Paintings of artists from Poland?

@Novichok, from what I've noticed those murals that appear in public spaces are usually of the "tolerable" kind (and putting just a swastika as a mural on the wall would be illegal in Poland, I imagine). Just like those by Natalia Rak - pretty women + pretty flowers + cute kids (=pretty, pleasant, not controversial). That's one of the reasons why I chose to post her murals on this forum :)

Also... There are monuments, both historic and contemporary that cause controversy. Not everybody likes them and sometimes many people don't like them - like, for example, Soviet monuments in Poland :) (+ they're often ugly ;P) Monuments are also an example of art in a public space - just in the form of sculpture :)

This proves that Poland today is no better than the one I left in 1996.

If swastikas are acceptable in the US, they should be acceptable in every NATO country if those countries expect Americans to spill blood there for "freedom and democracy".

No First Amendment, shove that A5 up yours...

Unlike the US which wasn't affected by WWII as much as Europe was, Poland lost around 20% of its population (percentage-wise that's more than the Soviet Union) due to World War II and became the site of the biggest genocide in the history of humankind. And that happened because of people wearing f*cking swastikas on their uniforms and who were putting them on the walls. Survivors of the concentration camps are still alive in Poland and I wouldn't like them to be subjected to seeing swastikas glorified in public spaces in Poland. And I myself wouldn't want to see that happening either.

And I don't give a flying f*ck about what you think about it, about Polish law, art, grafitti, Poles and Poland in general. Get it, Novichok? You can shove your opinions up... you know where.

Now, we're drifting to the off topic region - about Polish law, American law and history and so I'm not going to continue this (and we had this discussion OVER and OVER again on this forum already anyway, so find someone else to bore).

You brought that swastka being illegal in Poland into the conversation.

Communist Poland also has its reasons why free speech was not allowed.

Same crap...

Are you just comparing the swastika with free speech?

@Novichok, I only wrote about swastika being illegal, because you brought up swastika showing up on a wall. So, I explained it to you that it wouldn't happen in Poland. Just like a LGBT rainbow won't show up on a wall in RuSSia, but I don't hear you complaining about law forbiding "propagating LGBT propaganda" in RuSSia. Actually - you like it. So you prefer Nazi propaganda to LGBT "propaganda"? lol 🤦


So does RuSSia, but I don't hear you complaining about that.

You're a tiresome, boring hypocrite, Novichok. That's why I mentioned those Soviet monuments in Poland which you defend.

So, as I wrote, you can shove up your opinions where the Sun doesn't shine :)

That is, to a darkened room without a window but with a computer tap somewhere at the end of the world.

I haven't heard of this artist before but I really like his work. I especially like 'The Moon' picture.

I am familiar with Natalia Rak. She is an amazing artist and I love her murals. I especially like 'The Legend of the Giants' mural. Maybe I'll get to Białystok to see it one day.

I have a huge folder/file of street art. Whenever I travel somewhere, I try and check out the street art scene. Kaunas, Kyiv and Malaga have some great murals.


Me too. I wish I was that talented. I would rather look at a beautiful mural than an ugly building :)

I like them a lot too and "The Legend of the Giants" is great :) Btw, that last mural I posted reminds me of a digital painting - rich, saturated colours, the general aesthetic and those tiny glowing lights... I wonder if she's dabbling in painting digitally too? 🤔


Oh wow, that's amazing! I must admit that I didn't know much about street art, but I'm getting more interested and I would defenitely want to see such murals when travelling too :)

Btw, I think those murals are a great way to promote some cities or parts of cities that are less popular with tourists. 🤔 I've even seen people making tattoos with the designs from the murals of one of the Polish street art group.


You know, there's a controversy considering this issue - whether there's such a thing as "talent" or not. There's a division concerning this even among artists. Some artists hate that word, because it doesn't take into account how much work and practice you have to put into it in order to acquire drawing, painting, etc. skills and gives people an impression that it's some kind of "magic". They argue that this is simply a skill that you can learn and not something you're born with. And I think I agree with that to an extent, although you probably have to have some kind of predispositions for this (but what are those predispositions - I'm not sure).

Maybe artists are simply kids who didn't stop drawing and painting as they were getting older :))

Feniks, have you ever tried drawing or painting (besides when you were a kid, of course ;))? :)


Me too :) I like how clever and on point his works are.

I'll post some more from Paweł Kuczyński then, because he seems to be quite prolific :)

Do you know which painting this one is based on?:

• 
  
  

This time a batch of non-political works:

• 
  
  

"Insomnia":

• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  

Because what Russia does has no impact on me. What the US and Poland do does.
Luckily, I have that First Amendment. Priceless...

You don't and that's why Poles love metaphors and paintings.

Yes, it does, in fact, but this is not what this thread is about.


Nonsense, many normal human beings love metaphors and paintings, including Americans who have the First Amendment lol 🙄

Now getting back to Paweł Kuczyński's art - it looks like something went wrong with my second post and I doubled the "Insomnia" piece (although it looks OK on my phone, just my laptop shows that it's doubled - strange o_O). So this is the single artwork that should be in that second post:

• 
  
  

And more:

Titles:

1. "Wings"
2. "Drummer"
3. "Coffee"
4. "Headphones":

• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  

And getting back to social and political stuff:

"Artificial Intelligence"
3rd prize at the 10th International Cartoon Contest "De Geus" (2023), Belgium:

• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  

Metaphors and sarcasm can get you convicted. Don't.

I always like Polish cinema posters very much. I will post some in a few days.

They are. I've had to actively seek out where some of the murals I've seen are. Means doing a lot of walking but I like getting off the beaten track and you see loads along the way.


I don't particularly agree with that. To be a good artist requires talent in my opinion. That is something you are born with. I'm not saying that a person can't learn to draw or paint but I think the results would be limited. I'm never going to be the next Leonardo da Vinci no matter how hard I try!


Yes. I spent years drawing, at one time it was my obsession. I only ever worked in pencil and crayons though. I still have all my artwork. Some of it is so old that the paper has yellowed. I've never had any formal training. I wanted to go to art school but my parents said no and when I left home at 16, I put thoughts of going out of my mind as I had to work. Art and Literature were the subjects I loved at school, my science obsession came later on. Further education for me came years later.


I was looking through some of his work yesterday and I realised that I had heard his name before. Wroclaw Boy started a thread on here about him:

https://polishforums.com/life/anti-establishment-artist-pawel-kuczynski-71094/

The link no longer links to his work though. I remembered only when I came across a painting of a man burning the rungs on a wooden ladder, his only way out of a pit, to keep warm, that I knew I'd seen it before and thought of this thread. You are right in that he is prolific, he's done so much work! I liked all the ' Insomnia ' collection.


Lady Godiva? I don't think so but there are many paintings with that theme. It'll probably be obvious when you tell me what it is.

Yes, and since it seems he primarily works with watercolours I wonder how much money he spends on watercolour paper - the good stuff is expensive... ;/


It may not be obvious to you, I guess, since it's a Polish painting. 🤔 I don't think the story of Lady Godiva is that well known in Poland, so it isn't really a theme in Polish art... I found out myself about Lady Godiva from one "The Benny Hill Show" episodes ;D

The painting that Kuczyński based his on is "Szał uniesień" ("Ecstasy") by Władysław Podkowiński from 1894:

pl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sza%C5%82_uniesie%C5%84

It's a big oil painting (310 × 275 cm) and one of the most known paintings in Poland - that's why it made sense for Kuczyński to base his painting on it since many Poles would immediately recognise it and maybe decipher some meaning:



The author destroyed it, but it was renovated.

Btw, in order not to go off topic too much I "moved" the rest our discussion to this thread:

https://polishforums.com/off-topic/hobby-87293/#msg1962790

*one of

*of our

*sigh* lol

If I'd seen that before I would instantly have known! It's a beautiful painting.