untitled

Ryszard Szymański is entirely devoted to metal-based printmaking techniques – aquatint and etching – the most manual and demanding among all printmaking methods. As Professor Krzysztof Tomalski aptly observed, “intaglio techniques are ideal for a certain type of artistic personality: part monk, part rebellious sceptic of modern civilisation, resistant to rapidly changing trends but drawn to the subtleties of intimate, quiet experimentation.” Szymański is undoubtedly such an individual. His prints are metaphorical, deeply personal and at the same time universal in their meaning. They most often depict birds, fish or human figures. Birds are associated with freedom, spiritual or physical liberation, but also with fragility, a life lived in fear and under threat. Fish – water-dwelling creatures – can symbolise the depths of the unconscious, as well as abundance, birth and rebirth. In each of Szymański’s prints lies an intimate world – both real and imagined. The collection of the National Museum in Szczecin includes nineteen prints by the artist that are representative and significant both artistically and in terms of iconography. Created between 1981 and 1983, these expressive, metaphorical and symbolic works were inspired by the atmosphere of the martial law era in Poland. The print *Untitled* (1982) shows a tangled mass of feathers protruding from beneath a military helmet. This dark composition evokes a sense of uncertainty, danger, chaos and fear. The soldier’s helmet emerges from a black void, looming over and crushing an organic tangle of fibres and feathers, creating a sense of oppression. Szymański makes masterful use of the potential offered by the techniques he has consistently practised for four decades. Like many of his other works, the monochrome *Untitled* invites the viewer to engage in metaphorical narratives and symbolic thought. It activates the imagination and encourages longer contemplation. Ryszard Szymański was born in 1955 in Szczecin. From 1974, he studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, graduating in printmaking in 1984. That same year, a work of his shown at the Bankside Gallery in London received First Prize from the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers. Upon returning to Szczecin, he began teaching in the State Secondary School of Fine Arts, where he ran the printmaking studio. He was the initiator, organiser and curator of the National Biennale of Artistic Printmaking for Students of Secondary Art Schools. Marlena Chybowska-Butler