Jerzy Duda Gracz, POET II, 1974

38,0 x 34,5 cm - oil, fiberboard, collage PORTRET RYSZARDA MARKA GROŃSKIGO
on the reverse on the board sticker filled with marker: POETA II / oil, pils. 24 x 24 cm / | Jerzy Duda-Gracz. 1974. | Katowice ul. Grabowa 5/14 | 40-172, on the board pasted over the board the following sticker: DEP 30



Ryszard Marek Groński (1939-2018) - writer, poet, publicist, author of song lyrics and stories for children - was a significant figure of the Polish cabaret scene and author of studies on its history. He collaborated with many magazines, including the satirical "Szpilki." In the 1970s, Jerzy Duda Gracz, who at the time was strengthening his ties with the stage community, published his ridiculous drawings in their pages. The painter's acquaintance with such artists as Kazimierz Grześkowiak, Jonasz Kofta, Wojciech Młynarski and the "eponymous" Ryszard Marek Groński - resulted in the production of numerous portraits. In the presented representation, the painter focused not only on rendering the satirist's physiognomic features, but also on the attributes of the profession. Shot in a relaxed pose, the smiling young man sits in an interior reminiscent of a craftsman's workshop. The technical nature of the room is emphasized by the cogged mechanism crammed into the perimeter of the composition. This unique, semi-symbolic setting makes the eponymous poet appear as an accurate judge of reality, an expert whose working tool - sometimes merciless and biting - is a pen.



♣ to the auctioned price, in addition to other costs, will be added a fee resulting from the right of the author and his heirs to receive remuneration in accordance with the Act of February 4, 1994 - on Copyright and Related Rights (droit de suite)

Jerzy Duda Gracz (Częstochowa 1941 - Łagów 2004)- painter, illustrator, stage designer, educator. He received his diploma from the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow at the Department of Graphics in Katowice in 1968. In 1976-82 he was a lecturer at the academy, then a professor at the Silesian University in Katowice. He also taught at the European Academy of Arts in Warsaw (1992-2001).
His paintings are characterized by technical virtuosity and attention to detail. He practiced art in the broadly defined realist convention with dominant figure deformation and grotesque. He created a world of unmasking, using the language of journalism and allegory. He is the author of several major projects, including the "Transfiguration" plafond in the church in Toporovo (1995) and the "Golgotha of Jasna Gora" series in the Monastery of the Pauline Fathers in Czestochowa (2000/2001). The artist has had more than 180 solo exhibitions at home and abroad (including Berlin, London, Paris, Moscow, Rome, Vienna, Florence, Düsseldorf, Chicago, New Delhi, Munich, New York and others). He participated in about 300 national exhibitions and international presentations of Polish art. He represented Poland, among others, at the XLI Art Biennale in Venice in 1984, at the XX and XXI World Art Fairs in Cologne in 1986 and 1987, and at EXPO '92 in Seville. Jerzy Duda Player's paintings are in the collections of the National Museums in Warsaw, Cracow, Poznan, Wroclaw and Gdansk, the Jagiellonian University Museum in Collegium Maius in Cracow, the Museum of the Earth of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, the art collection at Jasna Gora in Czestochowa and other district and city museums, and in private collections, including those of W. Ochman and W. Fibak; abroad - in the collections of the Uffizi in Florence, the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, the Ghent City Museum, the "BAWAG" Foundation in Vienna and the Vatican Collection, as well as in the galleries and collections of Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Israel, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, the USA, Venezuela, the UK, Italy and Hungary.