Marian Czapla, FALL, 1990s.

179,5 x 116,0 cm - acrylic, canvas signed p.g.: czapla

on the reverse on the middle bar of the loom a sticker of the Jubilee exhibition in Kielce with a handwritten note: not exhibited and no: 91.



Exhibited painting, reproduced:

- Marian Czapla. On the 30th anniversary of creative work, Kielce-Warsaw 2002, pp. 117 and 154, color illustrations;

- Marian Czapla - painting, Winda Gallery of Contemporary Art, Kielce Cultural Center, Kielce 2010;

- ZPAP Gallery, Mazowiecka Street, Warsaw 2011;

- Marian Czapla. Painting, Library of Jan Kochanowski University, Kielce 2016.



The theme of suffering and decline has often recurred in Marian Czapla's paintings. The reference of this suffering to the sphere of the sacrum, however, always gave hope, as Father Janusz St. Pasierb wrote about in his text, dedicated to Czapla's work: Man, always naked, corporeal, above all male, is in Marian Czapla's art invincible, even crushed by suffering, knocked down by death - he remains powerful. (...) Marian Czapla's bodies are categorical, the artist, starting from the study of models, goes in the direction of powerful, expressive syntheses.

The strength of Marian Czapla's painting has also always been color and its intense effect in bold, contrasting juxtapositions. Sometimes - as in the painting presented with us - the sharpness of the colors building the figure of a man is juxtaposed with a large, dark plane, enhancing the effect of the painting and reflecting well the content of the subject. About the relationship between color and content in his painting, this is what Marian Czapla said: All the colors I use have a meaning for me: they are the quintessence of color. Black is an extraordinary mystery, white expresses mourning, blue is the color of life, red - vitality. Also important are their interrelationships and the outline encircling them - a vivid, changing, color-playing line (J. St. Pasierb, Painter of the Mystery of Incarnation, in Heron. Painting, edited by P. Szymor, Warsaw 2009, p. 11.)





Marian Czapla (Gacki, Kielce region, July 28, 1946 - Warsaw, January 12, 2016) studied at the Painting Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw from 1966 to 1972, earning his diploma in the studio of Professor Stefan Gierowski. In 1972 he began teaching at his alma mater. Since 1990 he was a professor, and ran his own painting studio. In 1974-1979 he was a member of the group "Symplex S4", which was formed by a group of young graduates of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, interested in the possibility of continuing the tradition of Polish colorism on the one hand, the Unism of Władysław Strzemiński on the other. Initially, he created abstract compositions built from colorful, sweeping streaks and spots. From the late 1970s, figuration became predominant in his paintings. A prominent theme in Czapla's work was religious themes and references. These interests remained current in his art in the 1980s, when he combined them with current themes (a series dedicated to the miners of "Wujka"). In the works of the 1990s (the series "Fall", "Ecce Homo" and others), the artist painted monumental figures with strong tectonics, further emphasized by strong colors and contours, framed by dynamic movements and twists of the body. Usually placed on flat backgrounds of uniform color, in a conventional space, they seem to struggle with the limiting frame of the painting. In 2002, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Marian Czapla's creative work, the National Museum in Kielce prepared an exhibition of his works, accompanied by a scholarly catalog.