Roman Artymowski (1919-1993), ZNAK LV, 1977

acrylic/canvas, 85 x 85 cm (diagonal)
signed, dated and described on back:
ROMAN ARTYMOWSKI / SIGN LV, 1977 / ACRYLIC, 84 x 84 cm

EXHIBITED:

- Roman Artymowski. Painting, BWA in Bialystok - "Arsenal", February-March 1982, Bialystok.
- Sharp/sharp. Landscapes of Roman Artymowski, Antiqua et Moderna Gallery, May-June 2023, Warsaw, Poland.

LITERATURE:

- Roman Artymowski. Painting, BWA in Bialystok - "Arsenal", February-March 1982 [exhibition cat.], Bialystok 1982, cat. no. 23.

Roman Artymowski graduated in 1949 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, where he studied painting in the studio of Eugeniusz Eibisch, graphics under Andrzej Jurkiewicz and Konrad Srzednicki, and drawing under Czeslaw Rzepinski. In 1950 he moved to Warsaw and began teaching at the Painting Department of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts as an assistant to Eibish, who taught there. In 1953-1956 he participated in the creation of monumental decorations of the tenements of the Old Town in Warsaw.

In 1956, during the cultural thaw, he began to paint abstract paintings, which were part of the current of the then fashionable informel. Among others, the miniature encaustics of the "Italian Landscapes" series are maintained in this aesthetic. A 1959 trip to Baghdad and exposure to the landscape of the Middle East influenced Artymowski's later work. In the next decade, the artist began to subordinate composition to geometry. His watercolor collages combine the severity of geometric abstraction with the textural effects characteristic of informel. Since the 1970s, he created geometrized, symmetrical compositions with centrally placed figures of a circle and/or rhombus. At the same time, the artist created so-called solar paintings - compositions with a sun disc suspended above a low outlined horizon line. He repeated the aforementioned motifs and arrangements in numerous color versions both in acrylic paintings and in watercolor compositions or graphic works.

"I do not want geometry to become a kind of corset, restraining the imagination too much, and although [...] many of my works were based on the elements of the circle and square, color, space and mood have a primary meaning for me."
Roman Artymowski