Jerzy Duda Gracz, PORTRET AGATY - 17, 1991

67.0 x 46.5 cm - oil, fiberboard

67 x 46.5 cm - dimensions clear of frame

Signed l.d.: DUDA GRACZ . 1445/91 .

on the reverse: author's sticker on the board with details of the painting

Attached to the painting is a certificate signed by Agata Duda Gracz.



Tender depictions of the artist's daughter Agata Duda Gracz, a theater director and stage designer, form a separate section in the extremely rich gallery of portraits painted by Jerzy Duda Gracz. Completely different from the insightful portraits of flawed compatriots, they are a kind of family chronicle recording the changes taking place in the beloved only child - from appearance, to emotional states, to personality traits. This is how their main character recalls them:

The portraits were created year after year as a birthday gift to me. Hence they became a record of my life from the day I was born ("Hello daughter") until the last one, painted two years before Dad died ("To the most wonderful daughter of the world..."). After the age of 18, the reasons for creating more portraits were events that were important to us: for example, when I moved out of home and started studying, when I got engaged, left Poland for 3 months abroad, had knee surgery, graduated from art history and started studying directing, did my first play, etc. (quoted by A. Duda Gracz, certificate of authenticity)

The painting Portrait of Agatha - 17 was the penultimate in a series of birthday portraits. The artist, forgoing the inclusion of props relating to his daughter's current experiences or interests, focused mainly on capturing her mood. Shot in half pose, the teenager - with pale skin and penetrating blue eyes - is immersed in thoughtfulness. The eloquent gesture of propping up her face with her hand, indicates distress and a certain resignation. However, the skilled eye of the father - giving himself the right to idealize and pamper in this case - did not allow the youthful dilemmas to overshadow the charm and girlish grace of the portrayed. Painted extremely freely - the background, the clothes and the girl's storm of golden curls - shimmer with a fever of color patches juxtaposed with sensitivity, introducing a certain optimistic touch to the representation. The appearance on the market of such an intimate work, documenting the unique bond between the two artists, is certainly an event of great importance.



♣ a fee will be added to the auctioned price in addition to other costs, based on the right of the artist and his heirs to receive remuneration in accordance with the Law of February 4, 1994 - on Copyright and Related Rights (droit de suite)



Jerzy Duda Gracz (Częstochowa 1941 - Łagów 2004)- painter, illustrator, stage designer, educator. He received his diploma from the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow at the Department of Graphics in Katowice in 1968. In 1976-82 he was a lecturer at the academy, then a professor at the Silesian University in Katowice. He also taught at the European Academy of Arts in Warsaw (1992-2001).
His paintings are characterized by technical virtuosity and attention to detail. He practiced art in the broadly defined realist convention with dominant figure deformation and grotesque. He created a world of unmasking, using the language of journalism and allegory. He is the author of several major projects, including the "Transfiguration" plafond in the church in Toporovo (1995) and the "Golgotha of Jasna Gora" series in the Monastery of the Pauline Fathers in Czestochowa (2000/2001). The artist has had more than 180 solo exhibitions at home and abroad (including Berlin, London, Paris, Moscow, Rome, Vienna, Florence, Düsseldorf, Chicago, New Delhi, Munich, New York and others). He participated in about 300 national exhibitions and international presentations of Polish art. He represented Poland, among others, at the XLI Art Biennale in Venice in 1984, at the XX and XXI World Art Fairs in Cologne in 1986 and 1987, and at EXPO '92 in Seville. Jerzy Duda Player's paintings are in the collections of the National Museums in Warsaw, Cracow, Poznan, Wroclaw and Gdansk, the Jagiellonian University Museum in Collegium Maius in Cracow, the Museum of the Earth of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, the art collections at Jasna Gora in Czestochowa and other district and city museums, and in private collections, including those of W. Ochman and W. Fibak; abroad - in the collections of the Uffizi in Florence, the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, the Ghent City Museum, the "BAWAG" Foundation in Vienna and the Vatican Collection, as well as in the galleries and collections of Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Israel, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, the USA, Venezuela, the UK, Italy and Hungary.