you feel like an artist? Which areas of investment are you engaged in?

DL: I feel the local business, and it gives me great satisfaction to converse with enterpreneurs, with people on whom the future of the economy depends. My company operates in the field of investment management. As an authorized consultant of Warsaw’s Stock Exchange, we furnish capital through the bond market Catalyst and the stock market NewConnect. We also help during equity issue placement on the main floor of the stock exchange. We manage private investments, and we build funds of the private equity type. When we have a bullish trend on financial markets and a general optimism prevails, this work is a real pleasure. When a slump comes around, challenges appear. I adore them, and the current crisis is a true proving ground. Despite the difficult situation on the markets, this year we managed to place some

bond and equity issues. In times of crisis the private equity sector is activated. We are active in this sector. We look widely for interesting investment proposals. Every day we receive some stream of business opportunities – enterprises with different profiles and different levels of development.

A&B: And how would you explain this mysterious term “private equity” to the non-expert?

DL: It’s the management of private investment portfolios, that is, of those which are not made public and listed on the stock exchange. A typical private equity fund is an active shareholder, and it helps the management expand the business. The situation is different in the case of traditional investment funds, which focus on passive investments in large enterprises listed on the stock exchange.

If, for example, we invest in McDonalds, the only thing we can do is monitor the graph of quotes and buy their hamburgers. In the case of private equity investments, we offer advice to the management in regard to growth, in searching for new markets – we jointly create the reality. We are not a passive observer, but an active participant in the process of growth of a particular investment, a particular enterprise.

The fund which we are currently building is going to take part in the active management of enterprises. Acting on the boards of directors of listed companies, I am responsible for the investments of my shareholders.

Sometimes it happens that shutting down a company is a better solution than continuing its ope-

rations. At the same time, one needs to have the courage to say it boldly. I am convinced that funds of the distressed assets type will appear in Poland in great numbers soon. We are considering launching this ourselves. Our task as managers is to separate healthy business from dysfunctional one, to make a diagnosis and guide the enterprise to the next level, in a sense, to move to a higher level. For this kind of step up, we receive reward.

A&B: What are these specific skills based on?

DL: Our company’s partners have 50 years of experience jointly and a huge amount of knowledge about the specifics of the Polish capital market and the Polish business world. In connection with this, we have a significant competitive advantage over foreign funds of the private equity type. Based on our knowledge of the local market, we are in the position to generate above-average rates of return for portfolio investors. I have successfully managed international enterprises, but above all I operate on the local Polish market. The ability to talk with local partners, who appreciate the proximity of the company more than even international management methods is extremely important.

A&B: And what have you gained from studies abroad?

DL: Studies abroad such as ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and the management of international enterprises in Poland and outside it, allow the implemen-

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Our task as managers is to separate healthy business from dysfunctional one, to make a diagnosis and guide the enterprise to the next level, in a sense, to move to a higher level. For this kind of step up, we receive reward.

tation on the local market of knowledge and experience obtained on international markets, especially in enterprises that have very good perspectives ahead, and where this knowledge and experience can become a key factor for competitive advantage.

Solid knowledge and experience are for a manager what a good canvas and a worn paint-brush are for a painter. It is the artist who gives the artwork the last touch. Similarly – the manager is responsible for the final form and realization, for the vision. For this reason, leading managers earn more money than some film stars. They are often visionaries, that is, people who see what others do not notice. The founder of the Red Bull company was certainly one. This energy drink had been known in the Far East for years, but it was Dietrich Mateschitz who extracted from a can of water and sugar a value measured today in billions of dollars of turnover.

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A&B: In running the Polish branch of Red Bull, did you manage to increase the brand value?

DL: In a period of two years we obtained the leading position in share value, which was a challenge in a market dominated by low price products. A proper marketing mix and pricing policy helped Red Bull return to a good position. This experience showed me how important are: solid theoretical preparation, the ability to implement and – most important – consistency of actions.

When solid knowledge and experience meet appropriate material, then even business is art.

What would Apple be without Steve Jobbs? We are looking for his successors on the local Polish market, and I believe that our private equity fund will pride itself soon on similar successes too.

A&B: Is Poland today, with the current level of development, a rightful participant in private equity market, or at the moment is it on the margins?

DL: As concerns private equity, by all means we can state that Poland is a member of the global market. However, in the venture capital segment, that is, high-risk funds, there is a lack of players. In this sense our market is still undiscovered.

I came across a breakthrough project of the company HCH – house building with specialblocks. It is a polish technical idea, a polish patent, which is based on the idea that we construct buildings without using any binders – plaster, water, concrete, mortar, glue, foam, literally nothing – we don’t use any tools on the building-site, we just put together the construction from blocks. Thanks to the time saved, one square meter of surface is 40 percent cheaper than one built with traditional methods. Without our company’s support this patent would probably not have seen the light of day. In such cases, funds of the venture capital type could prove themselves.

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When solid knowledge and experience meet appropriate material, then even business is art.

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The manager is responsible for the final form and realization, for the vision. For this reason, leading managers earn more money than some film stars.

A&B: Does this project deserve support?

DL: Two Polish scientists have patented a technique of creating building materials with all the technical parameters better than those so far used in building. When we add to it savings of 40 percent, this should persuade the funds to invest. But there are practically no funds like this in Poland. And yet HCH’s project is a revolution on a global scale, because thanks to this we will be constructing buildings , for example, a 250m2 house, in 2 days! As Lewandowski, Pyffel & Partners we will soon be introducing this system onto the stock exchange.

Returning to the question about private equity investments, I would like to add that in Poland, quite a lot of funds operate at the transaction level of 10 million Euros and higher. In turn, up to the 10 million Euro level there is a big capital gap. We base our strategy on filling that gap, offering funding at an early stage of

growth to enterprises that operate in market niches, or have also breakthrough solutions or technologies.

A&B: What kind of clients are you looking for?

Who do you cooperate with?

DL: We work for private investors, family offices, as well as for institutional investors. Possessing a chain of four branches in key Polish cities, we have access to very interesting investment proposals. We are looking for investors who want to have access to the local market, experience and local knowledge.

A&B: And what does cooperation with the Warsaw Stock Exchange mean to you?

DL: The Warsaw Stock Exchange, as one of the most active in Europe, has a fundamental value in the process of the assessment of an investment, and at the same time, in the evaluation of the managers.

As an authorized consultant of the stock exchange on the bond market Catalyst and the stock market NewConnect, we are a natural partner for other funds in leaving an investment and in advising during debt financing. Our own projects are eventually listed on the stock exchange. Thanks to this, our clients have guaranteed liquidity of their investment, and we can reliably define capital return.

A&B: What advice would you give to both sides – investors and entrepreneurs? What are the next steps investors interested in your company’s services need to make?

DL: We ask the entrepreneurs, and fund managers to contact our office in Warsaw, while the owners of enterprises or projects should contact our regional offices in Poland and send a management summary. & Photo by: Iwa Pawlak

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Picasso’s hall in Shchukin’s palace, picture form ca. 1914

Matisse’s hall in Shchukin’s palace, picture form ca. 1913

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SHCHUKIN: ART VISIONARY In the pre-revolutionary Russia a textile merchant created a unique collection of paintings which at those times shocked and caused disdainful smiles. Today it dazzles with its visionariness. He was guided by the principle: “If an image shocks you, buy it!”.

The estimated value of Shchukin’s collection is several billion dollars.

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n 1891 in Moscow a few paintings of Claude Monet and Edgar Degas were presented at a French industrial fair. It aroused the indignation of Russian intellectuals that the French “dared to show such atrocities”. The first public exhibition of impressionistic art ended with a scandal, because the orthodox Moscovites weren’t ready for western artistic “novelties”. By that time Impressionism begins to – slowly, with many difficulties – gain approval in France”.

Six years later during a visit in Paris a forty three year old Sergei Shchukin meets an art dealer of the Impressionists, Paul Durand-Ruel, and buys from him two paintings of Monet, “Elderberry in the sun” and “Rocks at Belle-Ile”. Earlier this wealthy Moscow merchant, educated at a German polytechnic, doesn’t show any interest in art. He’s more absorbed with the growth of the family textile business that he inherited from his father. Russia enters an era of rapid industrial development, and Shchukin is one of those who makes a profit out of it. His quickly growing fortune gives him virtually unlimited possibilities to expand his new hobby, which is collecting contemporary paintings. Shchukin devotes himself entirely to it. The works of Impressionists are still at a good price.

by Wojciech Konończuk Shchukin becomes Durand-Ruel’s loyal customer and in the next few years buys thirteen Monet paintings from him (inter alia “Women in the Garden”, “Boulevard des Capucines”), three of Pierre-Auguste Renoir (“Two girls in black”, “Act”, “Jeanne Samary in a Low Necked Dress”) eight of Paul Cézanne (“Pierrot and Harlequin”). He also purchases – as he says – tentatively a work by Paul Gauguin, hangs it in his office and stares at it in solitude. After a while he’s convinced and buys fifteen more works from the Tahitian series. He hangs them side by side in the dining room of his Moscow palace which makes it look like an Orthodox iconostasis.

He gathers paintings that just a few dared to buy. In the mean time, his brothers – Peter, Dimitriy and Ivan – also meritorious collectors buy mainly Russian art and the paintings of Old Masters. Shchukin consistently ignores unfavourable critics, press and some of his friends, who consider him a mad man. He painstakingly expands his collection of Impressionists, buying the creations of Pierre Bonnard, Camille Pissarro (“Place du théâtre Français”), Alfred Sisley and Edgara Degas (“Blue Dancers”, “After the Bath”). He is driven only by his taste and instinct. He tells his daughter that the only advisor while buying art is a “psychological shock”.

If you feel it buy the art.

From 1905 not only Impressionists shock him.

While on one of his many trips to Paris he visits the atelier of Henry Matisse. He stares at the paintings for a long time and finally decides to conditionally buy one. – “I’ll take it home, and if it turns out that I can live with it, I’ll keep it” – he says to the artist. Soon, Matisse becomes his favourite painter. In 1908 Shchukin commissions two large decorative panels from Matisse which will soon be iconic, these are “Dance” and “Music”. In a letter to the artist he writes: “Your «Dance» is such a great ennoblement for me that I decided to challenge bourgeois views and decorate the halls of my house with nudes”. He buys a total of 38 paintings. Matisse visits the art collector in autumn of 1911 in Moscow to supervise the installation of his paintings in the dining room of Shchukin’s palace. Shchukin never stops being fascinated

by Matisse. Right after his departure he writes to him again in Paris: “I look at you paintings every day, I love them all (...). The public is against you, but the future is yours”. Almost in an ecstasy, he tells his friends that works of Matisse brighten up his palace. The critics claim that by bringing paintings from France Shchukin harms Russia and Russians.

Shchukin also buys other Fauvist paintings, among the sixteen works of A ndré Derain (inter alia “Saturday” and “Portrait of a Man

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with a Newspaper”), a few of Kees van Dongen (“Woman with black hat”, “Spring”), some Post-Impressionists: eight of Paul Cézanne, four of Vincent van Gogh (“Women from Arles”), seven of Henri Rousseau (“Muse Inspiring the Poet”, “Horse Attacked by a Jaguar”) and cubists represented by Georges Braque (“La Roche-Guyon”).

Brokers involved in those transactions are legendary art dealers: Ambroise Vollard and Daniel Henry Kahnweiler, who was at the beginning of his career. The Russian becomes their favourite customer. Shchukin also buys single works of: Eugène Carrière, Henri Manguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Signac, Max Liebermann, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and Odilon Redon.

Some of their paintings (Derain, Rousseau) he buys as the first customer. There are paintings of 63 painters hanging in his residence in Moscow.

He spends increasingly more time in Paris.

He discovers artists previously unknown to him. One day his friend Matisse takes him to the f lat of a young artist on Montmartre; that artist is Pablo Picasso. Shchukin buys “Woman with a Fan” very cheaply. He hangs it in the hall and stares at it everyday for many months. The painting starts to absorb him. He says that looking at this painting, he starts to “feel shards of glass in his mouth”, then he writes: “Picasso possessed me completely, it’s absolutely hypnotic, mad”. Shchukin becomes a great admirer of the previously unknown young artist. In a little more than four years he gathers fifty one of his paintings, mainly from the Rose and Blue Periods (alter alia “Old Jew”, “Absinthe Drinker”, “The Visit [Two Sisters]”, “Head of a Woman”) and a few from the Cubist period. Shchukin is also one of the first patrons of art to support Picasso, whose revolutionary painting is making its way to future fame.

Shchukin’s not only an art collector, he creates art through contact with artists. He never imposes or suggests them anything, he lets them paint the way they feel. His natural perception of beauty in places where others don’t see it is really remarkable. W hat most critics would consider iconoclastic and unacceptable Shchukin regards as a result of the natural evolution of European art. Many years later Hanri Matisse writes how much different were the visits of Shchukin to Parisian art dealers from the visits of another great art collector, Ivan Morozov.

When Morozov visits Ambroise Vollard in his gallery on Rue Laffite he says: “Show me a truly astonishing Cézanne”. And Shchukin asks to see all of Cézanne works so he can choose the best by himself. His taste and a trained eye will become famous in the French artistic circle. He often comes to visit painters in their studios. Sometimes, however, they hide their best work from him, knowing that otherwise he will buy them.

His passion for collecting art doesn’t deprive him of his sober mind and talent for business.

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Sergei Shchukin about the year 1900

Henri Rousseau, “Muse Inspiring the Poet (Portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire and Marie Laurencin)”, oil on canvas, 131x97, Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow

While it is true that he most eagerly returns to his Moscow palace to look at his paintings, he oversees his fortune in person. And what’s more, he increases his assets quickly. He becomes very rich in 1905, ten years after he started collecting contemporary art. Russia undergoes a prolonged general strike. The factories stop working, the manufacturers begin to panic. Shchukin manages in time to buy almost the entire production of textile factories, which for a while makes him practically a monopolist on the textile market. He uses his position to earn millions. After a few years he gives a great sum of money to fund a hospital in Moscow, which receives the name of his prematurely deceased wife. His family life starts to fall apart when two of his sons commit suicide. He starts spending more time with his beloved paintings.

In 1909 Sergei Shchukin opens his Moscow collection to the public. The most prominent paintings of these times become available free for everyone in his palace at Bolshoi Znamensky Street one day a week, only five hundred meters from the Kremlin. The collector often himself shows his collections to people he doesn’t know. They are seen by Kazimir Malevich, Mikhail Larionov, Natalia Goncharova, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin and Władysław Strzemiński. The contact of young artists with the new western art from Shchukin’s collections directly influences the evolution of Russian avant garde. Some art historians later write that without Gauguin, Picasso and other artists from Shchukin’s collections the avant garde would never have arisen, or at least it would have been different.

Professors of the Russian Academy of Arts panic at the thought of this “plague” affecting their students. One of them suggests prohibiting visiting Shchukin’s gallery. One day his collection is visited by Ilya Repin, the patriarch of the Russian school of painting. He looks at the works of Matisse and runs out hastily, promising never to return.

In 1917 revolution breaks out. Precisely one year later, by Lenin’s decree, 258 of Shchukin’s paintings are declared to be “a unique collection of great European masters of great artistic value and importance to the nation” and are nationalised. The collector emigrates to France where he continues to buy paintings but – deprived of most of his assets by the Bolsheviks – on a much smaller scale. Shchukin dies in 1936 in Paris, regarded as one of the greatest collectors of all time. Art historians see him as a visionary ahead of his time and as one of the first to see what others didn’t for a long time.

Lenin appreciates painting, and he deliberately orders to transform the palace and Shchukin’s priceless collection into a Museum of Modern Western Art. Later it gets only worse.

First, the collection is thoughtlessly amalgamated with Morozov’s and then under Stalin’s

Shchukin is not only an art collector, he creates art through contact with artists. He never imposes or suggests them anything, he lets them paint the way they feel.

Paul Gauguin, “Three Tahitian Women against a Yellow Background�, oil on canvas, 68x73,5, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

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decision to “fight with cosmopolitanism and bourgeois influences” the public display of both collections is discontinued. The soviet leader doesn’t appreciate art, at the most he respects social realism. The remarkable paintings, gathered over years, were on the verge of destruction after being considered as “lacking artistic values”. The Communists also consider a different solution to the “problem” – selling them abroad as was previously done with other prominent works of art from the collections of the tsars. New York’s Museum of Modern Art is interested in buying, but the idea collapses because the potential buyers are afraid of lawsuits from the collector’s heirs. The paintings end up in a warehouse.

After Stalin’s death the collections are once again made available to the public. Unfortunately, the great collection is divided in a very misfortunate and artificial way. Most of the works go to the Hermitage in Leningrad, the rest to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. Two paintings are sent to Baku, one to Odessa. The name of Sergei Shchukin becomes deliberately forgotten. In 1985 a young female art historian proposes a book to a publishing house about Shchukin. The idea is dismissed. It is still taboo.

After the fall of USSR there is another attempt to regather the collection. The attempt failed mainly because of resistance from the Hermitage’s directorate, which didn’t want to lose its treasures. Today there is no more hope. The State doesn’t intervene, because it is occupied with other problems. It was possible to conclude a settlement with the descendants of the collector, who for many years were trying to gain legal recognition of the collection’s ownership.

In 2014 the Hermitage will move its collections of western art, starting with Impressionism, including their part of Shchukin’s collection, to a new building, the old General Staff. The Pushkin Museum separated the western art of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and moved it to a neighbouring building. Paradoxically, it is no more than two hundred meters away from the former palace of Shchukin. Of course, the paintings gathered by Shchukin are still open to the public, but the old consistent collection has lost its unique character. We will never again see the iconostasis of Gauguin’s paintings, a room filled by almost fifty works by Picasso, neither sumptuous staircases decorated with “Dance” and “Music” nor the dining room, where Matisse himself hung his paintings. & Wojciech Konończuk Employee of the Centre for Eastern Studies in Warsaw where he specialises in Russian issues.

He has published inter alia in Gazeta antykwaryczna Sztuka.pl” (antiquarian magazine), “Tygodnik Powszechny” (weekly magazine), “Nowa Europa Wschodnia” (bimonthly magazine).

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The most prominent paintings of these times become available free for everyone in his palace at Bolshoi Znamensky street one day a week only five hundred metres from Kremlin.

Pablo Picasso, “Old Jew”, oil on canvas, 125 x 92, Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow

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IMAGINARY COLLECTIONS Interview with Maria Poprzęcka

by Bogusław Deptuła

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A&B: Recently virtual museums have become available on a Google website, but the virtual museum is not a novelty.

Maria Poprzęcka: Google Art Project is not a sensation because most big museums now digitise their collections and make them available, to a varying extent, in the form of “virtual museums”. As everything on the Web, this brings both benefits and dangers. Unquestionable benefits include greater availability of collections as well as presenting educational and promotional offers. Google’s virtual museums are more than just a tour through museum halls. They offer programs which allow the visitors to zoom in, go around the objects, have access to various types of information prepared with a varied audience in mind. The educational value of virtual museums is therefore unquestionable. However the dangers are very serious, and the museums have known about them.

A&B: What would be the main difference between such visits…

MP: When I was asked what the difference between a stroll around a virtual museum and a visit in a real one is, one very simple comparison came to my mind. The difference is the same as betwe-

sciple systematically, room after room, visit a Villa near Naples ornamented with paintings. The Master is describing what the paintings present, and they depict mythological stories: practically from the very moment when the chance for a virtual museum visit emerged. The first danger is that the museums available on home computers may become competitors of regular museums. Such attractive, comfy, “just one click away” substitutes pose a threat to both the ”mission” of the museums by diverting attention from genuine contact with art as well as by depriving museums of their audience; they hit the budget by decreasing profit from tickets, museum events, cultural tourism, sale of souvenirs, catalogues, gadgets etc.

A&B: But is this not a comfortable form of “visiting” a museum?

MP: Of course, such virtual strolls around museums, which we can take at home, our slippers on, sipping tea and without the risk of getting tired of the museum, are very tempting. Museums will therefore have to put in additional effort to attract visitors. We know, however, that making the museum offer more attractive, especially if done ineptly, is connected with the risk of infan-

A&B: Maybe let’s talk about fictitious collections…

MP: Google Art Project, widely covered by the media recently, diverted our conversation to the Internet when we were supposed to talk about fictitious, imagined but not electronic collections. the fall of Phaeton, Bacchantes killing Orpheus, the Andrians, drunken from the river flowing with wine, Narcissus in love with his own ref lection, Apollo in love with Hyacinth... W hether this guide through the Neapolitan pinacoteque is describing a historical collection or whether this is all just a great literary fiction of little importance from the point of view of the history of art. What is important for us is the fact that the descriptions of Philostratus became the source of such famous renaissance paintings as “Bacchanalia” and “Ariadne on Naxos” by Titian or “Galatea”

by Raphael. This was one of the antique texts which greatly stimulated the imagination of later artists, especially in the 16th century, when new art sought ancient models. Here we have a situation where an imaginary collection becomes an inspiration for genuine paintings.

Fiction feeds the reality.

The imaginary collections we can find in literature unquestionably provide very interesting perspectives.

They are not only an empty game that literature plays with us. en a date online and a meeting face to face, hand to hand, lip to lip, with a real person. Well, but many prefer virtual reality from real life because it is less troublesome and no strings attached.

A&B: Aren’t virtual museums a temptation for imagination?

MP: Together with digitising the collections of museums, many ideas popped up, such as “impossible exhibitions”: virtual expositions which would be impossible to organise in real life, such as gathering all the works by Caravaggio, Leonardo or Vermeer van Delft. If we look from the historical perspective, it will turn out that there are plenty of “virtual”, unreal, immaterial collections which are nothing but fantasy. Let’s start from the most respectable example, namely the “Imagines” by Philostratus the Elder. It is a Roman text from the turn of the 2nd and 3rd century. Learned classical philologists have never-ending arguments whether this is a description of a genuine collection or just a kind of display of rhetoric, an exercise on ecphrasis – a description of a work of art – which was a highly valued skill. “Imagines” by Philostratus are not catalogue descriptions of paintings, the whole thing is fictionalized. A Master and his di192

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tilisation, disneylandisation, commercialisation and so on. Museums are institutions which are replete with internal contradictions, and virtualisation adds more to the existing ones. That’s great, but then we must get used to the process which for years has been completely changing our relationship with works of art. These works, once mediatised, are losing their materiality, substantiality, dimensions, volumes, spatiality and sensuality, their “aura”, and are becoming disembodied, electronic phantom in the standardized format of a computer screen. It seems that we can see more: close-ups, elements inaccessible to the eyes, etc.

But everything we see is not only dematerialised.

It is marked by double intermediation – we look through the eyes of the operator and through the mechanical eye of the camera. We are looking at something that was already filtered through somebody else’s eyes; these eyes already spotted and registered it. We are programmed and are looking at art through somebody else’s eyes. Yet this is but a part of a huge problem, namely dematerialisation, mediatisation and virtualisation of our contact with the world. This does not concern only art. This is a fundamental cultural change, the results of which we can neither grasp nor foresee.

A&B: And what are some other examples of imaginary collections in the reality of art?

MP: Renaissance paintings made on the basis of Philostratus’s descriptions are not the only example illustrating the enormous impact of an imaginary collection on art. Another such example can be the castle gallery which a young, effusive German romantic, Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder, dreamed of in his “Outpourings of the Heart of an Art-Loving Monk”. Wackenroder is describing an oneiric scene -during some nights, honourable art masters descend from heaven and wander around their own paintings. The author recognizes many Italian and very few Dutch painters. Suddenly, filled with almost religious reverence, he notices Raphael and Albrecht Dürer standing abreast and looking peacefully at their own paintings hanging one next to the other. He dare not speak to the divine Raphael, but he wants to greet “his Albrecht” – and then he suddenly wakes up. The phantom collection of Wackenroder marks the advent of the romantic cult of Dürer, the collectors’ interest in Northern schools, the images of Raphael and Dürer both on their knees in front of the throne of art, and finally all the works by the Nazarenes who are striving to unify Raphael’s style with the tradition of German technique.

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A&B: And what does it look like in literature?

MP: In a literary work imaginary collections can perform various functions. They can obviously constitute only the cultural scenery, indicating the high financial and social status of the characters.

A collection ennobles. But they can also provide the description of a character; after all, collections are very meaningful. They can speak volumes, not only about the passion of their owners for collecting, but they can also reveal their desires, compensations, fixations. Show me your paintings and I’ll tell you who you are. Captain Nemo, the protagonist of “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”, keeps an impressive collection on his ship, a classical canon of European masterpieces. So a “Madonna” by Raphael, a “Virgin” by Leonardo, a “Nymph” by Correggio, a “Woman” by Titian (N.B., nobody seems to have noticed the compensatory erotism of this collection of Nemo – the loner). But there are also the Dutch, and then the French from the 19th century – from Gericault to Delacroix, Ingres, Meissonier. Simply the Louvre, only hidden from the eyes of the public. On the “Nautilus” there was also a gallery with portraits of great men, the portrait of Kościuszko among them, which may be a remainder of Verne’s original in-

tention to make Captain Nemo Polish. In the end he made Nemo Indian for political reasons. That’s a pity. This would now be the only Polish collection of European masterpieces, fictitious, but still.

A&B: What about the masterpieces which are jewels in the crown of every, even imaginary, art collection?

MP: Since we mentioned the Louvre, I am reminded of the history of building an imaginary gallery of canonical masterpieces composed, however, of the existing collection of the Louvre. This happened after the shocking theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911. As we know, the painting was found, but the search lasted long. Therefore, among the people involved in culture, the survey “What to replace Mona Lisa with?” was carried out. The answers illustrate well the formation of the “top ten” masterpieces of European painting. The respondents suggested “Saint John” by Leonardo, “Pastoral concert” by Giorgione, “The Shepherds of Arcadia” by Poussin and so on, even “Olympia” by Manet. Apollinaire grumbled that only cliché works of art were indicated. Today this would become a ready-made script for virtual abstract, which would replace a tiring and expensive visit to the Louvre.

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A&B: There is a book which inspired our conversation….

MP: Imaginary collection may become the centre that the entire plot of a story revolves around. This is the case in a small but multilevel and sophisticated construction “A Gallery Portrait” by George Perec. The plot is complicated, collecting art mingles with crime, and the denouement is unexpected. But first we have the entire history of acquiring the paintings that a nouveau riche gatherer dreams of, his innumerable contacts with agents, advisors, artists, his haggling, stalking, hunting, travelling and researching. The text by Perec is a brilliant pastiche of erudite museum catalogues, specialist publications, expert analyses, reports from famous auctions, and finally – a psychoanalytic study of the collecting obsession of the protagonist, German-American self-made man, Hermann Raffke.

And all this is just fantasy. Yet still a perfect imitation of expert terminology, an insightful picture of the world of connoisseurs and art dealers; and finally the authenticity and credibility of Raffke’s collection gains lure us into thinking that the entire story is real, and it is not until the end when we fall victims to mystification. Everything turns out to be a forgery, even the story itself.

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A&B: Are there many similar examples in literature?

MP: I guess that if we browsed through literature we would find quite a few imaginary collections, just as we can find many individual imaginary paintings there. Much has been written about them, especially about the paintings appearing in “In search of Lost Time” by Proust, where fictitious works of art and artists appear side by side with real ones. The painter Elstir is a literary character, Degas – definitely historical. The landscape paintings

by Elstir (very Monet-like) are a literary creation; “The View of Delft” by Vermeer, the key painting in the entire book, really exists. Literary fiction was mixed with genuine works of art in a similar way in the masterpiece of decadent aesthetics – the collection of Des Esseintes from “Against Nature” by Joris-Karl Huysmans. Imaginary paintings constitute a separate, fascinating problem: fatal, cursed, bringing death or madness – from the menacing short story “Portrait” by Gogol to, of course, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Wilde. We will find an art collecting analogy here as well. A fatal collection is the already mentioned Raffke’s collection, which turns out to be sophisticated revenge on the collectors, experts and art dealers. The collecting itself is cursed.

A&B: How can searching for fictitious collections be expanded?

MP: In “The Lexicon of Phantasmal Books” which is “Ghost Library” by Paweł Dunin-Wąsowicz, the author encourages us to look for phantom, fictitious films and theatre shows in literature. But paintings and collections also appear directly in films.

Again – both real and fictitious. And they are not more than just a stage prop there. Analysing the role of Morandi’s paintings in the films by Fellini and Antonioni leads to some really interesting conclusions. In “La dolce Vita” it is not accidental that the journalist Marcello (played by Mastroianni), questioned about the death of Steiner, was portrayed with a “silent” still life painting by Morandi in the background. Examining imaginary literary collections could also be very enlightening. And it is not only a matter of identifying the works of art which make up the collection. Necessary as it is, it is only the beginning. This is followed by questions: What role does a collection play in the plot of a story? Is this the key to the novel or merely an ornament? Why is the plot of a crime novel so often built around a collection? What does it tell us about the protagonist and what about the author of the book? Is this going to influence art in the same way as the Neapolitan collection of Philostratus or the dream gallery of Wackenroder? Similarly, identification of paintings on the 17th and 19th century depictions of “collector’s cabinets”, very interesting indeed, are nothing more than a starting point leading to various conclusions, not necessarily conclusions related to collecting. For Victor Stoichita, the distinguished art historian, the “collector’s 194

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When I was asked what the difference between a stroll around a virtual museum and a visit in a real one is, one very simple comparison came to my mind.

The difference is the same as between a date online and a meeting face to face, hand to hand, lip to lip, with a real person. cabinets” – paintings of paintings – have become the starting point for the theoretical concept of “establishing the image” - one of the most intriguing concepts of the last few years. The imaginary collections we can find in literature unquestionably provide very interesting perspectives. They are not only an empty game that literature plays with us.

A&B: To finish, let’s go back once more to the Internet and Google.

MP: Since virtual museums are offered to us, there is nothing to prevent us from achieving independence and building up our private virtual collections on our own. Our dream collections,

practically unlimited. I also think that such collections are already being created on home computers. Enormous resources, including all kinds of representations which the web spits out, make everything possible. No money is needed, all that counts is our love for art. You can get yourself galleries or super-masterpieces, create the craziest “curio cabinets”, choose collections which are strictly specialised, fancy, sophisticated, intimate, obscene – nothing is impossible. Collezioni impossibile, made just like mostri impossibile, are made. They would speak volumes about us. & Photography by Błażej Żuławski

& Luxury brand management

LUXURY BRANDS IN THE AGE OF THE INTERNET “There is nothing more powerful than the idea for which the time has come” – these are the words of Don Tapscott, a Canadian advisor specializing in business strategies. What does he mean? The internet – a medium that has revolutionised the market and social relations overnight. Unfortunately, it was not until recently, that luxury brands understood this phenomenon.

by Karolina Gadzimska

T

he Internet has not only become the main source of information, but also the main drive for business operations.

Life would be hard to imagine in a world in which buying a beloved bag or fancy electronic equipment via the Internet was impossible.

However, not every company gives its clients such comfort. Unfortunately, a great deal of those companies which do not are luxury brands, which, in comparison to other enterprises in the FMCG sector, are behind when it comes to an online presence.

Wealthy clients figure among the most active consumers in the Internet. This mainly stems from the fact that they are well acquainted with certain brands, they understand their needs and, stronger than other social groups, believe that “time is money”. What is more, according to “Management Today” and a survey conducted by Google Inc., about 95% of millionaires bought their last product on-line. At that point, the name of one of the biggest on-line boutiques comes into play – Net-A-Porter, which was sold to the Richemont Group last year. What is the secret of its success? The answer is simple – it delivers the client what he/ she needs most – 24/7 service and comfort.

Additionally, observing the dynamic development of the Internet and changes happening in the behaviour of a post-recession luxury client (who started considering the ratio between price and value, instead of just acting on impulse when buying upper shelf products), the on-line world gave brands, on the forefront of this specific market, an opportunity to be innovative and to understand the newly generated needs of their target group.

A huge majority of companies was able to adapt quickly to the demands of the Internet age, both strategically and technologically.

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They also started quickly appreciating the possibilities connected with the on-line sales of products, e.g., acquiring new groups of clients by widening their fields of operation.

Looking at the market of luxury brands, which is known for its innovative solutions and professional outdistancing of the leaders in the FMCG sector in terms of business and financial strategies, it is hard to believe that the Internet became really important to them only lately, in 2010. It was then that luxury brands realised the power and possibilities that lie in the Internet, which rationally translates into money.

Why did the majority of luxury brands stay behind? The main trait that characterised them is “exclusiveness”. This does not only mean price, which in this case is significantly higher than that of regular goods in the same segments of the market (e.g. clothes, shoes, leather goods, watches and jewellery), but also their limited access, oweing to their heritage, craftsmanship and genius of the creator. Exclusiveness, understood this way, is in its nature the opposite of mainstream, the synonym of which is the Internet. Looking at the on-line presence stereotypically, one assumes that the brand becomes widely accessible and, therefore, loses its unique status. This is the reason why boutiques still hesitate whether to sell their goods on-line.

Patek Phillipe is an example of a brand whose answer in the matter of on-line sales still hangs in the balance. Prices of their products begin at EUR 10,000. According to Thierry Stern, the brand’s president, when a client buys a “Patek”, he has to feel it and smell it, so that he can understand the added value. What is more, when buying such an exclusive good, one needs the assistance of an expert, who will not only help choose the right model, but will also

spread the aura of uniqueness around the product, thanks to which a watch is no longer just a watch, but also an investment well passed on from generation to generation. Another thing is to “experience” the visit in a Patek shop. Let’s imagine a room of extraordinary design, decorated with fresh flowers, a glass of champagne, a concierge, nice and smiling service, who presents jewellery in white gloves. None of these can be experienced on-line, which is the Internet’s main flaw.

Not only the crafty websites, but also the social networks, especially Facebook, play an important role in enterprise marketing, Nowadays, almost every brand, considering itself luxury, has a dedicated fanpage. Although, from the business perspective, Facebook is not considered a strict sales tool, it is crucial in building a brand’s image and maintaining the relationship with a client, especially an aspiring one. The presence of the most desired brands on a hugely visited web portal allows companies to build and cultivate the myth of luxury, giving the users (often false) hope, that it is within reach. A web service is also a chance to win over a new client, who with the help of Facebook, will build a positive relationship with the brand, even if he doesn’t currently have enough funds to buy Chanel, Gucci or Hermes.

A great example is Burberry, which initiated a project called “The Art of Trench” last year.

On the official website of the project (artofthetrench.com), users can leave pictures of themselves wearing cult coats. The photographs mainly come from influential fashion blogs (e.g., The Sartolialist), but regular users of the Internet can also send their suggestions on style.

The Burberry project has over 3 million fans on Facebook. Thanks to this popularity, the com-

Luxury brand management

pany has built a marketing relationship between the brand and a new group of consumers.

Gucci as well has widened its social network, through which users can speak their minds on the products and events.

A different practice was approached by Mercedes Benz. Its web portal, GenerationBenz. com, is available only after receiving an invitation, which gives the user a feeling of exclusiveness. This system is a lot more expensive than a typical display on Facebook or Twitter, but at the same time, in the understanding of its authors, it expresses the loyalty of the client, which is the most important value to the company.

What might be the negative consequences of the presence of luxury brands in the Internet?

First of all, endangering the brand’s reputation and fear of losing the before-mentioned aura of exclusiveness. The marketing strategies of these companies, which were created and worked in different conditions, are now being adopted to the new reality. From the premium and luxury brands’ perspective, it is considered a time-consuming and risky business. The last argument against is the issue of money. In order to fully reflect the brand with its huge baggage of exclusiveness – history, values, experience and level of service – the company has to invest in top-notch technologies, the most innovative solutions and websites with 3-and even 4-D options.

Taking all possibilities offered by the Internet into account, the key to success is to reflect in a digital world as much as possible of the character, personality, and most of all, value of the brand. What is more, it seems that only if the client’s experience of a visit in a real boutique is reflected, can the brand keep its aura of luxury.

There are many solutions to achieve that.

Trust your clients. While building a brand’s image through the years, it is worth to acknowledge that a loyal client will not change her beloved bag or exceptional dress only because the company, on entering the digital world, has become more available. Websites may be as exclusive as the product itself. We are witnesses of the digital revolution and e-commerce age.

It remains a mystery how many possibilities or technologies are yet to be discovered. Despite the fact that luxury brands take a long time to adjust to such drastic changes, they still learn very fast, and we can be sure that in the near future, they will mesmerise us with the effects of the lesson they have learned. & Karolina Gadzimska is a graduate of the International University of Monaco, where she graduated from the Department of Management of Brand and Luxury Services. She is also the author of a blog on luxury brands, luxlab.pl

&

Website of Gucci Fashion House, www.gucci.com

Website of Gucci Fashion House, www.gucci.com

Website of Pathek Phillipe, www.patek.com

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& Risk matters

Risk matters...

insurance as an art

by Jonathan Bowring

R

isk is a fascinating matter in the world of insurance. When I became an insurance broker, I would win my clients over by passionately explaining to them the mechanisms of pure risk transfer, means of transforming speculative capital into capital capacity. Additionally, I used to dive into topics of clauses, inflations going up and down, as well as clauses of proportional allocation of activity. In an overwhelming euphoria, I didn’t notice, that clients started ordering another bottle of wine or were suddenly extremely interested in the shapes of their forks.

Once, on a party, I met an orthopaedic surgeon, who got the crazy idea that I might be very interested in the components of a knee joint. During his speech he often brought up details concerning ways in which cartilages can rub each other off

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and how joint tendons loosen or break up. Only then did I realize, what impression my arguments made on my clients. Since that day, I assure you, having lunch with me is a lot more entertaining.

I believe that readers also consider this change positive, because I really try to explain the subject of insurance more plainly, than I used to.

Although, the rules of art insurance are quite similar to those used in other fields of insurance, there still exist some distinguishable differences. Much depends on the proper understanding of the artwork’s meaning and value, as well as on a precise insurance contract and one’s familiarity with the art insurance market. One could write with no end about each of these subjects, but for the sake of this article, I will restrict myself to presenting only concise examples in the following paragraphs.

The purpose of an insurance contract is to define a potential financial risk, which awaits the owner in many unpredictable circumstances.

The most important issue is to quantify the material value of a certain piece of art for the period of the conclusion of contract with the insurer, which is binding mostly for a year. Works of art differ in value, so one should treat them individually, especially because the market price is often openly discussed by the experts in the field and at the same time it depends on the auction biddings. Moreover, in the case of contemporary art, value of which may change quarterly, it is advised to make a periodic verification of the insurance sum during the balance of the Term.

However, in some cases, market value may not be the most appropriate measure of choice when the level of insurance rate is concerned.

Risk matters

&

Stanisław Młodożeniec, “Gra w zielone II”, detail, 2011

Reasons for insuring national museums are different, including for example, a drop or loss of income connected with some works of art, restoration costs or a purchase of a piece of art holding little value for the cultural heritage. Private individuals may reduce the amount of compensation for the collection, by minimising the costs of annual insurance premium, especially because they don’t lose their profit from the investment, even when a part of their collection is lost. In this case, the expert’s opinion would certainly be helpful, because the sum under insurance is the main factor determining the amount of the insurance fee.

A proper draw-up of a contract with the insurer is of the same importance. It would not have sense to pay God knows how much for an insurance policy, which doesn’t conform to the possible claim. A characteristic trait of art insurances is that they take the refund clause into consideration, which in the case of robbery and the following apprehension of the artwork, binds the insurer to return the piece of art to the insured, due to the return of compensation, which the insured has paid, along with interest. Different characteristics of art insurance involve, for example, certain works of art, which constitute a part of a collection. Loss of such a piece might seriously impact the value of the whole collection.

When the value is finally estimated, appropriate clauses formulated and ref lected in the contract in order to get the best possible insurance conditions, the moment comes to choose the most appropriate insurer. Lately, a few Po-

lish companies have extended the range of their products to include art insurance, in hope that they will build a stable position on the Polish market in the upcoming years. However, it is still Lloyd’s of London, which holds the position of the most trustworthy insurer of artworks and antiques on the market. With all due respect, there are only a few more players in this field, who have the proper portfolio of expertise in changing and extending the insurance policy designed for entire collections. While the most dramatic and also the most common losses are the effects of robberies, it is the damage resulting from random unfortunate events, that is the major problem, with which clients come to the insurer. Fire and all its consequences, sometimes dampness, seem to be the most common causes of the declared losses. What is more, too much interest in art (e.g. crowded museums) may also be harmful in its consequences.

Damage during transport also happens more often, because buyers incessantly take part in international art fairs or visit museums, while other cultural institutions trade or exhibit art all over the world. One can only imagine, what is the worth of these pieces, which were damaged during transport, and which now are just shut in boxes in some warehouses, just like peas cans without labels.

Works of art that undergo renovation are also subject to damages. It is extremely important, that the owner of an artwork interested in insuring it during this process, informs the insurer about the nature of the anticipated action. Thanks to that, the insurer can adjust the content of the policy to meet the needs of a cer-

tain client. The owner of the renovated artwork should make sure, whether the restaurateur has the right collateral equivalent to the value of this piece of art.

Insurances for civil liability and professional assessment of potential compensation are both extremely important factors in the field of art insurance. Among other reasons, it stems from the fact, that museums pay greater and greater attention to the collections of their competitors and private collectors. They monitor the assets and solicit for more and more interesting collections. Due to the growing activity on the art market (connected, for example, with companies which invest in art to count it into their financial statements and balance sheets as assets), more and more responsibility falls on the expert valuers, as well as, cultural institutions and other means of art promotion.

The topic of art insurance may be overwhelming and for some not really interesting, but it is an important part of, so often left behind, wealth management per se. The art insurance market in Poland is growing and the awareness of risk, so strongly connected with it, is getting greater.

Thanks to that, the art insurance market blossoms. & Jonathan Bowring, an insurance broker and the president of the JF Bowring Group, a risk management consulting agency. He’s Canadian, who has lived in Warsaw for 10 years. During that time he collaborated with the most influential institutions in the region providing advice on risk management in the area of insurance.

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& Wealth management

Wealth management

PORTFOLIO OF ALTERNATIVE FINANCIAL INVESTMENTS – PRESENTATION OF SELECTED FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS (PART 2) Socially responsible investments

by Tomasz Potocki

I

n the recent years the interest in socially responsible investments (SRI)1 of both individual clients and of institutions in has grown. This stems from the fact that observing the principles of social responsibility and of ecology contributes to a considerable increase in the standards of institution management. As a consequence, this creates Other term used in literature is ESG (Environmental Social and Governance

1

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favourable conditions for reducing the investment risk and avoiding loss of company reputation.

For the wealthiest it becomes an assurance that the assets that they invest will not be used for environment degradation or for encouraging armed and social conflicts.

The beginnings of SR I investments date back to 1920s and they are associated with Great Britain. This was when the Methodist Church laid foundations of “responsible invest-

ments” 2 . However, SRI really flourished at the beginning of 1990s and currently it has become an indispensable element of the investment market. In Poland the SR I market is still of marginal importance but I am observing with M. Rok, Odpowiedzialny biznes w nieodpowiedzialnym świecie [Responsible Business in the irresponsible world], Forum Odpowiedzialnego Biznesu [The Forum of Responsible Business] 2004, page 39

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Wealth management

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Opportunities for portfolio diversification using REIT Stocks and bonds

Z 10% REIT

Z 20% REIT

REIT 10% Stocks 60%

Bonds 40%

Return 1,10% Risk 9.13%

Stocks 50%

REIT 20% Bonds 40%

Bonds 35%

Stocks 45%

Return 1.93% Risk 8.99%

Return 2.27% Risk 9.76%

Source: Global Explosion of REITs creates new opportunities for diversification, ING Real Estate Securities 2009, page 6

pleasure the creation of new funds which invest in social issues, such as e.g. Fortis Zielony Bonus, Arka BZ WBK Global Climate Change Equity, NWAI Climate+ Dexia Green Planet.

Due to the fact that SRI is relatively new investment method, there are no regulations which would compel the investors to invest part of their funds in this type of instruments.

During the last decade some regulatory mechanisms, which institutions may voluntarily submit to and which they can observe emerged.

These include such institutions as: • Principles of Responsible Investment established in 2006; • Equator Principles established in 2003; • L ondon Principles of Sustainable Finance established in 2002; • U N Principles of Responsible Investment established in 2006; • Global Environmental Reporting established in 2002.

All the above principles have the same underlying aim, namely improving the transparency of activities and incorporating the principles of social responsibility into the process of making and managing investment decisions.

The wealthiest clients are most frequently offered 4 investment strategies based on SRI 3: Negative screening– monitoring the process of taking short positions in the companies which do not conform to the standards of social responsibility; Positive screening – monitoring the process of taking long positions in the companies which 3

Ibidem, page l4

conform to the standards of social responsibility; Thematic investment – taking positions in institutions that deal with a selected theme related to of social investments, e.g. climate changes, renewable energy sources or health; Investing in society – creating venture capital funds which invest in the development of local communities, by giving them access to education, IT solutions, health centres and natural products.

Growing popularity of SRI investments may be evidenced by the creation of stock exchange indices which are becoming a benchmark for those who invest their financial resources in this type of funds. The most important on the market include: • Dow Jones Sustainability Group Index (DJSGI) – a family of global and continental indexes started in 1998 by Dow Jones and the Swiss agency SAM; • F TSE4Good – started by the London Stock Exchange in 2001; • D omini 400 Social Index – started in May 1990 by KLD. Each of these indices has clearly defined criteria for entering an institution and staying there within the index, which guarantees that the index is transparent and reliable.

REIT investments Real Estate Investment Trust (R EIT) is a form of indirect investing in real estate, mainly by specialised exchange traded funds which have the legal status of a joint stock company.

Their scope of activity includes investing in real estate combined with managing such investments. The key asset of REIT funds is exemp-

tion from income tax providing that at least 90% of their profit is paid as dividends to their shareholders. Other important factor is the principle that the level of investing in real estate constitutes at least 75% of assets4.

The REIT funds are most frequently divided into three main categories5: • E quit y R EITs – which own and manage a portfolio of real estate using income earned from lease, developing the real estate owned, renting and real estate transactions (less common); • Mortgage R EITs – which deal in providing loans to real estate owners or real estate operators. They also conduct indirect lending activity by investing in securities based on mortgages or mortgage loans (e.g. structured products resulting from the process of securitization); • Hybrid REITs – which conduct activities characteristic for the two other types of REIT. • R EIT funds first appeared in the United States in the mid-20th century but their real development took place when in 1960 the Real Investment Trust Act, regulating their operation, was passed. From that moment they flourished enormously and in 1994, at their peak, 226 funds of this type existed in the world. 6 Currently the operation of R EITs is regulated by legal acts in 21 countries and 9 more www.reit.com.

D. Maude, Global Private Banking and Wealth Management, Wiley Chichaster 2006, pages 105-106 6 N. Jacobson, Global Trends in REITs, Citigroup 2009, page 5 4 5

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& Wealth management

Regardless of the current situation, supplementing the portfolio of the richest with REIT funds may bring visible investment benefits. are considering introducing such acts7. As for the demographic dispersion of REIT funds, the funds from Hong Kong and from the United States, which currently own around 60% of shares in the global market, prevail8 .

Taking into account the sectors in which the REIT funds invest in, diversified investments in the areas of retail and administration dominate. The vastness of this market is evidenced by the fact that the capitalisation level of 10 biggest REIT funds is 100 billion dollars. The three biggest funds are9: • S un Hung Kai Props – diversified – (Hong Kong); • Westfield Group – retail – (Australia); • M itsubishi Estate – diversified – (Japan).

Regardless of the current situation, supplementing the portfolio of the richest with REIT funds may bring visible investment benefits. It was calculated that during the last 30 years the REIT funds with their annual return on the level of 11.99 % exceeded the return from the S & P (10.99%) and Russell 200 (10.80%) indices10. One additional aspect in favour of this type of investment is portfolio diversification. As calculated by the experts from ING Real Estate Securities replacing 10% of stocks in a portfolio that consists of 60% of stocks and 40% of bonds with REITs increases the return by 0.83% while reducing the risk by 0.14%. When building a portfolio consisting of 45% of stocks, 20% of REIT and 35% of bonds the return will increase by further 0.3% and the risk by 0.77%11.

Currently in Poland there are no REIT funds but we can come across many closed or open funds which invest the financial resources of their clients in real estate.

At the end of December 2008 eighteen closed and four open investment funds operated12 .

It seems, however, that the CEE Region (part of Global Explosion of REITs creates new opportunities for diversification, ING Real Estate Securities 2009, page 2 8 W.Stevens Carrol Global REIT Market Trends & Outlook CBRE 2009, page.l3 9 L Pruchnicka-Grabias (ed.): Inwestycje alternatywne [Alternative Investments], CeDeWu, Warsaw 2008, page 125 7

www.reit.com Global Explosion of REITs creates new opportunities for diversification, ING Real Estate Securities

10 11

2009, page 6 12 L Pruchnicka-Grabias (red.), Inwestycje alternatywne [Alternative Investments], CeDeWu, Warsaw 2008, page 125

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which is Poland) will note increase in this type of investments in the next decade or so (even in spite of the current crisis). A sign of it may be the fact that only during the period from 1998 to 2005 the value of the market amounted to 10,5 billion euro, where the starting value amounted practically to zero13.

Other alternative instruments The alternative financial instruments discussed above do not exhaust the range of products and services offered by Wealth Management institutions to their clients. These may also include14 : • Retirement planning for the wealthiest and their families – as part of this offer the institutions manage the retirement portfolio of their clients and their families or family business.

• Managing the cycle of tax planning – as part of this offer tax advisors employed by banks prepare a financial portfolio which minimises the tax liabilities of the client.

• Philanthropic planning – as part of this offer, by building and managing foundations wealth allocation strategies are established for the groups of beneficiaries selected by UHNWI and HNWI. Track-ty pe products – these include instr uments that track the per for mance of certain markets or indices. They are most frequently long-term investments and their profitability is based on a series of benchmarks. They create earning opportunity for investors, both in the event of falls and rises and depending on the period during which a given market trend prevails.

Single-stock hedges – they are instruments created for those who received their blocks of stock by way of privatisation, inheritance or management options. The usefulness of these instruments stems from the fact that many of them have certain restrictions as to their sale (e.g. deferred period during which they can be liquidated).

By using leverage based on derivatives and structured products the shareholders have a possibility to insulate themselves from loss of their value.

Luxembourg funds – ty pical closed and N. Jacobson, Global Trends in REITs, Citigroup 2009, page 19 14 D. Maude, Global Private Banking and Wealth Management, Wiley Chichaster 2006, pages 84-85 13

open investment funds but because of very f lexible Luxembourg law they became a real rarity among the funds in the world. Removing the limitation associated with managing funds by the Investment Funds Association provides the wealthiest with an opportunity to have individual impact on the strategy of funds, e.g. through a separate subfund.

Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) – a group of products which ref lect the performance of various indices (due to this they are based on tens or even hundreds of financial assets, from which you can withdraw at any time) and which do not require the investor to invest in separate instruments, which would entail considerable costs and would be extremely time-consuming. & Further Reading: K. Opolski, T. Potocki, T. Świst, Wealth Management – Bankowość dla bogatych [Wealth Management-Banking for the Rich], CeDeWu 2010 S. McCrary, Hedge Fund Course, Wiley and Sons Inc, New Jersey 2005 D. Maude, Global Private Banking and Wealth Management, Wiley Finance 2010 S. Antkiewicz, M. Kalinowski (red.), Innowacje finansowe [Financial Innovations], CeDeWu, Warsaw 2008 L Pruchnicka-Grabias (red.), Inwestycje alternatywne [Alternative Investments], CeDeWu, Warsaw 2008 T. Hens, K.Bachmann, Behavioral finance for private banking, Wiley 2009 Asset Management Survey 2008, IPE Investment & Pensions Europe, 2009 Report of the Alternative Investment Expert Group. Developing Europe Private Equity, European Commision, Internal Market and Services DG, July 2006 World Wealth Report 2009 Capgemini, Merrill Lynch 2010 Hedge funds Standards: Final Report HFWG 2008

& Masonic verses

Masonic Verses

Poland: the right address

by Janusz Zjawa Miliszkiewicz

T

he development of the art market requires support from the government and parliament in the form of promotion and legal advice, and not subsidies.

Let’s begin with Promotion. Are there any sources, printed in civilized languages, which inform about Polish art and its trade in our country? Are there any monographs in English about, e.g. Witold Wojtkiewicz or the genius sculptor Ksawery Dunikowski, or Gruppa painters, or Leopold Zborowski, who hyped Modigliani’s success? Even in Poland these issues are not popularized, neither in books nor on national TV, which is financed by obligatory subscription.

It seems, we don’t know how to make the most of our obvious attributes. For instance, very few people in the world know that we happen to be the happy owners of one of Leonardo’s marvels. When the “Lady with an Ermine” was exhibited at Warsaw Royal Castle, Krzysztof Zanussi’s 1995 film of the same title, was rediscovered by the way. The message of the film is roughly that there are right and wrong addresses in the world. France is the right address, that’s why Mona Lisa is easily recognized by every child on this globe. Poland however is the wrong address, hidden behind some sort of a mysterious curtain.

Is this curtain still made of communistic residues ? Why is our art market still so marginal after twenty years? It reminds me of a ship without a captain and compass. In the same way, one might ask, why don’t Poles have their own “Nokia”, which would equal the ubiquitously distinctive Norwegian brand and make our country recognizable ? I think that we lack imagination way too often. This is why we don’t even attempt to make our way into the international scene. In 2007, a monograph by Professor Stanisław Mossakowski on the Sigismund Chapel in Wawel Castle, was published. We were supposed to publish it in English to prove to the international audience that we have very much in com208

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mon with the Italian style. And what happened about it? Nothing. Promotion failed again.

Within the following lines, I would like to demonstrate a typical legal problem that should be taken care of by the state. I was visited by a citizen of Łódź in February. He came to kiss my signet ring and said, “Godfather, please, help me...”. It turned out that a reputable antiquarian had sold him an awful lot of counterfeits worth over one and a half million zlotys. The prosecuting attorney recently terminated the investigation. Just after that decision the victim hurried to me. In the course of the investigation, it was established that the poor antiquarian had not even suspected that the masterpieces could have been forged. He was simply not aware of the committed crime, and he owned his alibi in the form of “expert’s opinion”.

The Polish justice administration has been specialising in the termination of such cases for years. It is obvious: a bulk of counterfeit remains. Why don’t the prosecutors ever ask who churned out the bulk? National culture is frivolously polluted with fakes with the consent of the cultural department and the Government Culture Commission. I asked the deceived citizen why he hadn’t tried to sell the phony stuff to lower the costs. After all, the majority of fellow countrymen do that, since they don’t believe the administration would help.

Meanwhile, another six-year-long lawsuit of “Zjawa (Spectre)” has just finished. Just type: zjawa, starowieyski, superwizjer to see it online. It’s an excellent example of TVN reporter Jaroslaw Jabrzyk’s provocation in which he manages to sell a counterfeit at a renowned auction house. What is interesting, the expert who allowed the fake to be auctioned sued me for the violation of his personal rights. I had criticized his competence, writing a column in Art & Business earlier in 2005, after the false painting had been sold.

The expert claimed that the painting was authentic. Now, the court has dismissed the claim.

As a consequence of the six-year-long lawsuit, hyped by media, antiquarians unanimously complain that the business has declined along with the trust in experts in particular. Although the turnover in the market might be lower, the freedom and clients prevail. All told, it is just one more evidence that the art trade needs to be wisely regulated by law. & Janusz Miliszkiewicz, Journalist, specializing in private collections, the art market and museums since 1979. He also writes his own column “My collection” for “Rzeczpospolita”. Co-writer of “Kolekcja Porczyńskich – genialne oszustwo?”

Photo by: Błażej Żuławski Translation: Jakub Bruszewski

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Art&Business

n° 1/2012

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