Dimensions: 150 x 100 cm
Signed: signed and described on the reverse: WŁODZIMIERZ PAWLAK / DZIENNIK 12 VIII - 15 X / 150 X 100 / 2022
Provenance
owned by the artist
The paintings from the series "Diaries" are conducted by Pawlak in very different ways. Some of them are executed on canvas, in a monochromatic range of colors, interspersed with handwriting marks. Other "Diaries," on the other hand, are expressed in the form of pencil drawings on paper, or in the form of showcases that contain the artist's everyday objects. In the "Diaries" painted, the permanent crisis that is life - its uniformity and repetitiveness - is signified by Pawlak with thousands of short lines scratched in fresh paint.
His 1989 painting "Poles form the national flag" - stylistically similar to "Diaries" - became a symbolic boundary, after which the artist no longer intended to become socially involved with his art, accompanying his compatriots in their difficult fate. From then on, he began to create only for himself. "I needed a diary in general, I needed some system, I wanted to find a method for the day. (...) I came up with 'Diaries' just like Robinson Crusoe, who, on a desert island, at some point began to worry about time" - explained the artist ("Day by day I am an artist" [film], directed by P. Sosnowski, on the occasion of the exhibition "Włodzimierz Pawlak. Diaries," Warsaw, 2001). Pawlak's "Diaries" described in successive numbers are a record of private time. Drawing seven lines, crossing them out with the eighth one give rhythm, put them into a kind of trance. Describing his creative process, the artist says: "For a certain period of time I disappear, I'm gone. This used to be able to last a few hours, but now I make such holidays of only a few minutes."
"Diaries" were usually painted with white paint, although blue and red works are also known. Pawlak's choice of color was never a matter of chance. Following in the footsteps of the artists of the interwar avant-garde, he wanted to expand the influence of light, color and space in his art. The artist has a personal attitude to each of the colors, each evoking different feelings in him.
