I Have Never Painted a Painting

About

Andrzej Szewczyk (1950–2001) was an artist who made an assault on the painting – he wanted to liberate himself from his chains, however, without abandoning painting. He saw painting – the activity itself and its effects everywhere – on the walls of rooms painted with traditional Silesian rollers, but also on the façades of whitewashed cottages in rural areas.

What do we know about this radical painter who wanted painting to become something more than it is? What do we know about Szewczyk’s painting? Painting that melted in the walls (Painting unified with wall painting, 1974), painting that turned into the environment (Mirrors, 1970s; Space is still the same whether it increases or decreases, 1981), painting that has become writing (Plumbographs, 1980s/1990s).

lokal_30 in cooperation with the Simulart Collection proposes to read the works of Andrzej Szewczyk once again referring it to the art of the artists contemporary to us. We strive to see it with a fresh eye and extract less exposed threads. Szewczyk’s work is much more than a material and a structure – here you can submerge into the depths, without losing sight of painting. Jan Mioduszewski and Agnieszka Rayzacher, the curators of the exhibition I have never painted a picture want to show Andrzej Szewczyk as a mystic, magician, outsider, alchemist, intellectual and ironist. Discovering Szewczyk should mean first of all watching and thinking but also feeling. The exhibition will be like wandering across the wilderness of modernism, following in the footsteps of the Silesian painter who has left many traces that are also important for the arts now.