Oil on canvas,105x125cm
Year of creation:1983
About the author: Jerzy Lengiewicz (1931-2016) - painter and graphic artist, member of the Union of Polish Artists. Born in Sokolka, he studied as a free student at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. He actively contributed to the Bialystok artistic community, interested in geometric abstraction, matter painting. The way to learn about the latest ideas was to participate in plein-airs. The Bialystokers soon transferred them to their own land, to Bialowieza (Lengiewicz was their co-organizer). The young artist was also active in the Bialystok Branch, then the District of the Association of Polish Artists, to which he belonged since 1960. He participated in many group exhibitions, including the then prestigious Festival of Polish Contemporary Painting in Szczecin. Not surprisingly, the artist gifted with undying energy was invited to participate in international exhibitions. At one of them, the International Exhibition of Contemporary Art in Monte Carlo (1966), he received a distinction, while the crowning achievement of his work at that time was a gold medal for a group of Bialystok artists at the International Exhibition of Contemporary Art in Juvisy-sur-Orge near Paris (1969). Throughout his creative life he was extremely active, having participated in more than 80 group and solo exhibitions. In addition, from 1957 to 1994 he worked as a graphic editor for "Gazeta Białostocka", later "Gazeta Współczesna" and the monthly "Kontrasty". His drawings were recognizable for their distinctive, fluid and expressive lines. He drew semi-abstract nudes, with female shapes entangled in decorative botanical plant threads, or "Cobwebs," in which an intricate tangle of lines creates a decorative arrangement reminiscent of Art Nouveau works. Among the prized were the "Cathedrals" series with a strong decorative but also symbolic charge and numerous drawings of Bialystok. Despite subsequent changes in form, his paintings were also recognizable. For, as befits a creative artist, throughout his life he searched for new ways of painting, rubbing paints with a spatula, squeezing them directly from the tube onto the canvas, while enriching the texture with the addition of other materials, such as porridge, wax or varnish. Evidence of his explorations can be seen in his series of works. One of the first, "Dovecotes," were canvases with simplified forms reduced to geometric figures. Later he became interested in painting matter, biological forms, while wax reliefs illustrated his fascination with biology, life and related processes of transformation. Probably under the influence of Bialowieza nature, his palette acquired more vivid hues, flat forms began to resemble the texture of bark, the structure of leaves, insects or trees. The author called them "Dramas in the forest." Subsequent fascinations are illustrated by almost monochromatic "petite" paintings with ascetic, geometric figures. Their place was taken in the 1970s by canvases with painterly aggressive half figures struggling with matter. Recipients appreciated his works, the best proof being that Jerzy Lengiewicz's works enriched museum collections in Bialystok, Koszalin, Szczecin, Warsaw and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Gothenburg, among others. They have also found their way into private collections, not only in Poland, including those in France, Sweden, Germany, the USA, Canada and Japan. Jerzy Lengiewicz, who has always been a great colorist, claimed that painting is simple - you just have to put the paints on the palette in the right way. This lightness, harmony and decorative qualities of the paintings are the best recommendation of his work.
