Magical realism

  Following my graduation, I first exhibited my art in the gallery of the Student Theatre Kalambur. During my time at the Academy, I collaborated with Kalambur designing sets for performances
directed by Bogusław Litwiniec and Włodzimierz Herman. It proved to be a great learning experience, I had to create big projects on the stage all by myself, though sometimes with a little help
from my friends.

  My first exhibition featured paintings I had created right after I finished my degree in Fine Arts, they were no longer subject to any assessment by my academic teachers, no longer tasks set by
others, or a manifestation of somebody else’s expectations. Today, I see that these paintings reflect those times - blunt interiors, ugly faces, just like those described by Andrzej Osęka in the Polska monthly, back in 1966. As young people, we were not even aware of the pervasive hopelessness. We
lived in the moment, quite resigned to the fact that there was no chance for any change. However, we were still looking for little cracks in reality, through which our worlds could manifest. Painting gave me a feeling of floating free within my own niche.

  My stepfather thought that I was painting dreams, but I was in fact painting the longing. The
Portrait of My Parents (in the collection of the National Museum, Wrocław) was a story about a particular present moment. The Kitchen is the portrait of my Mum, depicted within a nostalgic setting.

  A Horse in the Window, a Dead Bird is a self-portrait with the memory of a childhood terror and my delight with Rembrandt. That was how I recorded my state of spirit. These first paintings are also linked to the cycle I painted in the 1970s, entitled The Family Album. My paintings at that time were always at least 100x120 centimeters in size. I can locate only few of them now, the rest dissipated in the world. I made no photographs, and after a while I lost track of them, as they moved to live at
unknown new addresses.