The artist Marek Zulawski, translation & Polish-British culture

Hi,

In the last edition of the newsletter, I sent you some of my father's thoughts on contemporary art. So for balance, here is an excerpt from his autobiography where he is interviewed about his own art and approach, as well as what the point of art should be.

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Art doesn't exist to give anyone pleasure

Kurier Polski, a 1978 issue, via staradobraksiazka.pl

I received a clipping from Kurier Polski dated 9th July 1980 featuring an interview I gave. It was done in London with a young journalist called Sobolewski, timed before my exhibition in Warsaw and before the publication of my autobiography Study for a Self-Portrait. He recorded our conversation on tape and sent me the text from Poland later for authorisation. It's genuinely rare to find an example of such journalistic integrity today. The result is an interview that reads exactly as I gave it:

Sobolewski: Your exhibition at the Interpress Gallery probably isn't your first post-war exhibition in Poland...

Me: Of course not. My first post-war exhibition was as soon as 1946, held at the National Museum in Warsaw.

Sobolewski: What did you show the Warsaw public back then?

Me: There wasn't really any public. There were ruins. I exhibited everything that managed to be saved from the war. Drawings that escaped destruction, and older paintings found in museums. I think the exhibition was above all a demonstration. A demonstration that we were alive, that although there was rubble laying all around, Polish culture had not perished. But this gesture wasn't mine, rather the museum director's, that wonderful man Professor Stanisław Lorentz.

Sobolewski: Anything after that?

Me: Ten years later, in 1957, I had a large retrospective exhibition at Zachęta. Of all the presentations of my paintings that I've had in my life, it was probably the largest — and the most precious experience. Then a few more years passed and the next exhibition was in 1961. This time at Warsaw's Kordegarda and at the Sopot festival. In 1968, I had another retrospective at Toruń's Artus Court, and, four years ago, an exhibition of new paintings and silkscreen prints at Galeria Zapiecek in Warsaw.

Opening of Marek's 1957 exhibition at Zachęta in Warsaw, via UMK

Sobolewski: And what's the concept behind your current exhibition?

Me: Primarily, I'm just showing my newest works. Ten paintings, somewhat different from my older ones, perhaps more classical, and some drawings. Other than that, my collages from the 1960s, which have never been exhibited in Poland before, are there grouped separately.

Sobolewski: Have you abandoned collage techniques?

Me: Not at all! I often paste various elements into my paintings, but back then, in the years 1962 to 1968, I almost exclusively just made collages. And then suddenly the phase passed.

Sobolewski: Was that change somewhat characteristic of your personality?

Me: Nothing of the sort. I've a great sense of continuity. Nevertheless, I don't insist on one technique, although philosophically speaking, all my works are always about the same topic. The topic of humans. Many artists ceaselessly paint in the same way. They're the most famous because they're easy to recognise. I change my "way". I'm constantly full of curiosity for new formal solutions, and besides, I get bored repeating the same methods endlessly.

Sobolewski: Other than painting and graphics, writing remains a genre of creative expression for you that doesn't "pass". I hear your third book is coming out in Poland.

Me: It's called Study for a Self-Portrait, published by Czytelnik. A book about myself. I'm already writing the sequel — after all, I am constantly experiencing new situations, constantly coming to new conclusions.

Sobolewski: Will this book be a link in the chain of the Żuławski family saga, like Juliusz Żuławski's book From Home?

Me: My brother's book is modest, factual, based on authentic materials, on our parents' letters. And that makes it a documentation of an era, whereas mine is all personal confessions.

Sobolewski: You describe your brother's book as modest. How would you characterise your Study for a Self-Portrait?

Me: My book is very immodest. Juliusz wrote objectively about other people, while I'm writing subjectively about myself. Talkativeness about oneself could even be considered improper. Others can be the judge of that. Bernard Shaw noted that there are three sexes: men, women and artists. I can only add that this third sex is characterised by feminine talkativeness, coquetry, vanity and exhibitionism, and at the same time a masculine longing for heroic gestures and making one's mark on eternity.

Sobolewski: And what do you say when you write about art?

Me: I don't write about art as an issue because I can't say what art is in a satisfactory way. It seems to me that it's one of the paths to knowledge. In any case, it's not documentation. It's rather synthesis. To find a symbol, to find an equivalent of something from nature without copying it, to find the content of reality without naming it directly. To avoid literalness. To show the world anew. To awaken sensitivity. Art doesn't exist to give anyone pleasure. It also has little to do with so-called beauty — that's just sentimental nonsense spouted by 19th-century theorists. A painting can naturally be beautiful in an experiential sense — but it doesn't have to be. The Crucifixion by Grünewald, for example, isn't beautiful. It's shocking. And that's how it should be. Art has to open eyes and hearts.

Sobolewski: You're a painter, writer and critic. That means the materials you use in your creative activity are images and words. Do you reach for the pen when you're unable to express yourself on canvas?

Me: Presumably so. I say "presumably" because an artist knows very little about their own creative processes. And usually doesn't even want to know. Creativity is a bit like digestion or breathing. If you start thinking about these instinctive processes, you kill all the spontaneity their success depends on.

'The Crucifixion' by Matthias Grünewald, 1515, via Wikipedia

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So, I watched A Real Pain

If you're not heard of the so-called "love letter to Poland" by Jessie Eisenberg, it's a recent American film about two cousins who visit Poland to honour their recently deceased grandmother. It has an Oscar nomination for its screenplay and has a lot to like. I mostly just wanted to see it as I'd heard they'd filmed a lot of it in Lublin, which is a setting usually ignored by Polish filmmakers, never mind Hollywood.

The film, probably wisely in commercial terms, concentrates on the relationship between the two cousins, rather than on the relationship between Poland and the descendants of its Jews, but I was hoping it would have a bit more teeth to it. To be fair, it does accurately depict a certain type of entitled American who comes to Poland and acts thoughtlessly, and I did appreciate the occasional moments where it broached the odd relationship that Jews who've never been to Poland have with the country knowing that their ancestors lived there for centuries. Here's a short clip featuring one of those moments:

It's a very short film at 80 minutes, and at that length, what have you got to lose? I'd definitely recommend it either way, as I laughed out loud several times - but I am admittedly a fan of humour that makes you cringe.

My only gripe was one scene where the cousins go into Lublin's passport office late at night to go on the roof. My own children got their Polish passports from that very office. As a Polish government building, the idea of it being open after 6pm, let alone late at night was laughable and took me out of the story completely 🤭

You can watch the film at the cinema if you're in the UK, but elsewhere you should be able to find it on Disney Plus, Prime and YouTube.

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That's all for this week. Many thanks for reading. If you want to support the newsletter, please forward it to a friend or donate here.

Adam

Adam Zulawski

TranslatingMarek.com / TranslatePolishMemoirs.com / Other stuff

👉 Help fund the translation of Studium do autoportretu via Paypal 👈

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