Agression IV

Zdzisław Jurkiewicz (1931 to 2012) was a painter, creator of installations, objects and poems, whose work was shaped by a fascination with biology – particularly botany – as well as physics, astronomy and cosmology. He graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at Wrocław University of Science and Technology in 1956 and remained connected with the institution throughout his professional life, first as an assistant, later as head of the Department of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture. He did not practise architecture professionally, instead combining teaching with his own artistic work. He lectured on colour theory and the role of colour in architecture, as well as drawing and painting. He collaborated with Jerzy Ludwiński (1930 to 2000), a prominent Polish art critic, author of the Museum of Current Art project and founder of the Pod Moną Lizą Gallery in Wrocław. The gallery’s inaugural event was Jurkiewicz’s solo exhibition *High. Intensely* (1967). In 1970 he received the Cyprian Kamil Norwid Art Critics’ Award, and in 1976 was awarded a scholarship from the Kościuszko Foundation. He took part in a number of major art events, including the São Paulo Biennale (1974), Atelier 72 in Edinburgh, and *Présences Polonaises* in Paris (1983). Jurkiewicz’s painting from the early 1960s was influenced by American abstract expressionism and action painting. Among European artists, he admired the work of Pierre Soulages (1919 to 2022). In a 2002 interview with curator and art critic Paweł Polit, he said: “So there was this fascination with the gesture, but on the other hand, when I looked closely at these splashes of paint, they seemed rather cheap. I wanted to be an American, but deep down I have a European soul, so I had to refine it somehow. That’s when cycles like *Aggressions* and *Invasions* appeared. I realised I couldn’t give up painterly quality altogether. The overall idea might be that the painting flies from left to right, but the materiality of the paint, the craftsmanship, the play with oil paint, the quality – all that made itself known. The gesture captured in these paintings isn’t pure or spontaneous. It’s, in a way, patinated, controlled and supported.” The painting *Aggression IV* from 1965, now in the collection of the National Museum in Szczecin, comes from the *Aggressions* series, which received both the jury prize and the *Głos Szczeciński* award at the 3rd Festival of Contemporary Painting in Szczecin in 1966. Marlena Chybowska-Butler