Light and Abstract Painting – by Slawomir Marzec

Light and Abstract Painting

by Slawomir Marzec

From the earliest record, light occupies a special place in human consciousness. It was identified as a basic world energy, as emanation of divinity. Even today, it is a basic carrier of information in our computer epoch (until recently, the light speed was basic solid physical value–yet it slows down!). There exist many different kinds of light and resulted from them different ways of sights, e.g.: lumen (as spiritual beam), lux (as light of reason). And still this ancient question: does light create shadow, or does it only obtain from darkness? So it is a kind of borderland, mediation, mysterious ambivalence: through light, or rather according to it, we perceive objectiveness, but we can also try to perceive it autonomously, as a pure phenomenon. The relationship of abstract painting and light (lights) is the subject of exhibition prepared with unusual thoroughness over two years by Apolloniusz Weglowski (painter, gallery director, curator) on painting as "the development of light" (Cassirere), "category of light" (Ortega y Gasset), "displays the origin of visibility" (Marleau-Ponty).

Light has always been present in painting; already as a lineal shading in Paleolithic era, as transparency of stained/glass window, as chiaroscuro and sfumato in the Renaissance, contrasts in the Baroque etc. Abstract painting, as this exhibition proves, possesses huge diverse ways of shaping light: in color and value contrasts (in paintings of J. Grabowski), across real chiaroscuro of reliefs (J. Pamula), in workmanship and gesture (K. Wachowiak), across flashes and reflections (J. Chwalczyk), to a kind of light symbolization (E. Gortchakova), and in aureal monochromacy (A. Jachtoma).

Heidegger tried to overcome the traditional metaphor of light by a metonymy of "clearance," which creates a chance to perceive things in their "non secretiveness." It is possible to find a similar intention in Walter Benjamin’s idea of "aura". More recently, Derrida executed total criticisms of European sight-centralism. And today’s world brings into consciousness the insufficiency of normal sight–prions, feromons, germs of anthrax etc.–as an influence invisibly on our life. Is painting still able to match with this new visuality, broadened today with no/sight, with the an aesthetic consciousness?

The exhibition does give a clear statement. But its huge differentiation of artistic attitudes, creates a convenient situation for reflection. It does confirm that abstract painting still participates in today’s "essential thinking" (Heidegger); that through painting it is still possible to formulate most important problems. The question about light is a question about present metaphysics, about its possibilities. Can we today care about such general and "abstract" reflection, or does commerce and social regulation seize us absolutely? The creators in this show answer this unambiguously.

This exhibition, now presented in Gallery EL in Elblg, is in my opinion one of the largest and most well-thought-out demonstrations of painting in Poland in recent years. It will be shown many other places, for example: The National Museum in Szczecin, The Centre of Polish Sculpture in Oronsko, Bochum, Clopenburg, and Lodz. The participants are mostly famous Polish painters, including Stefan Gierowski (co/curator of the show), Jan Chwalczyk, Andrzej Gieraga, Adam Styka, Jerzy Trelinski, but also includes other European artists such as Eugenia Gortchakova, Istvan Haas, Andres Linden. The exhibition is accompanied by large catalogue with essays by Boena Kowalska and Jurgen Weichardt.

The exhibition has a deeper warning: if we will stop understanding and feeling painting, we stop understanding ourselves. The apocalypse does not just mean the world will disappear, but that we will lose the ability to perceive it.