Pawel Kowalewski, 160224, 2024

mixed technique, serigraph, watercolor, bold pastel, 100 x 70 cm

In 2005, Pawel Kowalewski created a reinterpretation of his painting "Mon Cheri
Bolsheviq" from 1984. The work was a commentary on the surprising ability to seduce the
West that Russia has possessed for decades. In 2005, Mon Cheri Bolsheviq has not completely
changed, he only took on a new face - that of Vladimir Putin, who with his passionate
lips and with his musings to the West, he created the appearance of a man with whom one
can be befriended. The new version of the work presented a kind of personification of Russia. Cold,
calculating eyes and red, painted lips, in which fell in love with
intellectuals, artists, political elites, but also ordinary bread eaters. Since the creation of the
the second version of the work almost twenty years have passed. And lo and behold - first on February 24, 2022, and
then on February 16, 2024 - the world twice saw the real nature of Russia and the true
face of Vladimir Putin. This face that Putin is now showing, the face of a murderer, a criminal,
vividly resembling the Joker, has already ceased to entice the West, intellectuals and artists.
It has simply become the criminal face of a murderer.

Pawel Kowalewski (b. 1958, Warsaw): From 1978 to 1983 he studied at the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where he graduated with honors in the studio of Stefan Gierowski. In 1982 (together with Ryszard Grzyb, Jaroslaw Modzelewski, Włodzimierz Pawlak, Marek Sobczyk and Ryszard Wozniak) he founded the Gruppa art formation, one of the key formations of Polish art of the 1980s. Kowalewski's work is diverse in genre - it includes painting on canvas and paper, photography, sculpture (small forms), installations and ready mades. Characteristic of his style are the conceptual-Dadaist comments and titles with which the artist labels his works. In his work each work has a deep meaning, a commentary on reality, a reference to a literary text, personal life or to the pages of history. His works are in many prestigious collections, including: The National Museum in Warsaw, the National Museum in Cracow, the Zachęta National Gallery of Art, the Jerke Museum, the Museum of Art in Lodz, the collection of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, as well as the ING Polish Art Foundation, the Starak Family Foundation, in private collections including Cartier, Isa Brachot.