2. Fuge 2016

Curator: Today, we're observing Lech Jankowski's 2. Fuge, an oil on canvas work dating from 2016. Editor: It's… ominous. That dominating expanse of slate and charcoal looms so large over what looks like a small body of water, all texture and subdued light. There's a school of small dark shapes at the bottom, like some submerged presence. Curator: Ominous is a fitting word. Jankowski's masterful use of impasto here is particularly noteworthy. Notice how the layers upon layers of oil paint, create this deeply tactile surface. The heavy materiality practically drags the viewer into this abstracted seascape. Editor: Exactly, I'm interested in how that impasto and the oil paint itself work to conjure the gloom. I mean, consider the time it took to build that texture, each layer a commitment, the slow drying process of oil amplifying the feeling of deep time passing. Curator: Certainly. And how this meticulous process contrasts with what we could identify as representational elements. A distant shore with suggested creatures, however stylized, plays against this dominating central mass with the total ambiguity of its forms. This contrast draws our focus to the formal qualities: the dynamic relationship between dark and light, texture and flatness, representation and abstraction. Editor: But the process and the material inherently communicate. This wasn’t some quick sketch; the time invested speaks to a sort of labor – a deliberate application in creating such heavy materiality. It encourages reflection not just on the ‘what,’ but the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of its creation. I want to understand more about Jankowski's handling of such conventional painting techniques in relation to the thematic content. Curator: A pertinent thought. In that relationship lies the crux of its impact, it moves beyond simple pictorial representation. It allows Jankowski to evoke a specific sense of being and feeling, almost a melancholic sense of the sublime in the face of vast, unknowable forces. Editor: Right, so even the very act of meticulously building up layers of oil mirrors this engagement. Thank you for bringing that relationship into the light. It highlights an engagement with both time and place within this brooding abstract landscape.