Matrix of Sensitivity

Woodcut, the oldest of graphic techniques, just like other traditional printing methods, is often confronted with grievous opinions about the pointlessness of practicing classical artistic disciplines, which have only historical meaning and are of interest to researchers, enthusiasts and collectors. Such opinions are influenced by the omnipresence of digital printing, the enormous possibilities of creating and developing an artistic vision, of reproducing an image, as well as accepting its functioning only in virtual form (postprint). Tomasz Kawełczyk is one of those artists who, breaking the stereotype mentioned above, treat woodcut as a living and inexhaustible source of experiments, showing at the same time a creative approach to the technique he cultivates. Each of his woodcuts has been a result of a different problem. Sometimes the problem is solved on the level of one print, in other cases individual works form a cycle that brings all the issues together. The artist uses various possibilities of relief printing (he deals with woodcut and linocut technique), both in terms of the materials and tools he uses, as well as formal solutions. He creates monochromatic and multi-coloured works, characterized by different colour renditions. He prints on papers of various structural qualities, as well as in various formats, including very large planes.

Tomasz Kawełczyk is particularly interested in the graphic matrix itself, treated in an untraditional way, and its possibilities, as well as in the relation between the matrix and the print. One of the intriguing solutions developed by the artist is building a matrix from ready made objects, selected from the environment, such as twigs, slats or toothpicks. Such activities relate not only to the development and enhancement of the printing plane itself, but also to the subsequent functioning of the prints within the space, as parts of complex objects and installations.

Kawełczyk does not hide the presence of the matrix in the process of reproduction, sometimes he exposes it next to prints as an independent work of art. He also draws our attention to the very process of preparing the work, its elements – objects and actions – become an artistic fact. For a long time in the graphic tradition the matrix was a necessary but hidden attribute, it was shelved after the print run was completed. All that mattered was the final effect, and artists did not reveal the technical aspects of making a print. Recalling the existence of the matrix stripped graphic art of its mystery, which lay in the specific relation between the source and the effect, deprived it of its uniqueness and diminished the value of each print.

There is another important aspect related to the status of the printing matrix, which is part of a broader reflection on the graphic medium and its essence – it is the problem of the simultaneous existence of phenomena: absence and existence, part and whole, the visible and the hidden, the positive and the negative.

The artist himself mentions in this context the concept of wabi, which is one of the traditional aesthetic values of the Japanese. “Wabi is a Japanese aesthetic term with a strong emotional tone, expressing itself in the ascetic attitude of man, filled with a sense of emptiness, lack, loss or abandonment. Wabi manifests its aesthetic value most fully in simplicity, leading in the field of visual arts to the reduction to a minimum of conspicuous features. (...) The main axis of the concept of wabi is the extra-temporal way of showing the Whole through juxtapositions of opposite states, where one – which is no longer there – brings to mind the other, which we are still anticipating.”1

In Kawełczyk’s works the role of emptiness, absence as a factor shaping the form and spirit of the work is strongly emphasized; the natural whiteness of paper, for example, is balanced by printed fragments of the plane. Both values constitute a visual expression of presence and absence, appearance and disappearance, stability and movement.

The dynamics of these relations is influenced by the configuration of elements, mutual position, size, shape, as well as the sequence of white and black (or coloured) component motifs, which is characteristic of each print. It is worth recalling at this point that in Japanese gardens the spaces between the stones are the most important. In Tomasz Kawełczyk’s works there are also other references to the very essence, philosophy and spirit of woodcuts developed by Japanese artists, epitomized by such notions as for example: yungen (mystery, depth) or miyabi (elegance).

The visible self-restraint, simplicity and directness, rejection of excessive expressiveness in favour of subdued but convincing manifestations do not prevent the artist from achieving a great variety of graphic representations. The limitation of means of expression paradoxically strengthens – as in haiku – the intensity of expression and clarity of composition. All this ultimately contributes to the striking beauty of the works and their mood.

Among many oppositions or contrasts evoked by Tomasz Kawełczyk’s artwork an important role is played by the mutual relation of organic elements and regular forms representing the domain of geometry, visible within the pictorial motifs. It is at the same time the presence in one artistic space of what is lyrical, intuitive, individual and what is speculated, objective and abstract. What is natural and gestural with what is diligently drawn and regular.

The presence of the biological world is already revealed at the level of the choice of a wooden block that serves as the basis for the matrix. Each material that the artist subsequently deals with conveys information about its structure, its deficiencies and virtues, and the resistance it offers to the blade of the chisel.

As it has already been mentioned, Tomasz Kawełczyk often uses a natural board as a base for his prints. This was the case, for example, with both of his graduation series and with the prints which form the basis of his cycle Screens. Prints made using such an original matrix reveal the morphology of the material used: the layout and density of growth rings, the presence of grooves and cracks in the surface of the material. The surfaces, enhanced with colour and tone, acquire poetic character. The planks lose their compactness and uniformity, becoming a kind of phantom in the prints, composed of thin, delicate fibres. They provide a strong contrast to the sharply drawn geometric figures associated with them.

Such a juxtaposition of fluid, irregular forms with abstract ones can be found in the entire cycle of Calligraphy. It is here that the author manifests very strongly the phenomenon of revealing and vanishing, relations between fragments and the whole. Overflowing planar forms are contrasted in these prints with linearly treated geometric figures. Motifs coming from two different areas mediate with each other, entering successively the area occupied by their opponents, the pictorial components overlap, obscuring fragments of the shapes lying “underneath”. A sense of incompleteness, loss, a kind of tension created by the competing yet complementary components of the composition appears.

The spirit of Eastern calligraphy is also present in Kawełczyk’s works thanks to the elements used as matrix components – twigs and even toothpicks. The sticks draw free lines in the prints, marks on the “writing path”, the rows of toothpicks are arranged in tonally diversified bands, like columns of official texts.

Also, the circular planes of printed paper that fill the front surfaces of the matovac frames bear traces of quasi-calligraphic gestures; they remind us that the original wooden rings that formed the basis for the targets used by archers were often marked inside with craftsmen’s writing.

The series Matowak Frames (also ready-made objects) and the already mentioned Screens allow the author to go beyond the two-dimensional aspect with his graphics. Objects placed in space change their status and meaning. They become one with the graphic prints. Once again, the artist proves that he treats the woodcut technology in an unorthodox manner. The work is no longer just a plane of printed paper, but all the elements that make it up – a kind of material installation together with the cultural contexts they evoke.

Tomasz Kawełczyk uses colour sparingly and skilfully (vide: a beautiful work from the doctoral project, dominated by whites and greys). It is as if he followed the old beliefs about the quality of things. As early as in ancient times, shape was more important than colour. It was rationally characterized, subject to mathematical speculations. Colour had sensual character and belonged to the other, inferior – secondary – category. Graphic arts were also initially dominated by black and white; even today for some woodblock enthusiasts it is a monochrome print that is the epitome of “genuine” graphic art. The plane of such achromatic compositions was filled with linear - textural or uniform - shapes.

In the two cooperative projects realized by the artist the invited authors complemented or interpreted in a different way the motif or arrangement of elements initiated by Kawełczyk. The series of works that came into being attracted our attention to the problem, present in contemporary graphic art, of departing from edition in favour of displaying variability (graphics printed from one matrix or the same set of matrices connected with a particular project but differing in tone or colour of their components) and sequentiality of expression (the artist uses many matrices belonging to various works, creating compositions which differ in quantity, arrangement and colour quality of elements). The difference becomes a new value within a tradition based, after all, on repetition and sameness.

In this way, the artist also takes up the theme of autothematism, concerning the work of a wood engraver and the construction of a complex graphic message. Deconstructing the work of art in his own way, dividing it into layers and allowing them to function independently in various configurations, he reveals the secrets of the graphic artwork and at the same time shows how a specific artistic issue can be solved in many different ways.

The resulting works are simple, yet captivating in their form and profoundness. Traces of the artist’s personal journey - images of the passing world.

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1 http://cotucotam.pl/kalisz/art/tomasz-kawelczyk-puste-przestrzenie.




Dariusz Leśnikowski

Transl. Elżbieta Rodzeń-Leśnikowska