Maciej Świeszewski is a visual artist who, over many years of his artistic endeavour (last year marked the 40th anniversary of his debut), has remained faithful to traditionally understood art techniques. He creates paintings, graphic art, watercolours and drawings – the latter will be the subject of his exhibition at the Łaźnia 2 Centre for Contemporary Art. In the context of Świeszewski’s surreal art, his drawings seem most akin to abstraction. This is merely ostensible, though. Świeszewski refers to this art form as the analysis of reality as seen from an individual, changing perspective. This is also the type of perception informed with intellectual growth. Drawing is a refined and difficult discipline which fosters intellectual rigour and is subjected to logic to a greater extent than painting. It is regarded as the foundation of the fine arts, just like the foundation of musicianship is knowledge of musical notation. Drawing helps artists master their technique and develop their observation and processing skills. In his work, Maciej Świeszewski tries to emulate the precision of Old Masters, whose works are his point of departure. He draws every day, and his collection includes several thousand drawings which he keeps adding to his Journal Written with Strokes.

 

The exhibition will gather together works in pencil or ink on paper, created over various periods of the artist’s activity, starting from the 1970s. However, the display will focus on his drawings from recent years.  The exhibition will be accompanied by an extensive catalogue of Maciej Świeszewski’s drawings.