Dialogue with Knapp

The project began in 2023 and continues to this day. It comprises several dozen works: drawings, jigsaw puzzles, games, magnets, cushions and blankets. The series was born out of my fascination with the figure of Stefan Knapp, an artist who is underappreciated in Poland. I am particularly inspired by his works in Toruń and Olsztyn – the mural... in the auditorium of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and the ‘Astronomical Composition’ located in the courtyard of the BWA in Olsztyn (from 1973). At this stage of my creative journey, this is a fully conscious dialogue with works I have analysed and come to know. On the other hand, it is also a confrontation with childhood memories, when, every time I stood before the façade of the UMK Auditorium, I was filled with wonder at the colourful composition set against the grey reality of communist Poland.

In my works, I seek answers to the question of how one might create alternative, original mementoes of a given place. A second theme is the question of a mantra-like, repetitive rhythm and the search, through art, for a springboard, joy and liberating functions

Stefan Knapp (1921 Biłgoraj – 1996 London) was an outstanding emigrant visual artist, painter and sculptor. A prisoner of the Soviet gulag, a front-line pilot during the Second World War, and a laureate of the Winston Churchill Foundation Award. He became famous as the creator of mural compositions that adorn buildings across Europe and America. In Poland, three cities boast his works: Toruń (a mural on the façade of the University Hall), Olsztyn "Kompozycja astronomiczna" na ścianie dziedzińca BWA ) i Warszawa ( Stacja Metra "Wilanowska") ‘Astronomical Composition’ on the wall of the BWA courtyard) and Warsaw (Wilanowska Metro Station)