About a certain process with an image disappearing in the background

of knowledge about existence, the knowledge attained through rational construction or irrational intuition and expression. Grzegorz Sztabiński is undoubtedly the one who represents the first attitude. The analyses of his work often emphasize that it is dominated by rational- -comprehensive way of thinking. It seems obvious, if we take into consideration the fact that the artist is a philosopher – practitioner and in his works he looks for visual counterparts of the general universal content, namely the relation of the whole to its parts, mutual relations of: constancy and variability, linear duration and cyclic occurrences, the opposition of: chaos – cosmos, duration – change, visibility – invisibility.

The results of subsequent creative activities increase his experience, and some specific elements (image motives – primal and transformed, objects and their reflections preserved in a variety of visual media) enter the area of the artist’s thought and imagery space, they are further consistently contested and transformed, forming and initiating an infinite sequence of activities. The continuation, the lack of the concrete which could be defined as an individual work of art is the equivalent of intellectual reflections evoking the successive steps.

Accentuating the aspect of processuality, the lack of orientation towards uniqueness and finiteness of a work of art is most easily associated with the tradition of Conceptual Art. The artist, however, is rather more willing to accept the definition of his approach as Post-Conceptual.

In his visualisations images, installations are not only a counterpart or an expression of the essential, most critical mental factor, but also a necessary element of the whole process, as the stages of introducing order (an attempt to find it and to express it) and destruction – as a modification of the rules accepted before – take place in the domain of the sensual factor necessary here, and the artist can not go without them, as in the case of – sometimes only virtual – records of methods of a few conceptual artists.

Is not Grzegorz Sztabiński’s work a perpetual assurance (self-assurance) of the intuition that an image (regarded as an object externalization of the mental process) is an essential element of art?

Following the successive stages of the artist-philosopher’s creation we can observe a characteristic aspect: the evolution of the image as an element which is subject to a variety of destructive impacts (distortions being a result of geometric transformations, multiplications [repetitions], obscuring and blurring its representation up to blackout planes used to cover it) and which nevertheless importunately recurs. Not only in the works on a plane or in spatial installations, but also during performance actions.

And in the latter the ‘annihilation’ of the image was not successful. It seems that the artist will probably have to accept the fact that the image, despite a continuous fight of knowledge about existence, the knowledge attained through rational construction or irrational intuition and expression. Grzegorz Sztabiński is undoubtedly the one who represents the first attitude. The analyses of his work often emphasize that it is dominated by rational- -comprehensive way of thinking. It seems obvious, if we take into consideration the fact that the artist is a philosopher – practitioner and in his works he looks for visual counterparts of the general universal content, namely the relation of the whole to its parts, mutual relations of: constancy and variability, linear duration and cyclic occurrences, the opposition of: chaos – cosmos, duration – change, visibility – invisibility.

The results of subsequent creative activities increase his experience, and some specific elements (image motives – primal and transformed, objects and their reflections preserved in a variety of visual media) enter the area of the artist’s thought and imagery space, they are further consistently contested and transformed, forming and initiating an infinite sequence of activities. The continuation, the lack of the concrete which could be defined as an individual work of art is the equivalent of intellectual reflections evoking the successive steps.

Accentuating the aspect of processuality, the lack of orientation towards uniqueness and finiteness of a work of art is most easily associated with the tradition of Conceptual Art. The artist, however, is rather more willing to accept the definition of his approach as Post-Conceptual.

In his visualisations images, installations are not only a counterpart or an expression of the essential, most critical mental factor, but also a necessary element of the whole process, as the stages of introducing order (an attempt to find it and to express it) and destruction – as a modification of the rules accepted before – take place in the domain of the sensual factor necessary here, and the artist can not go without them, as in the case of – sometimes only virtual – records of methods of a few conceptual artists.

Is not Grzegorz Sztabiński’s work a perpetual assurance (self-assurance) of the intuition that an image (regarded as an object externalization of the mental process) is an essential element of art?

Following the successive stages of the artist-philosopher’s creation we can observe a characteristic aspect: the evolution of the image as an element which is subject to a variety of destructive impacts (distortions being a result of geometric transformations, multiplications [repetitions], obscuring and blurring its representation up to blackout planes used to cover it) and which nevertheless importunately recurs. Not only in the works on a plane or in spatial installations, but also during performance actions.

And in the latter the ‘annihilation’ of the image was not successful. It seems that the artist will probably have to accept the fact that the image, despite a continuous fight the relations between the object and its image (drawing, photocopy), the intruder, which, changing the context of objects’ functioning, disturbing (or expanding) the process of perception of the complex relations, makes us consider their ambiguity.


Dwa nieprawdziwe obrazy drzewa VI/3, kredka, olej, papier, 49,3 x 63, 1988 Two False Images of a Tree VI/3, crayon and oil on paper


Dwa nieprawdziwe obrazy drzewa VI/3, kredka, olej, papier, 49,3 x 63, 1988 Two False Images of a Tree VI/3, crayon and oil on paper

The same object is presented many times from different points of view, which suggests relativity of various perceptions of reality. Similarly the question of identity comes into our mind when in one of the works we observe a set of slats, an object counterpart (in quantity and length) of lines that make up a given shape. In other doings the image of a tree first put on the profile of a two-dimensional figure and then a solid figure is subject to changes being a result of the impact of the background shapes. When placed on the spatial material it changed the status of its existence.

Herein we are concerned with a specific kind of relativism. Is the picture still the same image? Is it still the image of the same object if it takes various shapes, depending on the character of the operation? Thus, is the comprehension of the notion still the same when we change the context in which we function?

Acting with tracing paper (to which the motif of a cross or a triangle is subject), its multiple folds and a simultaneous transformation of an image which it depicted, increase an impression of illegibility of the basic meaning of the element; like clichés too often used in a variety of contexts. In all stages mentioned above the image was deformed, yet it still existed; it not only did not disappear but it transferred into self-quotations, it also became an element of real space, first by introducing textural elements, and later by becoming components of the real space of an installation and then of the time and space of a performance.

Moreover, all these activities simultaneously stressed relativity of our perception. Considering the artist’s position, they somehow devalued the conviction concerning the likelihood of existence of the only true System whose goal was to present the matter in the way to reveal the essence of what is spiritual, absolute and universal.

In the early works there was a tree – an emotionally neutral motive. Then some other motives appeared, burdened with numerous meanings and possibilities for interpretation (the cross, the Shield of David). To some extent it might have been a manifestation of yielding to personal emotions, the pressure of the external context.

The artist himself stressed the potential presence of a personal, physical factor – e.g. a sign of exhaustion. Was not the decision to abandon photography as a medium in the process of preserving and duplicating an image associated with a desire to fill a work of art with some emotions connected with the imperfections of the work done by the human hand? And does not the very effort of calligraphing the juxtaposed fragments of the image of a tree mean a kind of meditation – a specific philosophy of life?

And what about emotions associated with the experience of everyday social, political, cultural reality? Is not the use of imagery motives rooted in culture, ambiguously meaningful, a trace of such emotions? These signs can obviously be regarded as a set of lines apt for transformations, however, the effects of transformations deliberately performed on them, together with their meaning conveyance do not merely occur as a random act, they are predictable. Apart from the diagnosis of the state of the depicted semantic areas in culture (superficial treatment or Sacrum decline, cultural transformations, conflict of value systems of the contemporary world) the artist wanted to say about a sign worn out by the superficial approach to the sphere it evokes, or the separation of the sign from its essential designatum.

And is that by chance that the paintings whose basic imagery motives were shadowed were created in the mid- 1980s? Do not they contain echoes of the events of that time? The incompleteness of imitating the visual sphere in these paintings could be a reflection of the incompleteness of existence.

In his works, with the use of self-quotations, Grzegorz Sztabiński – through retrospection – referred to the past as well. It was obviously an attempt to capture the work of art as a whole, and to find the primary sense. Taking the character of the image memory into account, the memory which does not exactly preserve the features of creation chronology, it was not possible to reach that goal. It seems however, that the artist was not only motivated by a desire (or a hope) to keep the logical memory of the whole artistic process, but also by the emotional purely human desire to preserve moments from the past, to form them into a coherent continuous whole.

Turning to nature was a special moment in Grzegorz Sztabiński’s work. Nature and its deliberate dynamism had been primary and standard for art for a long time, being in the past a criterion of assessment of what is well-founded in artistic endeavours. Art transcends the world of nature and together with science, morality and religion it creates the world of culture.

The elements of nature which appear in Grzegorz Sztabiński’s creation build or participate in creating installations. They become a more and more important point of reference, though the number and character of these elements are limited. What happened in the installations was a transfer from a two-dimensional image of a tree, through its presence intensified by texture, up to the physical existence in the form of twigs. The arrangements of twigs and slats are considered by the artist to be signs of a mysterious language which nature uses to talk to us.

The artist emphasised his strong emotions concerning the mysterious character of nature and the need to read out the signs of nature to discover the truth hidden there. The numerous actions mentioned above accentuate the significance of the emotional factor in Grzegorz Sztabiński’s work. The art, that, considering its nature, should be reserved and calculated, dominated by the philosophical aspect in its concept, and the geometric one in the image, was in this way really ‘human’.

In the course of the artistic process of verbalising an abstract idea the artist juxtaposes elements deriving from a realistic (real) background, such as e.g. images (signs) of trees, branches – in his installation he uses everyday objects as well – composing them with abstract, geometric forms. It was stressed many times that the aesthetic value, the side effect here, is not the superior goal of this art. Nevertheless Grzegorz Sztabiński’s works evoke unquestionable profound visual qualities, they are of great aesthetic value. Grzegorz Sztabiński’s art is not merely a reflection of intellectual considerations, but also a material construct containing some specific visual motives, subject to the rules of artistic formation of an image. Even the way the effects of logical operations (diagrams, grids), equivalents of abstract phenomena are formally presented on a plane, depends on the author’s will.

The aesthetic values of paintings and drawings as well as Grzegorz Sztabiński’s spatial compositions are irrefutable. The artist’s works are dominated by subtle plastic actions. A drawing of the crown of a tree, made with great precision – even for that reason that it is necessary to repeat it – creates a kind of sophisticated ornament. Fragments of the tree crown also look as perfect images (though they are not), showing the similarity of a fractal to its part. We take great pleasure in following the ducts (one- or multi-coloured) contrasting with the background, which give way to lines reflecting that element of nature and rhythms that are the effect of some definite presumptions, according to which the components of the whole sophisticated composition are organised.

We feel that its particular parts (planes dominated by the rhythms of tree contours, those characterised by distortions as well as ‘the realistic images of a tree against the background’ or geometric symbols) were arranged with great care and skill, as far as their size, priority and mutual proportions were concerned. The artist uses the plane to juxtapose abstract and organic forms, irregular dispersed (the tree crown, the lines of frottage…) with geometric ones.


Obraz drzewa, kredka, akryl, olej, płótno, 54 x 65 cm, 1988 Image of a Tree, crayon, acrylic and oil on canvas

Some of Grzegorz Sztabiński’s paintings, though they are characterised by obvious care and the tranquillity typical of any complex reflection, are more dynamic. Not only is it expressed by stronger accents of emotions, but also by the intention to test some rules with regard to the phenomenon of movement – such disturbances as dislocations, rotation, suggesting ‘vanishing’ perspective. This kind of endeavours can also be considered to foreshadow the advent of the next stage – going beyond the two-dimensional space into the area of the installation or performance.

In the artist’s works colour is subordinate to line. Colouring focuses on a limited palette. It comprises perfectly sensed reds, metaphysical blues, greens and browns juxtaposed with black in Sposoby bycia (Manners of Being), phenomenal, tonally distinguished colours in Pamięć obrazu (Memory of the Painting), palettes of greens and blues in Milczące collage’e (The Silent Collages), a variety of ‘dimmed’ browns and greys in Między-rzeczy (Inter- Objects) or Cięcia (Cuttings).

What is striking here are the attempts to expand the paintings’ space obtained by juxtaposition of coloured and black planes, by placing fragments of the composition in shadow, half shadow and light, when the shadow falls widely on the plane of the painting owing to the use of different kinds of perspective; in the installation the space of the exposition, naturally deep as it was expanded by means of the elements lying on the floor and those hanging on the walls, is even additionally deepened by the perspective exposition of the drawn objects.


Milczący collage VIII, olej, papier, płótno, 81 x 65 cm, 1988-2004 The Silent Collage VIII, oil and paper on canvas

Milczący collage IX, olej, papier, płótno, 81 x 65 cm, 1988-2004 The Silent Collage IX, oil and paper on canvas

The paintings, in their spatial character created by multilayered representations, obtained by mutual contrast of the representational and abstract elements, simultaneously depicted making their way to the Absolute, the Rule, the Whole by penetrating the spheres of the unknown. In three-dimensional works this antinomy occurs as well: the recognizable objects and their images are followed by traces of geometric actions performed on these objects. These endeavours – apart from being representations of relativity in identification of an object and its representations – are also an attempt to recognize varied spaces where respectively: the object, its visual image and the reflection concerning their mutual relationships function. It also reveals, in a metaphorical way, the development of a concept, its recedence, sometimes its deconstruction and deterioration (moving away to the shadow sphere).

Some researchers state that, when considering Grzegorz Sztabiński’s works, the viewer is able to notice mainly, or merely the aesthetic values of a work of art (colour arrangements, shade and light effects, the rhythm of the elements, perceptible lines of tension), however, it is possible to conclude that the means of expression properly selected by the artist undoubtedly draw our attention to the very essence of the operation. Inquisitiveness of viewers who, for the last few decades, have been used to Neo-Avantgarde art, as well as their increased cultural competence are the reason why they are able to understand at least a part, an outline of the game which Grzegorz Sztabiński plays in the realm of art.

As beholders we first of all succumb to the feeling that we face a work of art that is genuine, reliable and honest. It happens that even if we do not know the rules that determine a given artistic message we take great pleasure in having contact with it. Grzegorz Sztabiński’s work is a case in point.

The search within the universal values and their relationships, because of its logic and order, evokes a specific sense of… beauty. As beauty can be discovered in many ways: it is the beauty of what is presented, the beauty of the way it is made, the beauty of an artistic concept with its consistency as well as the real beauty when a work of art truly enriches man and the world.

In the kind of art intended to be a mirror reflection of reality, the relations, connections and proportions which have an impact on the composition and appearance of the elements seem to give us certainty, they create an illusion of the world’s cognition. In common perception they are a source and a guarantee of beauty.

Although Grzegorz Sztabiński does not resign from the tangible character of art, the aesthetic factor appears to be of secondary significance. What is essential here are the rules controlling the composition of the elements, inspired by mathematical, logical laws or created by the artist, not a reflection of the visible world based on the observation of reality. The fundamental oppositions were illustrated by the artist by means of the similar imagery motives. However, he used his own varied rules, depending on what abstract notions he had in mind.

The sense of purposeful and consistent actions (their precision and accuracy as well) is very clear in these works. And even when the artist, accepting a mistake (which is an effect of the search), changes the algorithm – we trust him; there is a sense of harmony based on the conviction that the means of expression and the assumed goal have been properly selected. The difficulty in perceiving the whole of the phenomena (due to a physical inability to continue the reflection which is a result of the immanent infinity of the process or the constant decrease and the final atrophy of the visual elements) might be a source of subsequent logical decisions – their tangible sense brings the viewer’s satisfaction.

In his work Grzegorz Sztabiński tries to convince us that by means of visual forms we are capable of perceiving only a part of the phenomenon of existence. The attempt to make all the processes that take place in it visible is typical of human beings, yet as the artist’s search proves it is condemned to failure.

In the artist and philosopher’s endeavours there is an effort to comprehend and capture the Divine Logic. The creator, who can not achieve it only with the tools of philosophy, aspired to do it with the means of artistic expression. He realises the common desire for cognition, trying to discover, to understand and to abolish the fundamental oppositions. Coming across some obstacles on his way, he absorbs the successive experiences, taking a challenge to the man, the researcher and the artist.

His creation is due to neither incomprehension nor certainty and understanding – it is an expression of search, a desire to reach the truth, despite the fact that at the moment of failure it would be easy to continue an act of unreasonable defiance, resigning from all kind of reflection – as he claimed in his writings.

In the logical sequence of search Grzegorz Sztabiński does not ultimately offer us the image of what is absolute. The speculated logic of operations sustains a failure against the imperfection of reflecting the visual factors. However, the works are an expression of the world’s improvement and the natural nostalgia for the ultimate perfection. Grzegorz Sztabiński’s evolving art is an expression of transience, a process of changes involved in eternity. The artist shares a sequence of actions with us, the actions that are a representation of a given process.

Grzegorz Sztabiński’s attitude is a great pilgrimage through the area of art and philosophical reflection. The artist not only wishes to exist in the world but to be there as a reasonable and creative being

Dariusz Leśnikowski

Transl. Elżbieta Rodzeń-Leśnikowska


Covering, shifting, disappearing

Shifting, covering and removing are frequently employed in the course of artistic activities. Shifting an element, say, by moving it from the center of an arrangement to its margin, it is a procedure which aims to improve the composition or change its character (e.g. to convert it from open to closed). Covering, also known as „masking” consists in covering a certain shape in order to check what the arrangement of other components would look like should it be omitted.

Disappearance is realized by partial or complete removal of some form. Typically, these procedures are treated as purely technical, useful during certain stages of completing the final version of the work. An artist forgets about them as soon as he finishes his work. The viewer usually does not realize whether and which elements of the composition were subject to the processes described above.

I realized the potential in exposing such actions which, during normal painterly work or drawing, are treated as purely pragmatic while I was working on my series Silent collages/ Milczące collages. The starting point of these realizations were my oil and acrylic paintings I had completed in the eighties. Several of them were showcased at exhibitions, a few were sold, but in general this cycle failed to give me a sense of satisfaction. In 2004, I used these paintings in an action which can be described as „masking” of a kind. I covered places which I found especially irritating with small squares cut from white or black paper. The effect encouraged to reflect on its meaning, so I pasted paper elements on the previously painted canvas. Thus, I fixed the result of the action of ‚masking’, which in the normal procedure of painting is removed in the final version of the work. Thus, paintings became dual in nature. They were connected by two periods of time, two decisions that were taken.

Pasting pieces of paper onto paintings is associated with collage. For cubists, dadaists, surrealists and constructivists this technique was a new way to create works of art. Its advantage was the possibility of creating a link between the work and the daily life through a direct transfer of its parts onto the painting. Collages were thus „eloquent” – in cubism, they made the meaning of drawn or painted works concrete, in constructivism, they were the confirmation of the materialistic nature of the surface and actions performed on it, in surrealism, they constituted a smooth transition towards the surreal.

Therefore, the pasted fragments had to have a distinct character, to be rich in meaning. In the case of my actions, this situation was changing. Black squares of paper smothered the earlier painterly expression. They introduced areas of „silence”. They questioned the conclusion of the painting process, expressing doubts about the validity of the solutions used during it and also provided evidence of the arbitrary character of considering any result of work as final. The idea of the painting underwent destabilization, as the possibility of reenacting the process of transformation was thus revealed.

I asked myself, therefore, a question whether such a peculiar performativization could not have appeared previously, in other forms, in my artistic actions? Reflecting on this issue, I drew attention to shifting and disappearance occurring in the painting and drawing cycles I had been producing for over forty years. They consisted generally of a few or a dozen works, which differed in that some of their components were subject to shifts in subsequent projects.

This process occurred in a systematic way. The overall distribution of elements on the plane remained the same in the subsequent works comprising the cycle. Only selected shapes changed their position, gradually being shifted up or down, to the right or left. Sometimes, the process of shifting took place in relation to one shape, such as an outline of a tree.

In subsequent drawings or paintings, I showed its parts in various configurations (e.g. 1/6, 2/6, 3/6, 4/6, 5/6) in order to eventually provide a complete shape. Sometimes, I also used a reverse principle, moving systematically from an entire shape to its parts, and then disappearance. Later, from the early eighties, I linked this kind of transformative approach with the change of the form I used. I still used the shape of a tree but I also used an outline of an equilateral cross, star, triangle or a specific letter. I drew a given form of tracing paper, and then I folded the paper, which led to unexpected transformations of the initial theme. Drawings on tracing paper I either included into my work, or moved the resulting deformed shapes onto the surface of paper or canvas. This resulted in destabilization of the patterns of familiar forms. They were simultaneously associated with what we know, while going beyond the dichotomous oppositions which we use in everyday life and which we also employ in art.

What followed was a dynamic oscillation between the initial shape and the directly observed modified forms. Sometimes, I placed such an initial shape in the work treating it as a reference point, at other times I let the mutated elements to function independently.


Między skończonością i nieskończonością II, tusz, papier, 50 x 50 cm, 1979 Between the Finite and the Infinite II, India ink on paper


Między skończonością i nieskończonością V, tusz, papier, 50 x 50 cm,1979 Between the Finite and the Infinite V, India ink on paper

Operations described were always conducted systematically. The basis of the activities were numerical sequences, in various ways related to the principles of transforming the elements. The reason for adopting an objective basis of the activities („the rules of operation” as I described it in the title of a series of paintings in 1975) was to provoke a kind of randomness. I was not attracted by purely subjective decisions related to the transient emotions or a free movement of the hand. The unpredictable (and in this sense, random) nature of the shape undergoing transformations was to be a result of the application of the adopted algorithm, and thus in some sense forced by its relevant characteristics. The element of emotion in my work was connected with the expectation of what the result would be of strict adherence to predetermined rules.

Disappearance of elements in the cycles of paintings or drawings was also a consequence of assumed transformations or shifts. Steadily moved elements came to a certain limit (it could be a drawn shape or edge of the plane) and this situation, to continue their movement in subsequent work from the same cycle became impossible.

Also, the changes in the shapes were to suggest the existence of other possibilities of transformation which I did not include. Therefore, in my comments to these projects I often suggested that the movement according to the rules can continue, but outside the area of visibility.

I also encouraged the viewers to continue the activities which they learned watching the presented works, and to imagine the infinite development of transformations suggested in them.

The quest for intellectual stimulation of the audience, getting them to treat works is not as definitive, optimal visual solutions, but as a stage of performative transformation, accompanies most of my artistic activities. In the early eighties, these suggestions led to singular actions that can be categorized as performance art. They consisted in a public presentation of the transformation process which I applied to the elements that appear on paper or canvas. I showed the most extensive action of this kind, entitled Poza obraz (Beyond Painting) for the first time during the Third International Symposium of Performance Art in Lyon in 1981. It sparked interest because, in addition to actions, the performers were then to present their visual art works. Art critics present at the event emphasized the close relationship between artistic creativity and the shown action in the case of my artistic output.

As a consequence of the so-called performative turn in contemporary art, as well as in theoretical considerations, emphasis is usually placed on questioning the boundaries between artistic disciplines. In various areas of art, one attempts something that resembles a spectacle.

I think that this also applies to the activities of some artists using traditional means of art. Then, their thinking and actions do not culminate in a single work. This is not a realization, where, by developing the concept, the preparatory phase and, finally, the execution one aims at a single object which is the sum of experiences and thoughts. Specific works are rather stages on the road – illustrating the state of reflection which will progress further.




8, 9. Poza obraz, performance, 1981 / Beyond the Picture, performance

Therefore, it is not contemplation that is expected of the recipient but interaction. Sometimes, it is physical in nature and consists in interactive participation in the shaping of an object or situation. This activity, however, can also be mental in nature and rely on taking into account factors related to the development of something, the occurrence of shifts, noticing covering or unveiling, realizing the disappearance, which consists only in going beyond the area of visibility, or sometimes a complete annihilation.