Konrad Jarodzki
(1927–2021)

Painter, architect, lecturer, rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, member of the Wrocław School/Group. He was an outstanding exponent of painting associated with the trend of organic abstraction.

Konrad Jarodzki’s works constitute evidence of the artistic search for ‘the structural unity of the world’¹¹ Konrad Jarodzki, “[Untitled],” in: Malarstwo. Rysunek Konrada Jarodzkiego, exhibition catalogue, Białystok: Biuro Wystaw Artystycznych BWA, 1974. ↩︎. Through his paintings he explored elementary ideas of space, time, motion and light on a scale of micro and macrocosm. He was inspired by natural phenomena and questions of physics, such as relations of matter and vacuum, energy transformation, elementary particles. Above all, he was engaged in sensual transformation of external impulses and personal experiences into paintings and he used the following artistic means: colour, value, line, texture, rhythm. Moving in the realm of abstraction, he communicated with the imagination of the recipients by creating space for associations, emotions and symbolic interpretations. His works often provide an elusive, atavistic sense of threat. In them, the viewer will find echoes of war experiences and the awareness of the far-reaching effects of civilisational challenges of modernity, such as environmental disaster, scientific progress or space exploration²² Ibid. ↩︎.

In the archive we present a selection of the artist’s works.

Biographical note

Konrad Jarodzki was born in 1927 in Zaklików (Kraśnik dictrict) and died in 2021 in Wrocław. In the years 1949–1956 he studied architecture at the Wrocław University of Science and Technology, and between 1955 and 1958 painting at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Wrocław (PWSSP), where he received a diploma in the studio of professor Eugeniusz Geppert.

For many years he was associated with his alma mater. Since 1973 he worked as a lecturer, and since 1976 and throughout the 1980s as a head of the Painting and Drawing Studio. He also held the position of dean of the Faculty of Painting, Graphics and Sculpture (1981–1984) and of the university’s rector (1993–1999). Throughout his term of office he initiated, among others, the beginning of the expansion of the university and the change of its status to the Academy of Fine Arts. As a teacher, he became famous for supporting the freedom and autonomous development of students, and his studio attracted people associated with the Wrocław independent scene of the 1980s, including from the Luxus group and the bands Klaus Mitffoch and Miki Mousoleum.

Konrad Jarodzki engaged in artistic and social life, working, among others, as a president of Wrocław District of ZPAP [the Association of Polish Artists and Designers] (1975–1978), curator of the exhibitions Droga i Prawda [The Path and the Truth] in the church of the Holy Cross in Wrocław (1985–1987), secretary of the presidium of the Social Committee of the Panorama of the Battle of Racławice (1980–1985) and a member of its conservation team.

 He was also active as an architect. During 1957–1969 he held the position of a designer in the architectural office Miastoprojekt [City Design]. He is the author of, among others, designs of the modernistic residential buildings: point buildings on the ‘Pod Jaworami’ [Under Sycamores] estate in Krzyki and ‘Czworaczki’ [Quadruplexes] at Józef Piłsudski Street, as well as the interiors of the Turów and Bełchatów power plants. Since 1986 until the end of the 1990s he cooperated with Archicom group, among others on the projects of the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences in Wrocław and Wrocław headquarters of the following banks: WBK, PKO BP and Handlowy Bank.

Work

Matter, around the head motif 

Konrad Jarodzki’s search for his own artistic path began in the field of influence of teachers and educators of the PWSSP [State Higher School of Fine Arts] in Wrocław, including, above all, prof. Eugeniusz Geppert. In the mid-1950s, when the artist began his studies, the pre-war traditions of colourism and post-impressionism were popular in the university environment and cultivated by its staff. On the other hand, on the wave of ‘thaw’ (around 1955) international inspirations related to abstraction, matter painting and informel appeared. The artist’s work was also shaped in a dialogue with the circles of the Wrocław School (1961–1967), representing various trends in modern art, which later functioned as the Wrocław Group (1967–1976).

In his earlier works Konrad Jarodzki used means characteristic of matter painting, which was reflected, for example, in the painting Piekło-Niebo [Hell-Heaven] (1960), series of works Portret Mężczyzny [Man’s Portrait] (1965) and Oblicze [Face] (1963) as well as in the part of the series Głowy [Heads] (since 1963 until the mid-1970s). Although the titles indicate a reference to classical painting themes, the artist did not use them to continue the tradition. On the contrary, at the beginning of his independent work the artist rejected the academic system of representation based on building the illusion of reality. His works are painted in impasto, and thick layers of dark paint create irregular, ‘fleshy’ textures. The painting material serves as a carrier of meanings, which blurs, absorbs or decomposes the outlines of geometrical figurative motifs. It gives the impression that matter – freed from the obligation to imitate the image of man – had its own life and goals.

Jarodzki’s first clearly autonomous statement is the series Głowy [Heads]³³ See Mariusz Hermansdorfer, “Konrad Jarodzki,” Odra 1975, no. 1. ↩︎, created from 1963 to the mid-1970s. The recurring motif chosen by the artist is the head. Initially, he painted it in a schematic way, using geometrical, linear and simplified forms. Mariusz Hermansdorfer wrote: ‘the form of a head is reduced to a painterly ideogram.– it is a pretext, an artistic sign with its own content, independent of the original’⁴⁴ Ibid., p. 77. ↩︎. Subsequently, since around 1967, Jarodzki introduced into his works such means that were close to organic abstraction, abstract expressionism with elements of figuration, he also continued with techniques typical of matter painting. The formal explorations were used by the artist to process in the Głowy [Heads] series the experience of the destruction of the world by war, which, on a micro scale, was imprinted in his memory as the sight of a dead soldier’s head, crushed by the tracks of a tank in 1939. The directions of artistic search oscillated in these works around condensed forms of destruction, disintegration and rebirth of matter. This matter sometimes resembles organic pulp – a trace of the insides of the human body (for instance Dark from 1970, from the series Głowy [Heads]) or turns into a clash of impersonal forces (for example Chaos from 1970).

Biomorphism (Tkanki [Tissues], Zgorzel [Necrotic tissue])

The fascination with biomorphism is already beginning to manifest itself in the early works of Konrad Jarodzki. In visual arts, this tendency is reflected in drawing inspiration from both organic forms and the processes of living organisms. This search is manifested by the artist in particular in the series of works Tkanka [Tissue], Bio-tkanka [Bio–tissue] (1968–1971) and Zgorzel [Necrotic tissue] (1969-1970). In order to create them, he used an original technique that allowed for the introduction of the effect of fluidity, penetration of forms and randomness. It consisted in pouring ink on a paper base, and then rubbing and moving pieces of paper on it. In the series Tkanka [Tissue] and Bio-tkanka [Bio-tissue] Jarodzki worked with organic forms that resembled groups of cells enlarged under a microscope. Continuing the entrails motif present in Głowy [Heads], he focused on the intrinsic vitality of matter, processes of decomposition and the capacity for self-renewal. The starting points for the Zgorzel [Necrotic tissue] series were the energy of destruction and the element of fire as the all-encompassing force of nature.

The structures of elements

The questions raised in the 1960s evolved in Konrad Jarodzki’s work in the following decade in structural and abstract directions. ‘Wrocław structuralism’ – one of the points of reference that were close to the artist – is an imprecise definition of tendencies connecting various local artistic practices within abstraction, matter painting or even conceptual art⁵⁵ See Format. Pismo Artystyczne 2014/2015, no. 70 – dedicated to structuralism in art, including the milieu of Wrocław. ↩︎. Their distant source was the theory of language, which treated it in the category of a socially generated system of interrelated signs. After transferring it to the field of art, we perceive the painting similarly in the category of an autonomous system operating with its own means. Grzegorz Sztabiński distinguishes two basic tendencies in structural painting⁶⁶ Grzegorz Sztabiński, “Malarstwo strukturalne”, ibid., Format. Pismo Artystyczne, 2014/2015, no. 70 pp. 12–15. ↩︎. The first one, closer to linguistic roots, results from the non-representational nature of modern art. Its goal is to create artistic orders parallel to nature. For the second one, the source of inspiration is the order observed in nature, and in particular in biological structures and relations of micro- and macro-worlds. In practice, both tendencies – creating an autonomous system of signs and searching for it in nature – often combined, as exemplified by the works of Konrad Jarodzki.

The first projects, which he self-consciously described as ‘structural’, were created in 1970 in connection with a three-month scholarship of the Mihály Károlyi Le Vieux Mas Foundation in Vence⁷⁷ See Konrad Jarodzki in a conversation with Paweł Lewandowski-Palle, in: Paweł Lewandowski-Palle, Obrazy ujawniają się same, ibid., p. 24; Marek Śnieciński, Konrad Jarodzki, from the series “Wrocławskie Środowisko Artystyczne” [Artistic Milieu of Wrocław], Wrocław: Akademia Sztuk Pięknych im. Eugeniusza Gepperta in Wrocław, 2022, p. 37. ↩︎. Experiencing the environment of the Maritime Alps, the place where the mountains and the sea meet, resulted in new works exploring the elements. In a series of paintings Skały [Rocks]/Épaisseur (1970) repetitive structures of round or angular shapes appear, and in the series of works made in ink on paper entitled Tektonika [Tectonics] – rigid blocks resembling tectonic plates, sometimes filled with soft organic matter. The following works do not imitate the external appearance of rocks or earth, but interpret the properties and transformation processes of rock matter using their own painting alphabet. In a collection of paintings Chmury [Clouds], which also functions as Struktury [Structures], viewers can see arrangements of repetitive abstract forms which, depending on their associations, may refer to atmospheric or geological phenomena, resisting the habits of categorisation. 

Konrad Jarodzki’s structural works emphasise the fluidity of boundaries between different states of matter; organic forms change into mineral ones, and airy and plastic forms into rigid masses. Similarly, the distinction between life and death, dissolution and rebirth seems illusory in Bio-tkanki [Bio-tissues], Zgorzel [Necrotic tissue] and Głowy [Heads]. Nature’s order, its repetitive mechanism that affects the artist’s work is in the state of metamorphosis and constant movement. It is a vision conflicted with the order created by the human mind – demanding naming, classifying and setting boundaries. In the composition of the works created in connection with his stay in Vence, there is the motif of the illusion of a gap into the boundless space, which will soon become the main field of Jarodzki’s explorations. His work continued to develop primarily with the use of painting means. The exception was his participation in two events: Sympozjum Plastyczne Wrocław ’70 [Visual Arts Symposium Wrocław ’70] and Plener Ziemia Zgorzelecka [Plein-air Zgorzelec Land] in 1971.

Sympozjum Plastyczne Wrocław ’70 [Visual Arts Symposium Wrocław ’70]

Sympozjum Plastyczne Wrocław ’70 [Visual Arts Symposium Wrocław ’70], which was officially connected with the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Recovered Territories, aimed at exchanging innovative artistic ideas and linking them with the architecture and urban planning of the city, which was constantly being rebuilt after the destruction of the war. As a result, numerous artistic projects were to be created in the urban space. Majority of them, including Konrad Jarodzki’s designs , did not go beyond the design phase, while the symposium turned out to be a platform for the manifestation of conceptual art. Konrad Jarodzki prepared three designs that were based on his architectural and painting-drawing practice: Głowa [Head], Krzywa Wieża [Leaning Tower] and Wieża świetlna [Light Tower].

Głowa [Head] was conceived as a monumental, eight-meter-high sculpture composed of two reinforced concrete arches with elements of a spike palisade⁸⁸ Sympozjum plastyczne Wrocław ’70, eds. Danuta Dziedzic, Zbigniew Makarewicz, Wrocław: Ośrodek Teatru Otwartego „Kalambur”, 1983, p. 90. ↩︎. In this project, the artist translated the dramatic painting and drawing motif of Głowy rozdarte [Heads Torn] into the language of synthetic artistic and spatial forms. As the artist intended, ‘the gentle fluidity of the arches was […] [to] oppose the rigorous vertical and horizontal arrangements of modern architecture’⁹⁹ Ibid., p. 91. ↩︎. This unrealised project had the potential to become one of the modern, abstract in form symbols of destruction and rebirth of the city. Wieża świetlna [Light Tower] was planned as an openwork structure composed of vertical reinforced concrete columns intersected by grooves filled with coloured glass. They looked like cracks, as if the building ‘was subjected from within […] to destructive forces’¹⁰¹⁰ Ibid., p. 90. ↩︎. Light, a symbol of life and hope, was supposed to penetrate through the pipes.

Krzywa wieża [Leaning Tower] referred to the famous building in Pisa. It was supposed to consist of a bunch of inclined steel pipes and also be illuminated. 

Jarodzki’s designs integrated visual and spatial thinking, abstract and symbolic, sculpture and architecture. During the next symposium, the artist undertook a performative action.

Zapis przestrzeni [Record of Space]. Ziemia Zgorzelecka 1971 [Zgorzelec Land 1971] 

Plein-air Zgorzelec Land took place in 1971 in Opolno-Zdrój, the former German health resort located next to the Turów Mining and Energy Works, which was expanded after the war. The initiative of open-air originated in the circles of artists and theoreticians of conceptual art (Jerzy Ludwiński, Jan Chwałczyk, Antoni Dzieduszycki). The motto was: ‘science and art in the process of protecting the natural environment of man’¹¹¹¹ Plener Ziemia Zgorzelecka 1971: nauka i sztuka w procesie ochrony naturalnego środowiska człowieka, catalogue, eds. Wanda Gołkowska, Jerzy Ludwiński, Wrocław 1972. ↩︎. The theme of the plein-air and the activities of the invited artists constitute early examples of the development of ecological awareness in art. In an pioneering way, they confronted the environmentally destructive effects of industrial modernisation in the People’s Republic of Poland in a place that was then the largest energy investment in the country. In his performance entitled Zapis przestrzeni [Record of Space] Konrad Jarodzki made an attempt to personally, physically deal with the extraordinary scale of destruction associated with the operation of the opencast mine. It consisted in walking around the mine area and marking the route with white sackcloth tape. The contrast between the tiny body and the vastness of the industrial landscape is well illustrated by Natalia LL’s photographs documenting the performance. Marek Śnieciński writes: the artist ‘[…] paid attention  […] to a particular experience connected with space, which became for him an attempt at perceptual grasp and applying human measure to the phenomenon […] that goes beyond the anthropological perspective of perceiving reality’¹²¹² Marek Śnieciński, Konrad Jarodzki, op. cit., p. 43. ↩︎. In his action, the author sees an update of the myth of Theseus wandering in the labyrinth, ‘[…] because all landmarks adapted to human measure have been removed from it’¹³¹³ Ibid. ↩︎.

Jarodzki’s works created in the conceptualist milieu show that conceptual art was not an attractive choice for him. He located the landmarks of cognition, including space, the scale of which exceeds the individual, in sensual work with the matter of painting.

Space as material

Space eventually became the most important and permanently present issue in Jarodzki’s work. It interested him in the context of architecture, history of art, physics as a philosophical and non-rational issue, and above all, as the material of his own work. In his text Przestrzeń jako tworzywo [Space as material]¹⁴¹⁴ Konrad Jarodzki, Przestrzeń jako tworzywo, didactic materials, no. 1, Wrocław: ASP, 1999. ↩︎ from 1999 the artist analysed the artistic consequences of being aware ‘that not only matter, but also space may have its own form’. He was of the opinion that ‘this brings the concept of space closer to man, giving it the characteristics of a sensitive material, cooperating on equal terms with matter’¹⁵¹⁵ Ibid. ↩︎.

In 1970 Jarodzki started working on his painting series Przestrzeń [Space], although simultaneously he created paintings outside of it (for example Pożoga [Inferno] from 1972, Świadek [Witness] from 1974, Zderzenie [Clash] from 1976, Wzrost [Growth] from 1976, Dal [Distance] from 1970, Styczność [Tangent] from 1981) and smaller collections (Presja [Pressure], Penetracja [Penetration], the 1970s) connected with this issue. The essence of the changes started with Przestrzeń [Space] consisted in, as Mariusz Hermansdorfer noted, the rejection of the previously emphasised contrast and conflict between organic matter and space¹⁶¹⁶ Mariusz Hermansdorfer, “Konrad Jarodzki”, Odra 1971, no. 9, p. 121. ↩︎. It was resolved by a union which involved the absorption of matter by space¹⁷¹⁷ Id., Artyści Wrocławia 1945–1970,  Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie, 1996, p. 74. ↩︎.

Rounded, convex organic forms became a recurring motif. According to the artist, their shapes were supposed to bring out ‘the ductility and extensibility of matter in space and the integration of these two elements’¹⁸¹⁸ Konrad Jarodzki, “Uwagi autorskie o własnej twórczości”, in: Konrad Jarodzki. Nadchodzi, exhibition catalogue, Wrocław: Muzeum Narodowe in Wrocław, 2008, p. 3. ↩︎. The ‘spatial’ paintings were mostly kept in monochromatic, cold colours of grey, blue or pink. The illusion of space was built by the author with subtle value transitions and changes in colour saturation.

His compositions evoked an optical impression of movement, drawing matter and the viewer’s attention into the depths of infinity, the void or the interior of a huge organism. Sometimes he created the illusion of reverse movement – pushing the forms towards the space outside the painting, (for instance Świt [Dawn] from 1973, Świadek [Witness] from 1974). Jarodzki described the creation of such effects as ‘temporal and spatial situations’¹⁹¹⁹ Ibid. ↩︎. The motif of suction and vibration of newly created, hybrid entities is related to Jarodzki’s mysterious mention of biocurrents, bioplasma, biogravitational waves and space as a bridge between physics and psyche²⁰²⁰ Id., Przestrzeń…, op. cit. ↩︎.

In a different statement the artist underlined that he does not refer to real natural phenomena, but only processes abstract ideas of space, motion, time, light and matter with the help of painting means²¹²¹ Id., “[Untitled],”, in: Malarstwo. Rysunek…, op. cit. ↩︎. His paintings created an autonomous system, a model of ‘structural unity of the world’²²²² Id., “[Untitled],” Uwagi autorskie…, op. cit., p. 3. ↩︎, the elements of which are altogether in constant flow and interpenetration.

Forms of life (Penetracja [Penetration], Presja [Pressure], Brzemię [Burden], Erotyki [Eroticas])

One of the consequences of the fusion of matter and space in Jarodzki’s painting was the creation of new, imaginative forms and processes of life. Series that refer to the body entrails are Penetracja [Penetration] and Presja [Pressure]. In turn, in the paintings belonging to the series Brzemię [Burden] (1977) the artist referred to the archetypes of nature’s fertility. In them, we see an accumulation of shapes that are simultaneously associated with breasts and budding organisms that emerge from an undefined, boundless space. Erotyki [Eroticas] (the 1970s and 1980s), on the other hand, build up associations with sexuality through the interweaving of sensual, organic forms and play with colour temperature. In these works, matter connected with space is governed by its own laws: organisation and reproduction. These processes seem close to the concept of autopoiesis, namely the assumption that living systems reproduce themselves using only their own elements.

Nadchodzi [It`s Coming], polyptychs

Jarodzki’s abstract paintings communicate with the viewer’s imagination through forms, colours, compositions and titles. They refer to universal themes, emotions, associations, symbols and archetypes in the most open, non-illustrative way possible. In the 1970s the artist began to create his first monumental polyptychs. He reached for a form that has a long sacral tradition in the history of painting. As altarpieces, polyptychs presented in a spectacular, emotionally engaging way the most important mysteries of faith in the central place of churches. Instead, the artist suggested a spectacle based on the dramaturgy of relations between matter, space, time, light and motion for contemplation. Based on these key elements, he created emotionally saturated, metaphorical visions of disturbing worlds. These are the worlds untamed by the Christian story about their creator and the promise of salvation.

In a diptych Magma (1981) the primal fear of annihilation dominates, symbolised by the titular volcanic force, the material equivalent of which is a vibrating, dark mass claustrophobically filling almost the entire frame of the painting. When it comes to the triptych Nadchodzi [It`s Coming] from 1976, the tangled navy blue structure suspended on a blue background refers to atavistic fears of a storm or an unspecified disaster, but mainly, as the enigmatic title suggests, of the unknown. The archetypal struggle between light and darkness is played out in the diptych Rozdarcie [Tear] (1995) and triptychs Groźba/Powrót [Threat/Return] (2003/2004), Upadek/Kinetyka [Fall/Kinetics] (2004).

Jarodzki’s works concern primal emotions, such as fear of the power of natural elements, cataclysms, violence, and chaos. The artist avoided imitative, illustrative references to current events and social processes. For him, they were impulses, which he transformed into universal stories and cosmic events. Such stimuli were the wars that recurred during the artist’s life, as well as the great challenges of modernity: ‘conquering space, eventuality of a nuclear disaster, threat to preservation of the natural environment, getting closer in laboratory tests to such absolutes as the speed of light, the temperature of the sun, creation of life’²³²³ Id., “[Untitled]”, in: Malarstwo. Rysunek…, op. cit. ↩︎. In response to the arrival of the unknown, the role of art is – in Jarodzki’s words – ‘both the expression of collective emotions and the creation of new worlds’²⁴²⁴ Ibid. ↩︎.

Mourning (Alfabet [Alphabet], Ptaki [Birds], WTC)

In his late artistic work, after 2000, Jarodzki created the series of dark, metaphorical works in various shades of grey. They are characterised by a dominant mood of mourning. In the series Alfabet [Alphabet] (2004) we can see the blurred outlines of the black letters of the alphabet emerging from the blurred, lighter background. They evoke associations with incomprehensible signs of past cultures. In the Ptaki [Birds] series (2010–2014), on the other hand, various configurations of birds’ flight presented in a similar style, appear as the main motif. They form mysterious patterns, the meaning of which we can no longer decipher. Is it because we have irretrievably lost our connection with nature?²⁵²⁵ See M. Śnieciński, Konrad Jarodzki, op. cit., p. 104. ↩︎

The event that particularly shocked the artist was the terrorist attack on New York’s World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. He devoted over forty paintings of the WTC series to it, painted after the time needed to process the effects of the attack, namely  between 2009 and 2014. The central motif of WTC constitute grey or black and white blurred silhouettes of architectural structures subject to destruction, which manifests itself as a cut, tear, fragmentation and disintegration of matter. In the following paintings the viewer may  discern not only a reminiscence of the Głowy rozdarte [Heads Torn], but also the echoes of the global media spectacle, unleashed by the attacked empire. Jarodzki’s great involvement into the WTC series may only be compared to the size of the work done in the early period of his artistic creation in connection with the experience of World War II, as if the media images revived memories of youth. The spectacle seen on television became a starting point for the artist to create a metaphor for the disintegration of the post-war world order. Today, the viewers can also see in it a farewell to the illusion of a peaceful ‘end of history, which was to follow together with the global dominance of liberal democracy and capitalism²⁶²⁶ See Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man, New York: Free Press, 1992. ↩︎.

Etiudy [Etudes], Światło [Light], Kosmos [Cosmos]

At the end of his life, Konrad Jarodzki would return to earlier themes, create new variants, expand them or clear them of what was unnecessary. In 2015, the series Etiudy [Etudes] was created, the title of which suggests trials, practice, gaining skills. In formally sparing, simplified compositions created at that time, attention is drawn to the repeating motif of a fold, gap, horizon or clearances (for instance Prześwit [Clearance], Szpara [Gap], Odsłona [Opening], Radość [Joy], Wgląd [Insight]). Embedded in painting tradition, it is a metaphor of revealing what is ‘behind the scenes’ and opening the door to a different reality that exceeds the possibilities of sensual cognition. As the artist wrote, ‘earthly, sensual reality is an intermediate state between the micro- and macrocosm. Compared to them, it is something untrue, delusional, elusive and ephemeral’²⁷²⁷ K. Jarodzki, Przestrzeń…, op. cit. ↩︎. A number of late works invite the viewer into the newly discovered areas. They refer to: light as a visible phenomenon, and at the same time marked with a mysterious, transcendent symbolism (Światło [Light] from 2002), to the void of the black hole (Czarna dziura [Black hole], 1^st decade of the 21^st  century), the world of infinitely small elementary particles (Kwark [Quark] from 2015) and representations of celestial bodies (series Kosmos [Cosmos], the 1980s and 1^st decade of the 21^st century, Kręgi [Circles] from 2013, Kosmiczne kręgi [Cosmic circles] from 2015, Magnetary from 2015).

The series Kosmos [Cosmos], started in the 1980s and expanded after 2000, comprises minimalist paintings that refer to the imaginary galaxies. They are reduced to basic signs: spiral discs emerging from the dark background. The harmony of the celestial bodies is disturbed by the unsettling bisection of the composition by a diagonal black line. This procedure seems to suggest the possibility of some kind of cosmic confrontation, such as a collision of galaxies. Astronomers know that when galaxies collide, their magnetic fields are disturbed, new stars are formed, and in further processes – lasting hundreds of millions of years – previously separate constellations merge into one.

As in his early works immersed in the dynamics of terrestrial space-time, Jarodzki’s late work brings out eternal change, cycles of decay and rebirth as a cosmic principle. His materialistic concept of the world resists the temptation to build the illusion of fixed points of reference or to search for metaphysical causes or meanings of existence. The universe in the artist’s work grew and changed until the end, without a safe haven, without the participation of the prime mover.

Text by: Joanna Sokołowska

Translated by: Małgorzata Kaziów