Jan Świtka (1939), TALK IN THE BACK, 1971

oil/canvas, 80 x 46 cm (framed)
signed, dated and described on the back: JAN ŚWITKA / ROZMOWA W TŁOKU - II / 1971 / OLEJ 80 x 46

The urban crowd is the most important subject of Jan Świtka's paintings. In 1969 Andrzej Turowski wrote about the peculiarities of his imagery: "Świtka uses contemporary ways of observing the world: cursory and moving vision, simultaneous selective [...]. He notes impressions as if through a movie camera; silently like a narrator he follows his characters, only to melt with them again, become them and see through them. This constant identification with the subject and alienation from the personae dramatis impose a plastic multiplanarity on the action. As an editor, Świtka applies rigorous cuts among frames and images, does not allow the narrative to develop, breaks plots, rearranges persons, and contradicts the unfolding scenes. [...] he points not to persons and objects, but to the functional relationships existing between them, these mechanisms and principles [...] only now understood and artfully named in such a juxtaposition" ([in:] Jan Świtka. Painting, April 1969, Society of Friends of Fine Arts in Warsaw [exhibition catalog], Warsaw 1969, p. nlb.).