Beginning

The collection of the National Museum in Szczecin holds nineteen prints by Ryszard Szymański that are representative and significant both artistically and in terms of iconography. These works, created between 1981 and 1983, are expressive, metaphorical and symbolic representations inspired by the atmosphere of turbulent times during major social and political shifts in Poland. One of them, titled *The Beginning*, was made in 1983, the year martial law ended. However unsettling or ambiguous the work may appear, its telling title offers hope for renewal, for new life – for rebirth. Against a dark background, a bright oval shape radiates light from its lower half. Above it are scattered feathers, wings, claws – birds hatching from a cracked eggshell, forming a tangled mass that thickens toward the top of the composition. Birds frequently appear in Szymański’s work. They are associated with freedom, spiritual or physical liberation, but also with fragility, with an existence lived in fear or under threat. Ryszard Szymański was born in Szczecin in 1955. He studied printmaking at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, graduating in 1984. Around the same time, his work exhibited at the Bankside Gallery in London won First Prize from the Royal Society of Painter–Etchers and Engravers. His mentor, the person to whom he owes his interest and dedication to art, was Maksymilian (Max) Szoc (1937–1983) – a painter, set designer, founder of a pantomime theatre, performance artist and poet. Through Szoc, Szymański became fascinated with the technique and craftsmanship of the Dutch masters of the 16th and 17th centuries, such as Van Eyck and Vermeer. For the past 40 years, Szymański has remained devoted to traditional printmaking techniques, particularly intaglio methods such as aquatint and etching. In the catalogue for his 2016 exhibition at Gallery 111 in Szczecin, he wrote: “Working in etching takes me into a completely different dimension. It is like reciting a mantra – hours spent filling surface after surface with lines or dots, followed by hours of etching and trial printing. Corrections, additions, sometimes a complete shift in the direction of the narrative – and everything begins again.” Marlena Chybowska-Butler