Meksykañski zahót słońca nat stołem 2020

Lech Jankowski made this small painting, Meksykañski zahót słońca nat stołem, with oil on canvas, and I can only imagine the number of layers he worked through to get there. The surface is built up, crusty, and you can almost feel the weight of the paint. The top half seems to be receding, like a cloudy sky, while the lower section is more solid, with defined golden striations. Is it a landscape? A still life? I like how the texture contradicts the image. It’s like Jankowski is trying to push the paint to its limits, to see what it can do, not so different from what I try to do with my own paintings, pushing them, scraping them back, then pushing them again. It’s like he’s building something, and it looks like it has emerged through trial, error, and intuition. He's in conversation with painters like Guston, Auerbach, and Kossoff, artists who embrace the medium, who aren't afraid to let the paint be paint.