Jerzy DUDA-GRACZ (1941 Częstochowa - 2004 Łagów), Souvenir from Piekary Śląskie, 1970

mixed technique, oil, canvas; 60.5 x 81 cm;
On the reverse:
- Inscribed: Souvenir from Piekary / oil 61 x 80 / Jerzy Duda-Gracz / price: 5,000 zloty / Address: Katowice / ul. Topolowa 6/1 / tel. 310-89;
- inscription on the loom: III O. P. P.
- stickers of a company with art supplies

Provenance:
private collection, Poland

Views of Silesia and the countryside near Częstochowa were the characteristic subject of the artist's paintings in the 1960s and 1970s. The genre scenes played out against their backdrop focused, as if through a lens, the features of communist reality. Duda-Gracz's realism, however, did not aspire to photographic precision. Although it was firmly rooted in the everyday life of the time, the painter's depictions operate primarily by means of symbols, biting but also often very apt irony, elaborate metaphors, or references to cultural, political and social contexts. He painted the everyday life of the provinces he loved so much with a shabby literalism, bringing to the surface national (or simply: human) vices, hypocrisy, poverty and the entire palette of mediocrity prevalent in that era. Jerzy Duda-Gracz's painterly commentaries can still be read like an excellent reportage or notes for sociological analysis. Interestingly, the unique style has not acquired the characteristics of exclusivity, on the contrary: it has become a language readable by the general public, and wildly popular.

It is worth noting that the motif from this city seems to be unique in the artist's oeuvre. The work comes from a period of creativity characterized by the dynamic flowering of the young painter's career. It was in 1970 that Jerzy Duda-Gracz held his first solo exhibition. In this decade, the artist's flagship works are created, such as "Polish Triptych", "Field Hamlet", "Horsemen of the Apocalypse, or Fucha". The artist cooperates with the magazines "Literatura" and "Szpilki", and becomes a lecturer at the Katowice branch of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. In 1979, he participates in the famous exhibition "Poles Own Portrait" at the National Museum in Krakow.

In the center of the offered composition is a worker against the background of a bakery landscape. The vertical color division of the work is interesting. On the right are visible the towers of the Basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Bartholomew in Piekary Slaskie and the cemetery, depicted in the dominant tones of ochre and dark green. On the left - a mine bathed in blues, grays and black. Another Silesian accent is the bottle of light full beer held by the protagonist, with the recognizable label of the Tychy brewery. The man's emaciated face, tired look and oversized clothes lend melancholy and existential heaviness to the work. Is he resting after a shift in the mine? Or is he returning from the famous and still practiced today pilgrimage of men to Piekary Slaskie, which the distinctive "postcard" inscription on the ribbon would confirm? Between faith and church and work and state, a Pole in a flannel shirt tries to measure himself against reality while holding tightly to a glass bottle. This symbolic image still causes a stir today.

Bibliography:
Jerzy Duda-Gracz. Painting and Graphics, Nowohuckie Centrum Kultury, Kraków 2019.