Submontane landscape

Stanisław Kamocki's oeuvre stems from the symbolist worship of nature, interpreted by means of synthetic forms, regular divisions and, at the same time, distinct colour accents. As a distinguished pupil of Jan Stanisławski, he expressed his interest in landscapes throughout his work, recreating serene scenes of the foothills landscape, expressing peace, harmony, and the inner unity of nature. Kamocki's painting workshop developed by adapting the patterns of Cézanne and the light palette of the colourists. The landscapes from the surroundings of Kraków as well as mountain landscapes marked a permanent repertoire of themes revealing delight in nature, but also a search for various ways of building painterly expression. Colour accents led to an interpretation of the painting according to artistic rules, combining and harmonising the colour scale.

Pejzaż podgórski [Podgórze Landscap] is evidence of a mature artistic search. It is distinguished by clear framing, warm colours, close-ups of haystacks between which a grazing cow is depicted, and in the distance, a mountainous landscape framed by cool blues. The landscape has its own internal construction, combining close-up detail and a distant range of peaks enclosed by a sheet of sky. The logic of shaping the image is also expressed by a particular technique – an impasto-shaped foreground softly treated with horizontal strokes on the part depicting the far distance. The painting, focussed on recreating the mood of the landscape, also becomes an area for the realisation of the modern painting programme in which the imagery reveals the process of artistic elaboration, and reveals the trace of the painterly gesture.

Marcin Lachowski