The series Look, See, Know
In the year 2000, I started working on a series of paintings inspired by school view boards from the 1960s, which I found in a decommissioned village school,
in Smoldzino, Pomerania. At that time I focused on the cognitive role of the painting, on its possible role in relation to the worldview of modern man. At that time such important paintings were created as: Evolution of the Heart to the Heart of an Angel, To Be the President's Girlfriend and The Crown of the Third Republic. However, the core of the series remains a set of thirteen compositions under the common title: Look, see, know, 2000.The integrating element of the series is the contour of a man indicating the fact,
that man is confronted with nature, of which he himself still remains a part.
This particular work is devoted to matters of breathing, air and oxygenation. Although air can't be seen, breathing and the nourishment of the body achieved through it are of capital importance to humans and, as we know, are essential to life. Just as essential to painting are the three primary colors yellow, red and blue, visible in this particular composition in the lung area. Based on these, as a painter who consciously operates with colors, I created the complete reality of this painting. The color gamut and the way the background was painted were by design to be luminous and sonorous. I wanted there to be no doubt that our (people's) connection with pure nature is a positive value that defines our identity.
Ryszard Wozniak
Painter, performer, educator and art theorist. In 1981 he earned his diploma in the studio of Stefan Gierowski at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He taught painting technology at his alma mater until 1988. In 1982-1992 he was one of the members of the Gruppa art formation, with whose members he later also co-founded the private School of Art in Warsaw. He was active in the KRAAA Association (Collective Movement for Animation of Artistic Activity) and was one of the animators of the PWW Gallery (Free Choice Workshop) in Zielona Gora. Since 1992, he has been running a painting studio at the Art Institute of the University of Zielona Gora, where he works as a professor at UZ. Author of the concept: "The Art of Opposition" and the concept "The Art of Admiration". Together with Marek Sobczyk, he worked on the polychrome in the Neo-Nicene Orthodox Church in Kostomłoty nad Bugiem. His paintings are characterized by a great diversity of subject matter and form, from expressive, monochromatic, textural, multiplied works, to paintings with political overtones using the grotesque and caricature. Together with Gruppa, he has participated in many performances and collective artistic manifestations. He is the author of more than a dozen solo exhibitions and many group exhibitions in Poland and abroad. His paintings are in the collections of the National Museum in Warsaw, the National Museum in Cracow, the National Gallery of Contemporary Art - Zachęta in Warsaw, the Art Museum in Lodz, the Silesian Museum in Katowice, the Upper Silesian Museum in Bytom, the L. Wyczółkowski District Museum in Bydgoszcz. Collections of the Egit Foundation, Bank BPH and the ING Polish Art Foundation.
