The artist Marek Zulawski, translation & Polish-British culture

Hi,

Sorry for the clickbait title but it makes sense in the context of this week's translation below. It's my father explaining the inspiration behind two of his paintings.

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I’m in a good mood today and at your service

'Law and Order' by Marek Zulawski, 1975, via UMK

I have to tell you the truth, Maria, because otherwise this book would make no sense. So when you ask me, for example, what my painting Law and Order, which I painted in 1975, means — I have to answer honestly. 'Law and order' is, of course — as you know — a popular slogan. But that painting wasn’t me trying to express my political views. It came about differently.

Once, someone I knew brought a young Polish poet named Henryk Gała to my studio. He gave me a green volume of his poetry, Próby Ognia (Trials of Fire), with a lovely dedication. I thanked him, put the book in my library, and forgot about it for a while. But some time later, I pulled it down from the shelf and opened it at random. What I read was a short poem that struck me right in that place where painting ideas are born. I was struck by its painterly quality. Its simplicity and gravity. It was a concrete vision, captured in a few lines of print. Listen:

She has no clothes

covering her body with her hands

a lizard lights up green

running across her face

(...)

The boy’s head is red

figures in heavy coats

passed the graying couple

only the motion of falling remained.*

Perhaps you'd like to hear about another painting? I’m in a good mood today and at your service — just say the word... Ah, Topless! That’s a later painting. You probably want to know whether the girl with bare breasts, its subject, was someone who played a role in my life. Yes, a huge role — although I saw her only once for just a moment on stage, and never met her personally.

That painting was born in my mind when I was at a rehearsal of some popular big beat band at London’s Round House — that gloomy circular building without windows that in Victorian times was a locomotive depot, later saved from demolition by preservationists and successively turned into a hippie headquarters, an experimental stage, a concert hall for jazz groups, and finally a rentable theatre that still hosts performances in multiple languages.

It was at that same rehearsal that I was captivated by a girl who was declaiming something to the wild howling of a reed organ. She was the kind of girl who keeps a toothbrush in the pocket of her patched jeans, because she never knows in advance where she’ll be sleeping the next night...

I wanted to express my admiration for her with this painting. I wanted to show all her womanly magnificence, her dazzling beauty, her dramatic quality — her independence.

*I'm paraphrasing Henryk Gała's poem here, please forgive me - MŻ

'Topless' by Marek Zulawski, 1978, via UMK

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Picture of the day

Poland has a new president. Yes, you can read a good analysis from Notes From Poland, or listen to some commentary by The Economist, but instead of falling into that rabbit hole, just forget all that and look at this excellent photograph instead.

Taken from Karolina Wojtas's series Love, it's of a boy who has come home from his First Communion, showing off the real reason he ate that wafer.

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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

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