From impression to synthesis

On the occasion of one of her exhibitions Joanna Paljocha wrote: ‘In my everyday life I feel the need for continuous observation, recording, inventing and processing. It is an attitude of constant eagerness and vigilance.’

The surrounding world is therefore embraced by the eye of a sensitive observer, who is also an active artist. The artist who sees a landscape not only as a wide expanse of meadows, a row of trees or ripples on the surface of the pond, and an interior not just as a space filled with concrete objects or people. It is always a composition of forms and colours, their mutual relations, a visual equivalent of the components of the observed world.

The elements of the environment are reduced to a series of parallel lines, uniform colour planes, small geometric forms which are a visual counterpart of material manifestations of nature. The processed original motifs reflect the character and atmosphere of real objects and phenomena.

The process of analysis of an object selected to be ‘portrayed’ turns the originally real, tangible thing into a pure illusion, which then moves on to synthesis, suggestion, generalization. The three-dimensional world finds its counterpart in the vision on a twodimensional plane. Do we finally deal only with an ordered set of lines, forms and colours? When it comes to our perception, we can certainly remain at the level of formal analysis, admiring the preciseness and purity of the composition, a thoughtful relation of the imagery components of the work, the beauty of colours. However in a surprisingly painless manner we are able to use our imagination to move on from abstract elements arranged on the plane to real forms of nature that inspired the creation of the work.

Something makes us see meadows covered with lush grass, an image of the place where the earth meets the sky on the horizon line or a square in a small town, surrounded by houses.

In her paintings Joanna Paljocha usually features the world which seems unattractive and peripheral – provincial, suburban, filled with standard architecture. She deals with the reality of common objects: a bottle just put aside, a vase on the table, a bouquet of flowers, and in the landscape – checked patterns of fields and meadows, an electric pole visible against the sky, simple buildings appropriating the space. Nevertheless, the artist can discover special artistic values in every place.

She is enchanted with something that can become a challenge to transfer an observed view onto the plane of a painting. She perceives it with her senses, and then she often retains the image in the form of a photograph. The works are like notes; they are a response to the compulsion to immortalize intriguing phenomena.

Graphic works are the largest group in Joanna Paljocha’s artwork. There are also a lot of paintings.

Collages however are the works which are worth special attention. They are special neither due to the importance of themes nor even because of their quantity. In collages the attributes of graphic art are confronted with the qualities of painting. The reflected outlines of silhouettes exist on the paint surface, not within the smooth coloured layers of printing. Subtle texture effects, differences in thickness and character of the layers work together to create the impression of spaciousness. A simple and yet impressive idea is to use corrugated cardboard as a background, which not only evokes associations with a specific image theme: rows of ploughed furrows in the field, or in the urban landscape – architectural forms, but it is also associated with the inherent organicity, which – especially in case of landscapes – becomes a complementary element of the composition. Graphics have a sculptural relief character and they overcome their inherent flatness.

The painting fragments of the works are ‘invaded’ sections which are developed as if against painting values – by removing the surface. The exposed layers of corrugated cardboard adjoin the surfaces covered with paint, combining in a way two approaches to creating the reality in art.

It should be mentioned here that the artist has been looking for suitable backgrounds for her prints for a long time, using hand-made paper of different thickness and different textures; the echoes of those explorations can be observed for example in a series of landscapes from the area of Kaditzsch.

In Joanna Paljocha’s artwork we can notice numerous relations between the disciplines she deals with. Direct, tangible relations – visible in collages have already been mentioned. In many cases for Joanna Paljocha it is painting that is a starting point, or even an indispensable condition for the creation of graphic works. The relations between the manifestations of creation in both areas are characterized by a continuous exchange of experience. What is strikingly important – similar in both disciplines – is the character of the specific ‘graphic planning’ of a work.

In painting we see a lot of components of creative strategy that the author also adopted in graphic works. Here, too, a banal simple situation often becomes the theme (e.g. spring sowing). The imagery motifs exist among planes of carefully selected colours. Objects, only slightly modelled, stand out from the background by a clearly marked contour. Both the objects and the boundaries of the surrounding planes are blurred.

Despite that effect we feel that the objects enclosed within the basic geometric figures interact with one another by their form. We should mention here that despite the shared experience drawn from the area of both disciplines, the works often originate – figuratively and literally – from a different background as far as colour is concerned: in painting the exposition of colour is supported by the use of dark backgrounds, whereas graphic art usually starts with the white background. Thus, Joanna Paljocha’s latest graphics are even more intriguing as they are made by printing the same colours both on the white and black background.

In Joanna Paljocha’s art colour is the most captivating, key means of expression, despite the fact that its range is limited to the necessary minimum. Most of all the perceived colours and their mutual, complex relations evoke in the artist the need to retain the seen image.

They also play a role of a vehicle in the process of perception which helps reconstruct the reality. The manner in which Joanna Paljocha deals with colour explicitly confirms that her works are in a constant state of creation. After discovering a new, appealing colour or tone, the colour composition that was established earlier can be changed at any time, even just before the printing process starts or the painting is completed.

In most cases the subdued and whitened greys, greens and blues of different temperature are printed or painted extensively, sometimes with the use of iridescent print effect. Some of the works strike us with daring colour combinations, surprising energy (bold juxtapositions of greens and blues, yellows and purples, a captivating group of oranges in one of the painting still lifes). Colour becomes a pretext and at the same time a basic means of expression which effectively refers to the theme of the work (a nocturne painting Evening Landscape).

Paintings built on a limited palette also offer a wide range of experience induced by the apt arrangement of tones and values (On Condition That, Stroll).

Most graphic and painting works clearly expose the order of composition, creating the world presented within clear arrangements. The particular levels unite the presented imagery motifs. The horizontal order of composition and the temperature of colours become tools to create spatial depth. Movements and gestures of figures eliminate the potential sense of motionlessness.

The fundamental divisions of the composition are often determined by the setting itself; first of all a simple division into the top and the bottom, into ‘beneath’ and ‘above’ the horizon, the line of the window sill, the edge of the table. Then contrasts of the following lines become the point of interest; the horizontal ‘struggles’ with the vertical, the straight with the curved, coiling like a snake through the plane or closing the wellthought- out system of straight lines and regular geometric shapes in an arc. With time, the artist’s intention is naturally altered; there are additional figurative elements that identify, clarify the image, they play the role of consolidators that unite the whole and weaken the austerity of the original compositional situation.

Among graphic works, black and white linocuts exceptionally strongly reveal the principles of composition due to their simplicity and clarity. Thick lines forming imagery motifs, clear contours which divide the constituent parts of the plane, wide bands of hatching of different density going in different directions, expressive contrasts or tension between the spheres which evoke meanings and expression and ‘empty’ spots grab our attention.

In Joanna Paljocha’s artwork there is a significant group of works where the artistic activity aims to develop a sign for abstract concepts, to create equivalents to express mutual relations, states or feelings, those individual, personal, belonging solely to the author and those that relate to general relations between people. Again an amazing feature is the peculiar ‘banality’ of the presented story, which is expressed by incompleteness and ordinariness of the outlined situations, people and objects, the apparent lack of emotions hidden behind them. Simplified silhouettes are represented only by a line, a contour or a plane without any identifying details.

The image affects us like a landscape – the factor that is significant here is the synthesis of the starting situation, its simplification, the atmosphere and mood. The figures appeal to us by their poses, suggestive gestures (such as graphic Constellations or Reflections). Objects are often exposed against a neutral background. They conspicuously stand out from the background, strongly manifesting their presence and meanings.

Joanna Paljocha’s artistic activity is basically a kind of perpetual work in progress, where a synthesis of different experiences is important. Non-artistic activity, full of sensitivity and awareness when contemplating the reality, becomes an integral part of the creative process, as important as the effort dedicated to the execution of the work. Only in this way the passage in the process of creative reduction from the external impulse to its subtle and convincing artistic expression, executed by simple, clear means becomes possible.

Dariusz Leśnikowski

Transl. Elżbieta Rodzeń-Leśnikowska





KATALOG