"L'anatomie de l'existence"

[ENG below]

Wystawa gromadzi zarówno znane, jak i niepublikowane prace artysty, który dorosłe życie spędził we Francji, wypożyczone dzięki uprzejmości Hanny Brudzyńskiej, córki artysty a także prywatnych kolekcjonerów. Płótna, rysunki i dokumenty wchodzą w relację z przestrzenią oraz dialog ze świadectwami osób, które znały artystę. Tytuł wystawy "Anatomia istnienia" nawiązuje do jednego z najczęściej powracających w twórczości Brudzyńskiego tematów. W wielu jego pracach bohaterem jest człowiek. Istota, która wydaje się samotna, milcząca, w bezruchu. Człowiek, który zadaje pytania sobie i nam wszystkim. Samotne postacie wypełniają przestrzeń płócien a jednocześnie pozostają odizolowane, oderwane od rzeczywistości .Pozbawione wszystkiego, co zbędne, są zredukowane do samej istoty bytu.

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Biogram

Tadeusz Brudzyński urodził się w1956 roku w Warszawie. Uczęszczał do szkoły podstawowej na Mokotowie, jednak przed jej ukończeniem wyjechał z rodzicami na trzy lata do Kinszasy, gdzie nauczył się francuskiego. W 1975 roku rozpoczął studia artystyczne w Tuluzie ,ale po roku przeniósł się na warszawską ASP. Studia ukończył w 1980 roku, broniąc dyplom w pracowni profesora Jacka Sienickiego. W 1983 roku wyjechał na stałe do Paryża. Po kilku miesiącach dostał pierwszą pracownię w Cité Internationale des Arts, co umożliwiło mu pracę i organizację pierwszej wystawy we Francji.

Zajmował się malarstwem oraz rysunkiem. W jego twórczości zauważalna jest ewolucja od niezwykle ekspresyjnego sposobu wypowiedzi wpisującego się w nurt nowej sztuki polskiej lat 80tych, do ascetycznych kompozycji o symbolicznym wyrazie. Motywem, wokół którego krążyły jego poszukiwania była postać ludzka, zsyntetyzowana do zarysu, a niekiedy do pojedynczej linii, przecinającej centralną część płaszczyzny jednolitego tła.

Zmarł nagle w Paryżu, 5 kwietnia 1996 roku.

Prezentował swoje prace na wystawach zagranicznych i indywidualnych, w Polsce i za granicą. W 1997 roku z inicjatywy przyjaciół artysty zorganizowano w Zachęcie pośmiertną wystawę Brudzyńskiego, prezentującą jego twórczość z lat 1982-1996.

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ENG

In the spring of 1983 Tadeusz Brudzyński left Poland for France. He had no money, no friends, no workshop, he was however full of energy and passion. Somebody had suggested that he show me the photos of the paintings he hadn't been able to take with him from Poland. I am always apprehensive when opening portfolios for the first time but this time I felt a rush of relief. I was dealing with a true painter. The pictures were refined and delicate but full of expression. There was a blue-tinged harmony about his work. Cold greys, warm, transparent and discreet transformations into beige... difficult shades. Sudden eruptions of strong tones, colours, piercing, clear as jazz - the subjects seemed to be secondary, serving as pretexts.

An self-portrait: Tadeusz behind his stand, his face three quarters hidden by the canvass. Only his eye is visible, the hard look of a mature and demanding man. But the boy who had painted this kept his youthful, childlike smile. He's 27 now. Beautiful, athletic, full of humor, without a care in his life - yet. I tell him what I think of his work - Don't exaggerate - he replies modestly. From this moment our 13 year friendship starts. I introduce him to critics and friendly art collectors. They confirm my opinion about him and promise support... A few keep their word. At first I find him a few minor jobs to pay his bills. A large gallery in the center of town is even prepared to exhibit his works. But they have to be prepared and he doesn't even have a workshop! I leave him mine while I am out of town. After a few days he phones to tell me he's happy... Free and happy! - Has he found his second wind?

He paints at night. During the day he earns his ways. He spends a couple of months making an inventory of Pierre Seghers', a poetry publisher, library. He is among intelligent and friendly people. They teach him a subtler sort of French. After much effort Tadeusz is accepted and quartered at the Cité International des Arts where he will have his first individual exhibition in Paris. As a whole it's a success, though perhaps too varied. A certain lack of stability can be felt. The flittering silhouettes pass each other by, chase each other; thin and whitened faces among the thick paste. Jean-Jacques Gautier, a famous critic from „Le Figaro", comments: „There are marvelous theatrical gestures". In his lips it is a beautiful comment.

I meet Tadeusz on a cafe terrace.,,I'm observing the models for my future paintings" - he says. He is sketching on paper to ,,study the gesticulations of the street". Leaving he places the sketches into his jacket pocket or just leaves them the table under an ashtray. In 1985 he receives the Prix de la Princesse Grace during the Grand Prix International d'Art Contemporain de la Principauté de Monaco - for,,a sitting figure". An atmosphere of disquiet surrounds the sitting man, who sits backwards to us, on the bank of a black stream of rare, turquoise reflections. identity?" The black X of his braces contrasts with his white shirt. Is it the worry of somebody without their self, their own

identity?

Tadeusz doesn't like to discuss his paintings. He doesn't like impressionists, he despises all labels, jumps centuries to quote old masters - El Greco, Velasquez, Rembrandt. His table is covered with Braque, de Staëla and Giacometti catalogues. But why look for similarities? I've observed his whole career, from one "Brudzyński" to the next - they are always true to themselves. Tadeusz once wrote to me:,,I search blindly. I don't know where I am going. I mix the paints, grasp a subject, then lose it but it leads me on, disturbs me, becomes something else. When I feel good, I know I have left the darkness behind. What is said is said and I do not want to discuss it further. Sometimes what I have painted is discovered" through other's eyes. I set it in its proper place and see what you see. That is all."

I prepare a few exhibitions of varying and always differing subjects. This is the transitional phase. In March of 1987 he is invited to take part in an exhibition at Montparnasse and is again the guest of the mayor of Paris. He asks me to write the introduction to the catalogue. Here it is: "Tadeusz Brudzyński paints great works, which additionally enrich everything which occurs,, beyond the set" - as a filmmaker would say. The subject leads him on, overtakes him, escapes him for a time, a time which could be referred to as a happening", and it is difficult to place in a specific position on the canvass. The dramatic paintings seem to be part of some scenery and the figures in suits and jackets that fill them have just finished a violent argument on a street corner. On other paintings the figures seem to be floating weightlessly, the happy crowd makes you smile and then suddenly fills you with disquiet. The figures evolve on the liquid, rhythmic backgrounds that counterpoint them. These are his ,,grey" paintings, sometimes filled with air, sometimes distorted as if underwater. Some backgrounds are placed by a knife in thick paste. The great black canvasses are wonderfully painted with subtle light, they seem engulfed by the blue-black and red light of church arches. This is an illusion - the only colored spots are a little red man entangled in his own complexes and in the opposite corner a diagonal band of yellow ochre. The concepts, strength of inspiration and the painting quality behinds these pictures are such that it is no exaggeration to say that this young painter has reached a turning point in his life and works."

That summer, on the 12th of August 1987, Tadeusz writes to me:,,I'm 31, everything will be decided during the next three, four years." And it was - dramatically. From that time on his painting will become will a painful autobiography. In the center - as always - a man with his concerns and fears, sympathy for the "human condition", a piercing cry for help. The works gain beauty, a thickening of their subject matter, unity. And sensuality. The wonderful canvasses that he exhibits in Japan are the clearest evidence of that. The Japanese highly appreciate his search for the key to things and the exhibition is a success.

No critic understands Brudzyński better in this period than Christophe Graizon, the author to the introduction to the Tokyo catalogue. He writes:,,a man of bronze, static and heavy, a man on flesh, crushed as Jesus in a position of helplessness or limited to a few lines, a few throws of bright colours splitting the ideal darkness, like a cry in the desert." Tadeusz's health deteriorates from 1994, destroyed by the life he has led and a feeling of hopelessness. He paints less. Only his enormous drawings remain enchanting, heavy sketches in coal, chalk, white, ochre and sepia. Ever more tragic. In December 1995 he returns to Poland for a few months, he phones me on his return, on Easter Wednesday. He feels lost, homeless. I suggest we take a trip to my Normandy workshop: We'll go to Honfleur, on the coast. The open sky, sea, the rainbow light of the area has your shades; you'll paint small pictures, we'll exhibit them and I'm sure we'll sell them all, Braque and de Stael also painted the sea."

He says,,Okay, I'll come for dinner on Saturday, we'll discuss it." On Thursday he meets his friend, Peter Szemiński, and tells his that he indeed has various plans. But the next day at dawn, on Easter Friday, he dies of a heart attack while visiting his friend, Geza Toth, the sculptor. The picture I retain of Tadeusz in my heart is a

great picture of,,Helpless Christ", pained and torn, it had become his only source of inspiration.

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BIO

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Tadeusz Brudzyński was born in Warsaw.

Between 1970-1973 he lived in Africa in Kinshasa.

During 1975 and 1976 he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Toulouse and then from 1976-1980 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.

In 1980 he received a diploma in prof. Jacek Sienicki's workshop.

In 1981 he took part in an auction of works on behalf of 'Solidarność"

organized in the Nationally Museum in Warsaw.

In the June of 1983 he left for France and lived in Paris.

In 1985 he took part in the Grand Prix International d'Art Contemporain de la Principauté de Monaco and received the Prix de la Princesse Grace.

In 1986 he worked in the Cité International des Arts.

He died in Paris, 1996.

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