Signs of illusion

For years Zbigniew Purczyński has been operating with a recognizable set of artistic means, developed over the years, and yet his work is diverse, and some of the cycles created in recent years come as a surprise. Perhaps this is because the successive phases of his artistic work, even when they are in a way a completed stage of exploration, also define the foundation for subsequent creations. New works are a development or completion of reflections previously undertaken.

The essential motive of the artist’s search has always been space and light. It has been emphasized that the structure of reality visualized and analysed by Purczyński is multifaceted and multidimensional. It is at the same time a reflection of the structure of the world around us in its various manifestations.

In earlier works, the complexity of this artistic world had a “layered” character. Its individual components (embodying various qualities) overlapped, revealing the existence of successive layers only in some places, as if after opening a curtain, layers that remained in various relations with one another. Sets of lines or points of different concentration were spread on the plane in different configurations, and among them there existed single graphic existences of different nature (subject to the rigours of geometry or amorphous) coming as if from a different - than the basic matter of the images - world. The texturally and sometimes colourfully different zones met each other on the lines of contrasts (Contemplation).

If anyone remembers Purczyński’s artwork based on such qualities and assumptions – they will be somewhat surprised to see the works created in the recent period. Interferences were created between 2020 and 2024. The title of the entire series suggests that the works refer to the scientifically described and interpreted physical phenomena of overlapping waves (light, electromagnetic, acoustic). The artist translates scientific reflections into the language of art. He undoubtedly draws on his earlier graphic experience; after all, the new works are not a mechanical transposition of the results of scientific research into a composition of visual means. The works refer to a problem, but this is only an appealing inspiration for the artist.

Zbigniew Purczyński’s earlier works, references to specific artistic means that could be described as op-art by nature were very discreet. They served to illusorily deepen and differentiate space. They concerned small, subjected to deformation (in the relation convex – concave, front – back), isolated fragments of the composition, which were focused around carefully determined points on the plane (Allusion I).

Here, the shaping of the illusion of the depth of space has a somewhat greater significance. The works are characterised above all by reduction in the range of visual means. They are more disciplined, the rows of parallel lines are superimposed on perspectively depicted coloured planes, which mark out regularly shaped forms and become the main source of the perception of spatial depth (Interferences 4). These elements are the source of specific radiation, becoming the origin of light and the causative factor of its absence - shade. The colour scheme of the selected imagery components is still limited to primary colours, with the essential contrasts of green and red and blue and yellow. In some of the works, the suggestions of forms come from condensing or expanding, as well as varying the size of points. With great intuition, the artist limits the action of colour here, avoiding exaggeration and garishness. Pulsating, vivid zones of black, white and grey bring out convexities and zones of depression from non-existence, dynamising the space and producing a series of optical illusions. They simultaneously ‘glow’ and trick the eye, introducing additional colour into the composition, which is not actually present in the work.

The works show how visual means become a source for shaping forms, how, through his knowledge of phenomena concerning the physiology of our vision, the artist influences our reception habits, and how, like a charlatan, he brings fiction to life and makes it credible. The works are therefore also autothematic, addressing, among other things, the motivations and mechanisms of creation, the essence of art itself as a creative act. At the same time, the artist touches upon a mystery, he creates a space that can be interpreted not only literally, physically, as our environment with its morphology, but also as a space in a philosophical sense, a space with metaphysical characteristics.

Geometry rules here. But not the dispassionate one, reduced to a limited range of basic forms, but the animated and - in a particular way - poetic one.

In some works, the constituent visual elements are concentrated in the area of zones arranged in parallel and intersecting at right angles, but within them points pulsate, move, come forward, only to disappear in the depths (Interferences 3), or even - breaking the order - there are rows of lines, not parallel to each other, which intersect, change directions, create a kind of grid with irregular structures (Interferences 2). What comes to our mind, present earlier in Purczyński’s work, is the reference to biological motifs, to the world of nature, which has always been an inexhaustible source of inspiration.

The artist perfectly juxtaposes the various attributes of space, and makes convincing use of his knowledge of the nature of light. The visual components first gain luminosity, then, heading towards the shadow zones, they lose their colour and brightness, fade into darkness, only to break out again towards the light and become fleshy. This makes the compositions radiate and sound. Diagonally organised arrangements of elements, such as diagonal bands of adjacent spheres of shade and light (Interferences 2.5, Interferences 2.7), also dynamise the composition. Not only do such operations affect the impression of spatial depth, but they also differentiate and hierarchise the separated areas of the composition. Formally, such use of visual means also allows handling the relation between what is linear and what is pointorientated. This aspect was one of the factors that from the outset determined the balance of forces in Purczyński’s compositions.

Some of the works are enriched with colour and, what is characteristic, it is most often blue. Thus, we touch here on another and one of the primary aspects of the work of the artist from Łódź. Blue is the colour of meditation, an attribute of universal and perfect space, a sign of transcendence.

The colour in question is the colour dominant of a whole beautiful series of prints created by Purczyński a few years earlier (Blue Structure). We will certainly find in it the features that characterised his artwork from many years before. Looking at these works, however, we will also notice slightly different principles of constructing the complexity of the cosmos which the artist talks about. We also have there – thanks to the ‘veil lifting procedure’ – the possibility of looking into fragments of another, iris-captured world that leads its life parallel to the previous one (Blue Structure I, Blue Structure III).

In addition, however, these works, in terms of their structure, in some sense anticipate the artist’s later attitude manifested in Interferences. There is more geometric order here (than in the older graphics). The main imagery motifs, the blue planes, are filled with smaller components (mosaic-like juxtaposed faceted concave and convex forms), which are also, as separate wholes, characterised by geometric order. The as yet unorthodox order of the whole is a much stronger expression of intellectual exploration of the rules governing the construction of the world.

When we go back even further, to the works made in the 1990s or those created at the turn of the century, we can see that the visual reality there was even more complex, with more diverse formal means at work. Different textural zones were sometimes transformed into homogeneous planes. They were positioned in relation to each other at different angles and viewed from different perspectives (Phase I, Sentence). There were also more of the already mentioned individual, expressive inclusions. Stripes, triangles and amorphous shapes introduce dissonance into the composition, compete for dominance thanks to their distinctive colour, shape or special attributes, such as bright neon rings, a kind of intriguing radiation (Cycle II). Some of the compositions constitute a set of signs, belonging to the same origin and forming a kind of code, with which the artist attempts to express the meaning of things (Ephemeral Signs II). The language of these works, created twenty or twenty-five years ago, is very diverse. The artist played with the possibilities given to him to a greater extent, allowed himself even more freedom in depicting philosophical content. The artist incorporated calligraphic signs into his compositions, gestural traces of existence, accents much more unrestrained in form (88 x 60).

We can say (while being aware of certain simplifications contained in this statement) that - described in this chronological, vertical reference to the past - the evolution ultimately led the artist into areas dominated by deliberate simplification, a refined selection of elements. The search undertaken has produced effects characterised by the integration of components and the coherence of the message. This is a sign of new, even more profound creative awareness.

Zbigniew Purczyński is constantly modifying the language of artistic expression. He tones it down, yet still achieves pronounced, convincing expressions that do not only strike with their philosophical profundity, but also captivate with their visual qualities. Despite their considerably greater geometric order, the works still let the speculative go together with the lyrical element. They remain highly sensual and at the same time draw us into extrasensory areas, into a space of qualities that cannot be fully grasped and that cannot be defined.

Dariusz Leśnikowski

Translated by Elżbieta Rodzeń-Leśnikowska

Dariusz Leśnikowski




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