Jerzy Duda-Gracz (1941 - 2004), Self-Portrait / Czapa / - 2, 1985.

oil, fiberboard; 49.5 x 38.3 cm;
signed, dated and inscribed l. g.:" DUDA GRACZ - 916 / 1985 -"
on the back of the author's sticker with a description of the work: "DUDA PLAYER / PADEREWSKIEGO 42 B/31 KATOWICE / TITLE SELF-PORTRAIT / CZAPA / - 2 / TECHNIQUE OIL, PŁ. PIL¦N. / DIMENSIONS 50 X 38,5 cm / PRICE / SYGN. DUDA PLAYER / YEAR 1985 / CATAL NO. AUTHOR. 916 / NOTES 1 WWERNIKS. IV. 1985"

Provenance:
Private collection, United Kingdom

Bibliography:
Jerzy Duda-Gracz. Painting and printmaking , Nowohuckie Centrum Kultury, Cracow 2019.

A superb self-portrait, recognizable in the painter's oeuvre. The offered work is an original representation of the first version of the painting from 1981. Duda-Gracz took the form of a worker wearing a simple T-shirt and a cap falling over his eyes. The painting's protagonist looks thoughtfully into the distance. Although it was characteristic of the artist to use grotesque and caricatured imagery (also in self-portraits), this time the composition draws attention to the simplicity, even severity of the representation. The muted colors complement the character of the figure. The man carries traits of provinciality, sad unattractiveness, but also a kind of pride, contrariness and a strong survival instinct. Tadeusz Nyczek assessed that Duda-Gracz "felt part of this flawed, gray world. He also believed that even the biggest humbug has some glow, a spark of God in it." Self-portraits and portraits of loved ones were, of course, extremely intimate. In his "studies of his own mouth," as the artist himself called them, he readily drew on the masters of 16th- and 17th-century painting (such as Rubens) or to the art of the Italian Baroque, with distinct touches of already Polish reality.