Joanna Stasiak`s Paintings on Silk

Wandering in Unknown Lands

Joanna Stasiak's paintings on silk
Magdalena Janota Bzowska

"[He] delighted to wander in unknown lands, and gaze at unknown rivers, his enthusiasm making light of travel." Ovid, Metamorphoses IV 294

A monkey is sitting on a stone cube. Its head is turned to face the viewer. Its expression is sad and intelligent. It is posing for a portrait. The composition is done in subdued purples and greys, against which the warm area of fur stands out. The painter sees in her unusual model a figure of the age-old guardian of time. She looks into its world through her favourite form – that of the oculus: a circular window, a frame within a circle inscribed within a square. Associated with the traditional canons of the Renaissance, this composition has often been used by the artist. Through the lens of her own concentration, purposefully choosing the place and event, Joanna Stasiak shares her way of seeing the world with the viewer.

Joanna Stasiak paints monkeys she has observed at the Warsaw Zoo and encountered during her travels through India. At times their gaze is ironic, at others there is a pensiveness in their eyes. They are the keepers of secrets hidden in centuries-old temples. Monkeys can be caricatures of human existence. They are holy and solemn, and yet ridiculous. Accordingly, Stasiak infuses her meditations with a dash of humour.

A man is brandishing a stick over a cowering monkey. Stasiak has set the scene against the backdrop of architecture: simple cuboids resting on a huge arcade, a man-made landscape indicative of man's power over nature. The scene may or may not be the focal point of the painting, yet, as viewers, we cannot fail to be drawn by it. In the warm light, the figure beating the animal seems unreal and grotesque. A potential passerby would not even notice the scene, but walk past it as one often walks past the wonders of the world.

An important experience for Joanna Stasiak in recent years was her artistic journey to India, on which she set off at a painful juncture in her life. Initially meant to help her cope with the pain of losing a loved one, it became a journey of inner discovery as much as a pilgrimage to far-off lands. Hence the sense of sadness, loss and emptiness emanating from deep within her works.

Shrouded in dust and mist, New Delhi proved exotic and magical, yet lively, bustling and tangible. Getting to work on new paintings, on a roof not far from the roof of the world, gave the painter a new perspective on life. The roof of the house on which she set up her temporary studio became a place of profound reflection.

Mastering the technique of painting on silk was a new challenge for Joanna as she transposed her imagery onto a new and demanding medium. The series of works described in the present publication blends her extensive formal experience with the new potential gained by using silk as a ground. Stasiak has followed up the series made in India with further works on silk produced in the village of Trękus, and in her Warsaw studio. Painting on silk gives a singular feeling of freedom. The process whereby the work is made contains a noble mystery in itself. Soft bales of silk surrounded by pots of paint form a unique setting for making art. When working, Stasiak circles and stoops, like a whirling shaman, over the fabric stretched on the floor, chanting a spell known only to herself. This seeming freedom does, however, require consummate precision in the brushstrokes. Entire paintings must be planned in advance, stage by stage. Thier stunning visual effects are possible thanks to imposing a crystalline order. The only random element is provided by the painter's cat, Alma, who pads freely across their still-wet surfaces.

Paintings on silk strive for monumentality of form understood as much in terms of construction as of dimension. Laying out the space of the painting with a rigour normally found in architecture, Stasiak shows her affinity with Nicolas Poussin and her interest in the Antique. Her paintings achieve a dramaturgy worthy of Greek tragedy without falling into contrived pathos. She shapes space with straight and expressive brushstrokes, producing abundant contrasts. Virtually graphic lines adjoin soft expanses of colour. Delicately applied transparent shapes provide a luminescent effect as motes of colour overlap one another.

The painter constructs her works using simple, all-but geometric forms. Circular shapes resemble mandalas. Vertical, horizontal and diagonal structures make up a recessed space, against the backdrop of which human figures appear. Her compositions have a theatrical dimension. Outlines of architectural forms are enhanced by vivid chiaroscuro contrasts. Narrow shafts of light break in to define the space anew. Lines are arranged into new shapes entirely distinct from the buildings sketched by the artist. The light gives the sense of a different, supernatural world making inroads into reality and establishes the dimension of the sacred. Beams of light shine through spaces between the boards of the barn in Trękus, pierce the dark hill-side grottoes containing Buddhist temples, and contend for their place in the sky with mighty curtains of clouds. Rocks and fissures, deep shadows and blinding rays of light create a distant world in which the viewer can discover familiar landscapes.

The human presence is not taken for granted in Stasiak's paintings. Even though individual human figures can be found in the spaces she paints, they are often pervaded by a feeling of solitude. Figures are stripped of their physical aspect. The human form is a token of existence, a counterpoint to the space constructed by the artist. People are incarnations of the spirit, the idea, the logos. Stasiak's paintings embrace the idea of humanity. The wanderer, shaman, and priest is attuned to the age-old rituals of time.

Joanna Stasiak treats her works as mirrors. She sees herself in them, and watches them glint as she records reflections of thoughts and sensations. She has captured the fleeting impressions of India in the concrete substance of pigment. Though enthralled by its cultural diversity, the blend of shapes, textures, smells, and sounds, she does not approach India as one would an exotic country but transforms it into every other place on the globe. A place where, as in the gaps in the walls of the barn in Trękus, the universal matters of this world can be seen as if through a lens.

The panorama of a vast plain. A silvery-white moon is rising above the horizon. Its timorous glow lights up the cloudy sky and a cluster of temple buildings along the river. Day is grappling with night. Streaks of yellow and gold can still be seen in the sky. In the centre, between the warm blotch of sunlight and a sombre indigo cloud, is an expanse of blue sky. The saturated colours produce vivid contrasts of temperature. The landscape seems silent and empty. This is at once the world of a bygone age and the present visibly marked by the past.

Stasiak finds her place in art thanks to a sense of continuity and a bond with the past. She has chosen discourse with the legacy of bygone generations as a starting point for her artistic inquiries, and spins her thoughts against the backdrop of humanity's search for the universal, inspired to do so by Marek Oberländer, an artist whose work she holds in high esteem. She works on her paintings much like a philosopher does on a treatise. She guides the viewer towards questions of epistemology and ontology. Inquiring into the nature of being, she recognises the meanings making up human existence in various times and places. In her explorations, she often refers to quotes testifying to her excellent taste in literature, treating the texts as the starting point for a profound analysis of timeless problems and theses. She believes in the power of fate and the magical effect places can have on people. Such an approach to art is a great challenge for the viewer, of whom the artist demands erudition and commitment.

Having experienced the Far East, she can combine the values of the Western world with the Oriental approach to knowledge. Stasiak sets off on an artistic journey leading to the world of ideas. Her paintings seem to help materialise what properly belongs to the spiritual realm. Her pilgrimage takes place at several levels simultaneously. She journeys inside herself, coming to know herself by learning about others. She follows the Christian path of mystery and suffering, as well as the mythological path of destiny and fate. Despite their apparently secular nature, many of Stasiak's paintings evince the presence of the sacred, around which many of her works are constructed. One might even go so far as to claim that the sacred is the main subject of her works.

The image of a huge fish fills nearly the entire painting. Done in tones of silver and blue, it spans the whole range of greys from white to graphite. A subtle violet and green shimmer suffuses its body. Part of the world of nature, it invokes cultural and religious symbols, allegories and metaphors, and discovers contexts from the dawn of Christianity, leading the viewer towards considerations of a christological and eucharistic nature.

Some of the works done in India depict a symbolically rendered lingam as found in the great temples of Shiva. It is the shape of a space that, in Hinduism, contains the entire physical universe, a representation of the primeval beginning.

It might seem that the gravity of the subject-matter is ill-suited to the painter's chosen medium. Silk is, after all, perceived as something delicate, light, almost ephemeral. Yet, by choosing such a ground, Stasiak is able to channel the traditional function of banners in religious processions. The silk comes to life as it ripples on the wall, set in motion by the viewers passing through the exhibition space. The bordered image opens up to us like a window.

Joanna Stasiak's paintings provide an insight into her strength of character, and the resolve with which she takes on age-old artistic challenges. Her world continually oscillates between opposites, combining the extremes of stability and evanescence in a synthetic and sensitive way. She seeks to strike a balance between the sensual and the ascetic. Her paintings contain the all-encompassing silence necessary to reflect upon the world. There are no superfluous gestures, no unnecessary words here. In her paintings, people surrender to the inevitability of fate and the power of nature. From this inevitability is derived the ultimate solace.

* * *

Joanna Stasiak graduated from the Department of Fine Arts at the Mikołaj Kopernik University in Toruń. She obtained an MFA with honours in painting in 1989. Her tutor and master, Janusz Kaczmarski, who would later become her life-partner, taught her a disciplined approach to painting, and attention to consistency and inner order in the composition. Kaczmarski's combination of severity and subtlety, his clarity of thought, industriousness and integrity of technique had a great influence on her artistic development. Similar motifs can be found in the work of the two painters, and they share a probing and meticulous exploration of their subject-matter. Stasiak's talent and creative dedication were recognised by the British Council and the Polish Ministry of Culture and Art, both of which granted her scholarships.

Stasiak went on to continue her education at The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art in Oxford, where, in 1991, under the tutorship of Professor Stephen Farthing, she acquainted herself with what was then cutting-edge art, and visited British museums to deepen her knowledge of the Old Masters. The enduringly fresh and modern way in which the latter approached visual problems exposed the often superficial and trite nature of more than a few contemporary art practices. Similarly enriching as the time spent in the UK was a subsequent study visit in Paris, where, on a scholarship from the Foundation to Support Independent Polish Literature and Learning, the artist devoted two months to interpreting the work of Nicolas Poussin, specifically his last painting, "Apollo and Daphne," presently in the Louvre. Her in-depth study of the work and contemplation of its iconographical motifs and visual devices led Stasiak to adopt a Poussinesque aproach to colour in her own works.

Besides painting, Stasiak has co-authored elementary and middle-school textbooks in the "World of Art" series, and runs the In Spe gallery organising numerous artistic events involving artists from all generations. An itinerant gallery without a space of its own, In Spe is recognised by its distinctive logo. The gallery has staged exhibitions of works by Grzegorz Bednarski, Tadeusz Boruta, Witold Damasiewicz, Janusz Kaczmarski, Andrzej Kapusta Janusz Marciniak, Aldona Mickiewicz, Marek Oberländer, Aleksandra Simińska, Jerzy Wolff, Andrzej Zwierzchowski, and "Inedita" an exhibition of gouaches, water-colours and drawings by Andrzej Wróblewski.

She organises annual plein-air symposia at her house in Warmia, northeastern Poland. Notable among these are: "Holy Week", "Saints from the Shrines of Warmia," "Trękus dell' Arte," and "Bacchae," the last of which was a workshop intepretation of Euripides' play with the participation of the Węgajty Village Theatre. All this is indicative of Stasiak's need to reinstate the master – student relation at various levels. A shared creative process inspires the intellect, and makes it possible to exchange thoughts and study issues of technique. Classic genres such as nudes, still-lifes, and landscapes are revisited in order to say something about contemporary sensibilities.

Over the last three years, she has been organising a series of workshops called "Shards of Atlantis: The Shrines of Warmia," the first instalment of which was devoted to representations of the Pieta in Warmia. The second examined the notion of memory in the context of Jerzy Grotowski's famous saying "The Distant. The Close." The third is called "Home." All three relate to the unique place that is Joanna Stasiak's house in the village of Trękus in Warmia. It is a magical place steeped in local history with a poetry of its own that inspires reflection about the passage of time and what it means to have a home. When moving in, Stasiak adapted the house to her own needs without, however, interfering with the delicate structure of space left behind by its former residents, all of whom were creative and indepenent individuals. The interiors are full of tastefully selected shapes and colours. There is something about Trękus that lends itself to creative activity. It helps understand the coexistence and intertwining of life and art, which become one here. The house and its surroundings provide an excellent working environment. The huge barn serves as the venue for painting workshops and theatre performances. The nature of Warmia and a warm house in the countryside are a refuge for the artist.

Stasiak involves her students in all her extra-curricular projects. Teaching is a calling she has been pursuing for years, first at a secondary art school in Warsaw, then at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn. Since 2006, she has been teaching at the Art Education Institute at the Maria Grzegorzewska Academy of Special Education in Warsaw, which she has headed for the past several years. She teaches painting and conducts seminars. When commenting on her students' work, she is frank and to the point, avoiding excessive praise, and critical when necessary. Her remarks encourage creativity and hard work. Besides discussing the development of contemporary art, she often teaches by carrying out an insightful and comprehensive analysis of the Old Masters. Stasiak encourages her students to analyse the technique of other artists, and pay attention to such issues as composition, light, line, and colour. She gives them the tools necessary to embark on their own exploration of the world.

Magdalena Janota Bzowska

Joanna Stasiak`s Paintings on Silk

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