Jerzy DUDA-GRACZ (1941-2004), Allegorical Image 7, 1981

oil, fiberboard; 35.5 x 25 cm;
Signed and dated l. d.: DUDA GRACZ 81;
On the back of the binding, paper author's sticker with description: ALLEGORICAL PAINTING - 7 / OIL, PŁ. PILŚN. / 35.5 x 25 cm / 31700 zl / DUDA GRACZ / 1981 / CATAL NO. AUTHOR. 535 (in marker).

Jerzy Duda-Gracz is a painter who, due to his independent artistic attitude, has escaped the framework of categorization, both by art historians and critics. The themes undertaken by the artist, including pre-industrial landscapes, portraits of ordinary people, spiced with a certain dose of humor, constitute the essence of the painter's style. According to Lechoslaw Lemanski, "Jerzy Duda-Gracz (born 1941) was almost immediately after his exhibition debut in 1970 labeled a rubbishy mocker and mocker of numerous Polish vices, a keen yet critical observer and commentator of communist reality with its everyday absurdities and anomalies." In the same article, the author also notes the artist's strong inspiration from 19th century art. - classical, realistic painting, both in content and form, as well as analogous subject matter for the painters of Young Poland, who often portrayed and glorified the beauty of the Polish land.