Jerzy DUDA-GRACZ (1941-2004), Letter from the village of Kamion 1, 1989

oil panel; 63 x 50.5 cm;
Signed, dated and inscribed l. d.: DUDA-GRACZ 1312/89;
On the reverse, two author's stickers with handwritten information about the painting: DUDA-GRACZ / PADEREWSKIEGO (...) KATOWICE / TITLE PAINTING 1312 / LETTER FROM /WSIKAMION - 1/ / TECHNIQUE OIL, PŁ.PILŚN. / DIMENSIONS 63 x 50,5 cm / PRICE / SYGN. DUDA-GRACZ / YEAR 1989 / CATAL.AUTHOR NO. 1312 / REMARKS 1 WERNIS. XII. '89.
Jerzy Duda-Gracz is a painter who, due to his independent artistic attitude, has escaped the framework of categorization, both by art historians and critics. The themes undertaken by the artist, including pre-industrial landscapes, portraits of ordinary people, sometimes spiced with a certain dose of humor, constitute the essence of the painter's style. According to Lechoslaw Lemanski, "Jerzy Duda-Gracz (born 1941) was labelled almost immediately after his exhibition debut in 1970 as a rubbishy mocker and mocker of numerous Polish vices, a keen and at the same time critical observer and commentator of communist reality with its everyday absurdities and anomalies." In the same article, the author also notes the artist's strong inspiration from 19th century art. - classical, realistic painting, both in content and form, as well as analogous subject matter for the painters of Young Poland, who often portrayed and glorified the beauty of the Polish land.