Andrzej Szewczyk (1950 Szopienice - 2001 Cieszyn), Untitled, circa 1987.

Origins
private collection, Poland

Biography
Painter, sculptor, author of commentaries on his works. In 1974-1978 he studied at the Faculty of Visual Education at the Silesian University in Katowice, Cieszyn branch. Initially engaged in painting and sculpture. In the late 1960s, he created his first spatial arrangements and participated in art actions. In his painting, he denied the traditional role of the painting image and the role of the painter as an artist. He was interested in impersonal, mechanical painting, but at the same time joyful and vital. He used unusual sub-images and painting materials (walls, mirrors, school notebooks, maps). He imitated folk ways of decorating his surroundings. Since the late 1970s, issues of writing: writing, books, calligraphy have become prominent in Szewczyk's art. Since 1981, compositions have been created from crayon cuttings, wooden blocks glued to boards and canvases, poured over wax, paint and lead. The most famous in Szewczyk's work are the realizations from the Library series (since 1986). They consist of wooden boards-books, covered with lead writing. The artist was associated with the Foksal Gallery in Warsaw and the Starmach Gallery in Cracow. Works in the collections of the Museum of Art in Lodz. Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw, Upper Silesia Museum in Bytom.