Andrzej Cwalina

Andrzej Cwalina

A characteristic guardedness and simplicity of form are the recurring features of his paintings, along with an unforced, subdued colour palette, and elegant composition stemming from the golden ratio. All of this is not, however, synonymous with unambiguity of content. What emanates peace on the visual plane cannot be “tamed” so easily in the interpretive sphere. The canvases emanate a mood of implicitness and anticipation. Interestingly, this is not due to the mysterious eyes peering greedily from the depths of a well, or even the human heads crowded in the “crevice”, triggering traumatic associations. The least illustrative elements are the most moving. Despite their genesis lying in the pastoral landscape of Czartoria and the entire catchment of the Narew river, they acquire a deeper meaning due to the personal treatment. It is the unreal, unfinished spaces, the dreamy atmosphere, the sophisticated colours, and the dispersed light that add a special power to the canvases. And so do the unusual, spherical objects that make one think of a burned-out sun over a dead planet or the rise of the moon over a post-apocalyptic landscape, or the stairs leading to an undetermined destiny – images of familiar but distant places, like the Earth seen from the sky in Kubrick’s famous film.