Jan Dobkowski (b. 1942), Peculiar Event II, 2013

acrylic, canvas, 147 x 147 cm, signed and described on the back: 'Jan Dobkowski | From the series "PERSONAL EVENT II". 2013 | ACRYL | 147 cm x 147 cm'.

EXHIBITED:
- Heaven Above Me, Attack Gallery, Warsaw 2022

Painter, illustrator, born in 1942 in Lomza. Graduated from the High School of Fine Arts in Warsaw and in 1962 began studies at the Faculty of Painting at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. A student of Prof. Juliusz Studnicki and Prof. Jan Cybis, in whose studio he received his diploma in 1968. While still a student, in 1966, he formed an artistic duo in which his partner was Jerzy (Jurry) Zielinski. Their first joint exhibition, entitled Neo-Neo-Neo, took place in Warsaw in 1967, and they exhibited together until 1970. 1968 saw the creation of Dobkowski's first green and red paintings (using the pseudonym Dobson at the time). In these works, which operated with supple, wavy lines, in which influences of Art Nouveau were seen, the artist used op-art-like means to produce optical illusions (swirling, blurring, apparent movement of forms). In parallel with his paintings, he also created plate and foil forms for mounting in space. A gold medal at the Golden Grape Symposium in Zielona Gora in 1971 and a nearly year-long stay in the US on a Kosciuszko Foundation scholarship in 1972 were the next stages of the painter's successful career. A distinct change in the mood and meaning of his works was brought by the events of 1980-1981, especially the introduction of martial law. At that time he marked his monochromatic, dark canvases with faint, flaccid lines of drawing.