Tadeusz Brudzynski (1956-1996), Le verre et le rouge II, 1990

Provenance
Warsaw, collection of the artist's heirs

Exhibited
Warsaw, Aspekty Gallery, Tadeusz Brudzyński. L'anatomie de l'existence, 25.04-18.05.2024. Warsaw, Art New Media, Tadeusz Brudzynski, 21.01-7.02.2003. Warsaw, Soma, 2001. Warsaw, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Tadeusz Brudzynski (1956-1996). Painting, 25.07-24.08.1997. Tokyo Ginza, Mikimoto, solo exhibition, 1993.

Unlike most artists of his generation, Tadeusz Brudzynski was fortunate to have been given the opportunity to see and experience the world. The several years he spent in Africa, followed by his studies in Toulouse, allowed him to have a broader and deeper view, to see the multifariousness and multicolorfulness of reality. And although a great mark on Brudzyński's painting was left by his master from the period of studies at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts - Jacek Sienicki, the way in which he operated with color, texture and material betray a complete creative autonomy resulting from individual experience dominating everything. Tadeusz Brudzyński's paintings evolved from expressive compositions typical of the style of Polish art of the 1980s to ascetic works full of symbolism and sublime color. For the most part, the leading motif is the human figure reduced to a simple line, the outline of a silhouette, and placed in the center of the painting. Sometimes the human presence is symbolized more by the objects themselves, as in the case of the offered painting "Le verre et le rouge" (glass and red). This work is closest to a still life, in this case consisting of a glass and a paint can set on a table covered with brown fabric. Strongly affecting elements of the composition are the striking asceticism of the form and the African intensity of the colors. After a while, what is hidden becomes legible - a story about a person, his passions and weaknesses. The work is not devoid of the self-irony typical of Brudzyński. For over the table flies neither an insect nor a man, resembling a drawing sketched by a child's hand. "Le verre et le rouge" is a multi-layered symbolic story about freedom and humanity, about living an intense and passionate life. Such was the life, with no brakes and no commitments, that the artist, who died prematurely at the age of 39, lived. Along with Gruppa's work, Brudzyński's paintings exemplify the extraordinary potential of young Polish painting in a period of great socio-political change.