“Signs and traces”
1995-1997
Andrzej Wajda
If I were to, following the example of Jacek Malczewski, to express symbolically modern graphic art, I would represent a woman – a Muse, sitting on two wells at once. In one she is soaking her feet -meaningthat she draws her inspiration and substance from life. In second she immerses her hands, through which flows the divine force of generalization and abstraction. However a wise guy may ask a question : What to wash : hands or feet ? The question remains unanswered. For modern graphic art rarely combines these two trends into one mainstream.
Antoni Rodowicz washes his hands and gets down to his work purified from everyday commonness and this allows him to plunge in a world of abstraction where technique and manner of handling tools and paint becomes subject of a daily artistic struggle with the world. Indeed it is beautiful and honorable task, especially today, at the end of the century, when we have been disappointed by so many political and social theories and practices. Only the eye has not let us down. The world sparkles and gets more colorful then ever before, lives by momvement and diversity of forms. No wonder that this surface of phenomena attracts so much artists and includes them to pursue perfection in a technique that would allow to express it best.
"You work that you my keep pace with the earth and the soul of earth. …when you work you fulfill a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 47x58cm, 1997r.
"Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you, yet they belong not to you." "You work that you my keep pace with the earth and the soul of earth. …when you work you fulfill a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 40x57cm, 1997r.
"Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
aquatint + serigraphy, 48x60cm, 1995/96r.
"If it is an unjust law you would abolish, that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead. You cannot erase it by burning your law books nor by washing the foreheads of your judges, though you pour the sea upon then." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 41x60cm, 1995/96r.
"…in truth it is life that gives unto life -while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness."
serigraphy, 40x58cm, 1997r.
"…life is indeed darkness save when there is urge." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 39x58cm, 1997r.
"Of time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch its flowing. Yet the timeless in you is aware of life’s timelessness …yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 40x55,5cm, 1996r.
"When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 40x55cm, 1996r.
"You shell be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights a want and grief, ….and yet you rise above them naked and unbound." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 45,5x58cm, 1995/96r.
"…love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth and only the unprofitable is caught." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
etching, aquatint + serigraphy, 40x58cm, 1995/96r.
"You have been told that like in a chain, you rea as weak as your weakest link. Though that’s just half of the truth, as you are also as strong as the strongest link." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy + relief, 40x57cm, 1995/96r.
"Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights. You would know in words that which you have always known in thought." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 40,5x59cm, 1995/96r.
"And he is alone great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 46x62cm, 1997r.
"Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
etching, aquatint, 46x54cm, 1996/97r.
"…for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and fulfilment." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 44x63cm, 1995/96r.
"Your soul is often a battlefield, upon which your reason and judgement wage war against your passion and your appetite." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 48x60cm, 1995/96r.
"…thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 51x68cm, 1994r.
"…if it is for your comfort to pour your darkness into space, it is also for your delight to pour forth the dawning of your heart." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 50x65cm, 1994r.
"…life goes not backwords nor tarries with yesterday." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 40x56cm, 1997r.
"…beauty is not a need but ecstasy. It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear, but rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 37x56cm, 1997r.
"Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 43x55cm, 1997r.
"And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shell begin to climb." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 38x58cm, 1997r.
"Pleasure is a freedom song. But it is not a freedom. It is the blossoming of your desires, but it is not their fruit." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 38x56cm, 1997r.
"Your friend is your needs answered. He is your field which you sow with your love and reap with thanksgiving. And he is your board and your fireside. For you come to him with hunger, and you seek him for peace." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
etching, aquatint + serigraphy, 40x54cm, 1996/97r.
"When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been you delight." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 40x54cm, 1997r.
"And is there aught you would with-hold? All you have shall some day be given. Therefor give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
etching, aquatint + serigraphy, 39,5x56,5cm, 1995/96r.
"When love beckons to you follow him, though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you believe in him, though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 43x55cm, 1996r.
"You give but little when you give of your possession. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. And what is fear of need itself? Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?" — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 49x59cm, 1997r.
"…when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him, a caution against the stumbling stone. — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 24x35cm, 1997r.
"If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 39x58cm, 1997r.
"…the kindness that gazes upon itself in a mirror turns to stone."
serigraphy, 40x60cm, 1997r.
"And like a hidden leaf grows yellow with silent approval of the whole tree, the one inflicting evil to do so must have the silent approval of all of us." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 40x60cm, 1995r.
"Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself. But if you love and must have desires, let these be your desires: to melt and be like a running brook that sings melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 42x57cm, 1995/96r.
"And if any of you would punish in the name of righteousness and lay the ax to evil tree, let him see its roots." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
etching, aquatint + serigraphy, 45x58cm, 1995/96r.
"Have you peace, the quiet urge that reveals your power? Have you remembrances that glimmering arches that span the summits of the mind?" — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
etching, aquatint + serigraphy, 39,5x56,5cm, 1995/96r.
"…what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?"
serigraphy, 46x61cm, 1996r.
"...life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 39,5x66cm, 1995/96r.
"…to the fruit giving is a need, as receiving is a need to the root." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 40x54cm, 1997r.
"In revery you cannot rise above your achievements nor fall lower than your failures." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 42x58cm, 1997r.
"But when you build your sand towers the ocean brings more sand to the shore. And when you destroy them, the ocean laughs with you. Verily the ocean always laughs with the innocent." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy + relief, 46,5x57,5cm, 1997r.
"That which seems most feeble and bewildered in you is the strongest and most determined." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
etching, aquatint, 41x57cm, 1996/97r.
"…vision of one man lends not its wings to another man." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
etching, aquatint + serigraphy, 39x57cm, 1995/96r.
etching, aquatint + serigraphy, 39x57cm, 1995/96r.
etching, aquatint + serigraphy, 39x57cm, 1995/96r.
"And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long, to play with your hair. To you the earth yields her fruit, and you shall not want if you but know how to fill your hands." — Khalil Gibran, "Profet"
serigraphy, 40x54cm, 1996r.
serigraphy, 40x54cm, 1996r.
serigraphy, 40x54cm, 1996r.
Mariusz Łukasik
It seems to me that if one disassembled the elements constituing personality of Antoni, the nit would be impossible to assemble them back. A rich personality and interesting artist at the same time -he skilfully combines responsibility for his environment with passion for work. Such a position may be called aesthetics of positivee existance.
The Nature sometimes creates such extravagances and rare species and it requires care in dealing with them since such occurances have inbone delicacy. Thus, it is not a paradox that sensivity had to be supported by sense of reality – otherwise it would be impossible to survive. He has an open nature, he is interested in activities of others and tries to comprehend rather then to judge.
