Page 20 - Art-Professionals

ANTONI KOWALSKI

Lives and works in Katowice, Silesia, Poland
www.antonikowalski.art.pl

THE SPACES OF SPIRITUAL MEANDRES constructions. The thick fabrics, the strata of prayers twine
The art of Antoni Kowalski deeply in a prevailing along the cracks drooping over the gothic windows. The
atmosphere of mystery expresses the spirit of inner dangerous depths of the abyss are sometimes illuminated
meanders. Among the columns and landscapes of calm by warm yellow and orange and the cracks are composed
water the journey is dangerous and the light is dim. against any decorative logic. The magic of the composition
In the borderland world created by the Polish painter Antoni enriches the austere colonnades with transparency enabling

Kowalski figures are apparently diverted. Their presence, one to see through the walls to recall the transitory. Being
deprived of bodies is traceable by the heaps of shadowy close to the rich Flemish tradition Antoni Kowalski’s oil
coats supported by slender rods as if in shamanic rites. The paint technique is very demanding, but at the same time
oddly piled and abandoned elements express prayers, which enables him to go beyond the time limits. Only the technique
gradually create constructions of poor strata. Both the stone of putting several layers allows to produce the effect of
and the water, the mirages of fine reflexes above the infinite transparency, the intensity of dark colours and the subtle
waters, play very important role in these compositions. touch of browns, greys and yellows that mingle to gain
St. Francis sackcloth might enrich this stunning collection. an impression of the morass. Emerging from his drawings
‘Prayer After St. Francis’, delivered as a result of the artist’s and engravings, the power of Antoni Kowalski’s painting

journey to Assisi, had been inspired by canonization of is in accord with the quest for the spiritual. The precision
the saint’s poverty. The painter’s disquieted and painful of glazes evens the motions of a brush producing thus the
meditation reflects some contemplation in a church’s vault full effect of distance. Leaving behind the emotion of a
rather than miraculous reconciliation with the created moment, we aim at allegorical expression perfectly matching
universe. The omnipresent porphyry and jasper columns tell the sought spiritual dimension of the work. Going beyond
a story about difficult quest. They carry inevitable cessation the limitations, however, the artist employs great pastels
contrasting thus with the accumulation of the fragile and lengthy forms to emphasize the power of columns.

Laurence Carducci ,Art critic L’EXPRESS, Switzerland
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