" Guest radio Zet" ( painting nr 362 ) Painting

BELOW THE SURFACE OF PAINTING Some time ago, while visiting the city of York in the north of England, I came face to face with 13 th century abstract work of art very reminiscent of a painting by Pollock. The experience occured in York Minster and the strangely abstract work of art was the ancient stained glass in the north transept of the cathedral.The window was in the form of five slender lancets, the longest of their kind in the world, in sparkling greys and greens with a few scattered points of red, like drops of blood. According to the legend, this ancient and beautiful glass with its curiously abstract patterning represents the embroidery of five maidens of the city of York - hence its name, " Five sisters ". And if there is any truth in the story, these five sisters must indeed have possessed great imagination and a wonderful sense of colour and vigour equal to Pollock's famous "dash". At first the glass appears to be free of any meaning or ornamental drama.The great lancets with their graceful pointed arches seem to sparkle evenly with pearl - like lustre. Only later one does recognize a geometrical pattern and notice foliage reaching towards heaven: the ' Five Sisters" have not been abstract after all. But I thought automaticlly of them when I saw some paintings by Krzysztof Pająk in one of the Warsaw galleries some time afterwards.His work possesses the same elegance - an elegance which doesn't seem to harm painting, or art in general, in the slightest. Like the " Five Sisters", Pająk's pictures consist of an evenly vibrating surface which looks completely abstract. If hung rhythimically, they would show like a chamber of mirrors or a kaleidoscope of changing colours. They look alike in that islamic patterns look alike, or the " Five Sisters", or any city seen from the air. But for all their apparent similarity, Pająk's paintigs do in fact differ consderably. The only thing which they all have in common is the principle that each element is as important as the next. Pająk's work is characterized by an oriental delight in sparkling surfaces wich in turn explains his fascinations with Christams lights and night flight. Like the " Five Sisters" his paintings only seem abstract, but in fact represent a labyrinth of streets, hills and houses crowded together like those objects found in the work of Arman. "J'ai une theorie tres simple"- confessed Arman to some art critic - " J'ai toujors pretendu que les objects s'autocomposaient eux- memes ". I have a feeling that Pająk's paintings also " compose themselves", in an atmosphere constructed primarily of colour. Krzysztof Pająk, as a painter, is interested in both the regular street plan of New York and any curious discoveries in the garbage of the city, he seems to have no particular philosophy. A new tube of paint has, for him, its own inspiration. He delights in the clear colours of neon light that are so often a feature of the film world, wich perhaps explains why his picture " Antique Blue " ( a sort of blue - green UFO in an underwater Atlantis ) seems " antique" in an almost Spilbergian sense. Finally, the lyricism of Arman's amassed objects" ( his violins, for example ) is reflected in the lyricism of Pająk's lights and mysterious streets. But where Arman was obsessed by destruction, Pająk, the neat, disciplined perfectionist, communicates a sense of order and harmony.It is perhaps useful the know that Pająk once worked a telephone exchange and that during national service with the Air Force he experenced night flight over cities sparkling a myriad points of liht. Milena Dabić painter and writer lives and works in England OBIEG nr 5 ( 25 ) 1991r ( new art in Poland )

Multi-paneled Painting:Acrylic on Canvas

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:89 W x 57 H x 1 D in

Number of Panels:2

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