Signature p.d.: T Sętowski 98 | 99
Image described and reproduced:
- Sętowski. Museum of Imagination / Museum of Imagination, Muza SA, Warsaw 2003, p. 85, color ill.
Tomasz Sętowski (Czestochowa, June 14, 1961, lives in Czestochowa) graduated in art from the Higher School of Pedagogy in Czestochowa, but he himself claims that his studies gave him only theoretical preparation and he is a self-taught painter. Since the late 1980s, he has shown his works in individual and group exhibitions, at first abroad (Germany, France) and then in Poland. In 1991, he became a member of ZPAP. After his individual debut in the country (exhibition at BWA, Czestochowa 1994), his works were included in the traveling exhibition "Polish Surrealists" circulating in Poland in 1995-97. In 1998, the New York gallery Stricoff Fine Art Ltd. took up his work. He represents the so-called "magic realism" trend, which is popular with the public. He usually builds his compositions in zones, placing figures in fantastic, colorful costumes. As a rule, he uses the "picture-in-picture" effect in his paintings (e.g., juxtapositions of figures of different scales on one plane, headdresses in the form of Gothic castles and towers appearing in almost every painting). The figures are painted with an emphasis on decorativeness, calligraphically and flatly, which brings Sętowski's paintings closer to illustrations and raises the impression of communing with a world of fairy-tale visions.
