And There Was Space and Time: The work of Lucjan Kowalewski

Looking at a canvas is entirely different from looking into the interior of a painting. It is the difference between seeing a person and knowing a person. In the twenty first century we have become overawed with the surface structure of things, whether it be the translucent ageless face, the immediacy of the shocking or of a pornography that demands attention but can never provide satiation. The ideal is of course a Kantian merging between phenomena and noumena, the work or painting does not simply attract, but draws one in and offers something in return. Hans Vaihinger talks about the philosophy of "As If" as an intentional falsehood, a helpful means to an end. Much contemporary art satisfies the requirement of being a pleasant fiction, some goes beyond this without altogether rejecting the aesthetic. At the other end of the extreme is the triumph of meaning or purpose over aesthetic construct. Here the underlying purpose behind the process of creation and exhibition supercedes the mere work. Where does the work of Lucjan Kowalewski fit into this schema? If you look at one of his paintings, you experience both visual attraction - they are undoubtedly beautiful to look at - and cerebral speculation. People are drawn into his work. It is not only the vibrancy of the colours, but the titles of his works that demand attention. "Brief Eternity", "Entry into Silence", "Space Melancholy", "And there was Space and Time", this is pure philosophical speculation transferred onto canvas. Thus, people who have seen his work tend to comment upon it. Perhaps there is something elemental about the work, a tapping into some shared archetype, with both title and form evoking a dimly remembered presence. There is both darkness and light in Kowalewski's work; a flower, at first overlooked, takes centre stage, disappears again, then reappears. This is not so much representation in any formal sense as evocation. Works such as "Seduced Dreams" and "Stricken Dreams" could be read as intricate representations of our anatomy, the heart in its physical presence. This would be to reduce the canvas to what can be seen and not to what can be sought. Lucjan Kowalewski is undoubtedly a first rate artist, but this is not his real accomplishment. His triumph is to achieve a representation of individual existence without presenting completion. He captures not only the temporal nature of existence, but also the fact that existence always precedes essence. Wanting certainty we are always thrown back on our own resources. Only the most obvious is given. In this sense there is a frame and a limit to each of Kowalewski's works. The layer upon layer of paint that is built up represents nothing less than the individual striving to determine his existence, an attempt to find both framework and fulfilment in living. Nothing is ever completed; Kowalewski returns to his pictures again and again, sometimes whole canvasses, sometimes individual sections. This is a striving after possibility, not simply presence. Looking at Kowalewski's work one is drawn in, not through voyeurism or a desire for the shocking, but because he deals with what it means to be human. His work asks universal questions, it does not lay claim to individual answers.

Dr. R G Hill

London, UK