ALL THE BRIGHTNESS OF LONELINESS

‘There are three of us in the room, yet there is such a crowd…’ (1)
Włodzimierz Szymanowicz

One of the phenomena characterizing the condition of the modern man is loneliness in the crowd. It is a situation in which we cannot build close relationships with others, even those who are the closest. And paradoxically: the more people are around us, the bigger and more painful the sense of desolation can be.

The main theme of Paweł Kwiatkowski’s artwork is the man in the situation of alienation: anonymous - although some of the paintings retain many details of the figure, lonely - though usually depicted surrounded by other people. Looking at Kwiatkowski’s works, we feel like people around whom some minor or major personal dramas take palce, yet we do not notice them because they are not manifested in spectacular gestures.

The characters are drawn in a variety of ways – from almost realistic images, through those phenomenal, phantom-like, or hatched, as if scratched, up to the plane renditions, devoid of details allowing to identify the character. The nature of image elements sometimes resembles abstract patches. In Kwiatkowski’s painting, the characters, whose role is most of all the creation of model existential situations, are also captured in a sketchy manner rather than portrayed.

Despite the fact that the heroes of graphics and paintings could sometimes be suspected of some kind of relationship, it is not true indeed. The author isolates the characters in a specific way; we clearly feel the boundaries of their space, they are withdrawn. Both in Kwiatkowski’s graphic art and painting, the protagonists are often closed in claustrophobic interiors, they are shown like in a film - in tight frames. We feel the inauthenticity of their contact, they lack the significant bond. The artist’s works are made in large formats. The illustrated events happen close to the surface of the work. It ensures a sense of direct participation in the situation, and at the same time it enhances expression. This peculiar tangibility of things is very intense and makes even the most neutral, static scenes vivid.

The very portraits are not important. What really matters is the construction of a work of art that points to a specific individual human situation and its context. The characters’ expression is hidden not in their gestures, mimic patterns, in motion, but in the expression given to them by the artist who uses selected means of visual expression. What is important here is relationships, not the narrative itself - that is why the situations do not take place in the context of the second plan defined by details; there are also

rarely objects other than people there. Distinct, expressive imagery forms are contrasted with a graphic background. The figures of subsequent plans seldom evoke a convincing sense of depth. More props, a kind of unique existential staffage can be found in Paweł Kwiatkowski’s paintings, but still their range remains limited. That anecdotal excess is immediately toned down by the foreshortening, the focus of optics.
Images of some characters are repeated in various works, they enter into new relationships in succeeding compositions. In some cases such ‘matrices’ can be multiplied, shown from various points of view (en face, from the profile, turned back), at the same time rendered using various graphic techniques. We do not always see that the same character is involved, just as we are unable to capture all aspects of someone’s personality, states and conditions, we cannot get to know someone well. In the formal plan, similar actions shape the varied rhythm of the composition, determined by the arrangement of characters, their poses and gestures.
The artist often uses challenging perspectives. He goes for sophisticated layouts and frames. It occurs that the images of the characters aggressively push on us, fill the whole plane, some of them, ‘cropped’, enter or leave the picture plan - as if someone hastily shot it, did not manage to set the lens in time. We have a sense of the reportage character of the expression. The artist carries out a ‘cold-eyed’ analysis, he tries to remain neutral.
The terminology associated with the media of film and photography has deliberately been used here. After all, today their impact on our recognition and assessment of reality is huge. It is one of the decisive features of modern times. In the mass of sensational information, those quiet, hidden media problems are lost somewhere, as if shameful and unattractive.
The vision of the condition of modern man in Kwiatkowski’s works is rough, rather gloomy. In graphics, the artist uses the attributes of the ‘noir’ convention. Just like in the emotional layer the atmosphere of depression, mimic indifference, stillness or silence is predominant in large part, so in the visual plan, including the colour - black and white and a gamut of grays dominate.
Sometimes colour appears within this particular chromatic space. It is obvious that it does not perform here a realistic, imitative, but only expressive function. The colour stain does not create any particular pictorial value, it does not define the form, it is rather a stigma, a visual sign. The colour defines, distinguishes from the crowd. In painting, it also has no imitative function, it does not act as a tool that identifies the object. It has a metaphorical and mood-creating value. Within the colour gamut, contrasts of vivid colours (especially sharp blues and reds) are easily visible in relation to other components of a subdued, sophisticated, rather cool palette.
Materialising of experiences is achieved in Kwiatkowski’s artwork due to a variety of formal and technical means. Creating his visual compositions, the artist uses many techniques, including: drypoint, screenprinting, monotype or collagraphy. He often applies them within one plane in order to use those particular attributes which emphasize to the fullest the essence of the depicted situation. As far as his choices are concerned, he shows great intuition.
In many earlier works he often used reprinting. He still uses it, but he weakened its domination when he noticed the surplus of the mechanical factor in the image. Collagraphy and monotype play an important role in creating the represented world. Both of these techniques pose a risk and at the same time the value of chance. The use of collagraphy as a heterogeneous technique, taking advantage of the combination of different materials, and monotype, associated with a one-off, unique printing, allows to obtain a special texture of the image.
When we consider Kwiatkowski’s overall artwork, we will notice that it is also characterized by a special type of relation between the disciplines he deals with. What is painterly in this artwork is often influenced by graphics, what is graphic is often painterly, based on an expressive gesture. The artist enhances this personal touch by introducing drawing into graphics.
Those who seek analogies between Paweł Kwiatkowski’s works and the achievements of the latest trends in contemporary art point out, inter alia, the references to the poetics of the new figuration. Similarly - Kwiatkowski’s works are a reaction to doubts, disgust, a feeling of threat or loneliness. Painting in particular bears something of the moving images of this trend, especially the works by Francis Bacon. However, even though the context itself, the spatial relations of the protagonist and the interior in which he is placed, the manner of operating with colour are similar to those present in the works of the representatives of the trend mentioned above, the existential situation of the character is shaped differently in Kwiatkowski’s paintings. There is also less deformation or macabre, and more metaphor, more order governing the rhythmical graphic works. The art created by Paweł Kwiatkowski is undoubtedly personal, authentic and original. To a large extent, however, it is also an attempt to answer a more general, yet always significant existential questions.
Today it is very difficult to point to a consistent system of norms and values that gives confidence and support. We observe the degradation of social relationships and the growing inability to establish real relationships with others. It brings about uncertainty, creates frustration and consequently leads to the escape from the world. This particularly applies to people with an extremely sensitive psyche, a delicate emotional construction. How to capture this state in the art, not trivialising the problem, avoiding the overuse of words and cliché statements... The point is to - paraphrasing a well-known quote from Norwid – ‘give the proper

---------------------------------------------------- 1 The quote comes from a poem by Włodzimierz Szymanowicz Tęsknica, written in 1966. The poem was included in the book of poems Zaproście mnie do stołu, published in Warsaw in 1986.



Dariusz Leśnikowski

Transl. Elżbieta Rodzeń-Leśnikowska