Rafał OLBIŃSKI (b. 1943), Cosmic Backstage

Acrylic, canvas; 46 x 34 cm;
Signed p. d.: Olbinski.

PROVENANCE:
- private collection, Poland.

EXHIBITED AND REPRODUCED IN:
Die Kunst des SPIEGEL / The Art of DER SPIEGEL: Titel-Illustrationen aus fünf Jahrzehnten / Cover Illustrations over Five Decades, [exhibition catalog], published by teNeues Verlag, 2004.


I am monstrously suspicious if a work of art requires translation. When a monstrous amount of words are used to create an impression of greatness. Great art is simple in its message - Rafal Olbinski.

Since the 1990s, Rafal Olbinski has increasingly devoted himself tǫ painting. His work is naturally influenced by his experience as a poster artist and draughtsman, thanks to which he is one of the most popular Polish artists abroad, awarded, among others, the Prix Savignac for the most unforgettable poster in the world or an award for a placard promoting New York as the world capital. He is also an artist who collaborates with publishing houses, for which he creates magazine covers for, among others, "Der Spiegel", "Newsweek", "Time", "The New York Times", "New Yorker", or Polish magazines such as "Charaktery". This influence can be seen in both the style and subject matter of the images created. In Rafał Olbinski's work, which derives̨ from the tradition of surrealism, one can find a characteristic aesthetic, a certain magic of the image. As Piotr Policht writes: "Although́ the poetics [of Olbinski's works] grows out of the Surrealist tradition, there is no uncanny element fundamental to that tradition - Olbinski seeks tǫ charm the vieweŕ rather thaṅ causé existential anxiety. Thus, the deformation of reality runs̨ in the opposite direction in his works - while historical surrealism dabbled in what was pushed out into the unconscious and disturbing, Olbinski seeks escapism, a world purged of anxieties and uncomfortable things, a safe, dreamlike asylum."