Signed l.d.: DUDA GRACZ . 1602/93 .
On the reverse l.g. author's sticker with details of the painting.
The village of Brzegi, located near Bukowina Tatrzanska, was one of the villages to which the artist was fond of visiting for plein-air painting trips. Regularly visited since 1975, it became an inexhaustible source of inspiration for him. On the basis of notes, sketches and photographs taken "in the field" the first views of the Tatra Mountains were created. They belonged to the intimate and inaccessible to the public area of painting of the popular expositor and publicist. Only in the "provincial-community paintings" (from 1986) did elements of the Tatra landscape begin to penetrate the official mainstream. The series, which was continued by the painter until the end of his life, was born in the aforementioned highland village:
There [in Brzegi] I studied and painted desert landscapes for my own use - there I recovered the proportions of thought and spirit, lost in life, in the hustle and bustle of civilization, in the chaos of social and political life [...] The strange charms of this village and its inhabitants, the longings and raptures experienced there, began to situate themselves invariably in reality, the background of which was the landscape of the village of Brzegi. A series of provincial-commune paintings formally began in this village. Probably it must have started there by God's orchestration, since today, because of my ailing, broken heart, I am not allowed to go there, and all these paintings reveal a deep affinity with my experience of Brzegi.(Jerzy Duda Gracz. Painting, BWA Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, 24 I - 15 III 1997)
Over time, more and more works without narrative weight appeared, in which the most important thing was to convey the changeability and beauty of nature. Among Brzeges' many lyrical "portraits", Tatra Fantasy, presented in the catalog, stands out significantly, being the author's variation on a panorama of the Tatra Mountains visible from the village. Painted from memory in the privacy of the studio, it is a personal record of impressions from plein air trips. The painter's emotional attitude to the mountain landscape is also evident in the poetics of painting used. The free, almost vibrant movement of the brush, the deliberate leaving of a trace of bristle on the smooth surface and harmonious color combinations emphasize the impressionistic character of the representation. The sharp line of the Tatra peaks fades into a milky mist, smoothly transitioning into heavy clouds suspended over the valley. The power of the mountains is contrasted by the rachitic, withered tree set in the foreground. Reminding us of the inevitability of nature's cycle, it carries a universal message about death and transience, so important to the artist in his final phase of work. The atmospheric Fantasia is an excellent example of a landscape in romantic terms - it not only guarantees a soothing aesthetic experience, but also moves and prompts a moment of reflection.
A similar composition, which is the central part of a monumental triptych of the same title created a year later, was offered at the Agra-Art auction in October 2020 (item 118).
Jerzy Duda Gracz (Częstochowa 1941 - Łagów 2004)- painter, illustrator, stage designer, educator. He received his diploma from the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow at the Department of Graphics in Katowice in 1968. In 1976-82 he was a lecturer at the academy, then a professor at the University of Silesia in Katowice. He also taught at the European Academy of Arts in Warsaw (1992-2001).
His paintings are characterized by technical virtuosity and attention to detail. He practiced art in the broadly defined realist convention with dominant figure deformation and grotesque. He created a world of unmasking, using the language of journalism and allegory. He is the author of several major projects, including the "Transfiguration" plafond in the church in Toporovo (1995) and the "Golgotha of Jasna Gora" series in the Monastery of the Pauline Fathers in Czestochowa (2000/2001).
The artist has had more than 180 solo exhibitions at home and abroad (including Berlin, London, Paris, Moscow, Rome, Vienna, Florence, Düsseldorf, Chicago, New Delhi, Munich, New York and others). He participated in about 300 national exhibitions and international presentations of Polish art. He represented Poland, among others, at the XLI Art Biennale in Venice in 1984, at the XX and XXI World Art Fairs in Cologne in 1986 and 1987, and at EXPO '92 in Seville.
Jerzy Duda Player's paintings are in the collections of the National Museums in Warsaw, Cracow, Poznan, Wroclaw and Gdansk, the Jagiellonian University Museum in Collegium Maius in Cracow, the Museum of the Earth of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, the art collection at Jasna Gora in Czestochowa and other district and city museums, and in private collections, including those of W. Ochman and W. Fibak; abroad - in the Uffizi collection in Florence, the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, the Ghent City Museum, the "BAWAG" Foundation in Vienna and the Vatican Collection, as well as in galleries and collections in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Israel, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, the USA, Venezuela, the UK, Italy and Hungary.
