The Japanese woodcut master Katsusika Hokusai made 36 Views of Fuji Mountain over a period of two years (1830-32). Three years later he published another portfolio of woodcuts referring to the same motif. This time the set consisted of 100 Views. I do not identify myself fully with the stylistics of Eastern art. However, I can easily relate to the state of attentive concentration that must have been present in a man who, day after day, hour after hour (as I imagine it) was absorbing one selected piece of reality.
I have been painting since “time immemorial”; at some point I also studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań (now the University of Arts, diploma in 1993). I have never shown my works at a solo exhibition before. Since 1992, I have run ABC Gallery and I have always believed that promoting other artists does not go hand in hand with promoting my own art. Given the many years of operation of the Gallery and the recent quite radical change in its profile, I have decided that now is a good time for self-presentation.
My Fuji Mountain is located in the immediate vicinity of the house I live in. I believe in the art of looking, in staring, gazing, observing, absorbing, saturating, stopping, and focusing – contemplating. All of this gives rise to quick notes: watercolours and sometimes drawings. At times (alas, too rarely) I make them every day for a longer stretch of time, hence the 365 Views. They were the starting point for what was on the canvases from the series presented at the exhibition.
Welcome!
Katarzyna J.-G.
