Light forms of sun I

The Światłoformy słońca diptych is a piece by Zdzislaw Stanek, one of the most interesting and expressive artists of the Silesian neo-avant-garde. He collaborated with the St-53 group founded in Katowice (St standing for Strzemiński, study, Stalinogród – the name of Katowice at the time), one of the first avant-garde groups in Poland, which was active in 1953-1958. The young artists, who were opposed to the prevalent socialism realism, were inspired by Władysław Strzemiński's Teoria widzenia, which was brought to Katowice by Konrad Swinarski – famous and outstanding director of theatre productions. The piece was copied using home copiers for 8 years, before it could be printed. Thanks to this reading , the issues of light, spatial structures and purely technical activities have become key problems in Zdzislaw Stanek's work. He explored with great attention the development of visual awareness and the role of light in images; as he said, he was constantly discovering new ways of seeing. Initially, he painted cubic landscapes, still lifes and figures, without crossing the boundary of abstract art. He analysed the properties of spatial forms, transformation of space and movement of light in compositions. After 1956, he started working on series such as Światłodrzewa and Światłokwiaty, which could be compared to informel and – in some cases – surrealism. He brought out abstract shapes with streaks of colour and texture. Textural experiments have brought his art closer to matter painting. With time, Stanek began to create reliefs, painting objects using wood and plaster, such as the works from the Obrazoformy series, as well as sculptural forms. Stanek's abstract compositions, which often feature biomorphic patterns or shapes, refer to the concept created by Strzemiński, who claimed that a painting should be organic, just like nature.

Marlena Chybowska-Butler