Dimensions: 74.5 x 100 cm
Signed and dated lower left: 'A.S. KOWALSKI 58'
On the reverse, an artist-applied label with a description of the work
Provenance
private collection, Poland
Exhibited
Andrzej S. Kowalski 1930–2004, BWA Contemporary Art Gallery in Katowice, Katowice, April 5–May 5, 2013
Bibliography
Andrzej S. Kowalski, exhibition catalog, BWA Contemporary Art Gallery in Katowice, ed. Jan Trzupek, Katowice 2013, p. 42 (ill.), p. 168 (list)
Biography
Painter, printmaker, writer, essayist, journalist, and educator. Professor at the Katowice branch of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. In 1955, he graduated from the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, earning diplomas in painting under Adam Marczyński and in graphic arts under Ludwik Gardowski. Member of the Kraków Group, the Zagłębie group, and Arkat. An active participant in the anti-communist opposition. His body of work includes easel painting, murals, mosaics, drawing, and printmaking. Since the late 1950s, his paintings and prints have featured an interplay of organic, free-flowing forms of color patches with a characteristic color palette (browns and yellows, as well as olive greens and grays), arranged with a consistent geometric order. The painter’s intuitive decisions are complemented by a distinct rational element. Over time, he began to introduce geometric or figurative motifs into his compositions. In the 1980s, he was closely associated with the independent cultural movement. He exhibited his works both in Poland and abroad. The artist’s works are held in the collections of, among others, the BWA Contemporary Art Gallery in Katowice, the Silesian Museum in Katowice, the Museum of the History of Katowice, the Archdiocesan Museum in Katowice, the Upper Silesian Museum in Bytom, and numerous private collections. "The paintings of the young Polish artist Kowalski, composed primarily along a vertical axis, reveal a true painter, gifted with the ability to create extraordinary colors, to evoke a warm yet subtle atmosphere, and distinguished by an endearing restraint… This is a refined yet discreet style of painting that will certainly appeal to those who value moderation and appreciate sophisticated yet unpretentious color harmonies…” —wrote Michel Courtois about the exhibition at the Lambert Gallery in the Parisian magazine *Arts 30* (Andrzej S. Kowalski, ed. J. Trzupek, Katowice 2013, p. 41).
