Czesław Matyjewicz is an artist of great stature. Warm and modest, he creates a unique atmosphere through his works and his presence at exhibitions and in the studios he runs. His works from the 1970s and 1980s inaugurated the exhibition season at the Michał Twerd Gallery at the II General Secondary School.
A living gallery visited every day during breaks by more than four hundred students is an ideal place for artists. At the opening, Czesław Matyjewicz stressed that he had agreed to the exhibition with pleasure. “I was happy to agree to organize this exhibition, among other reasons because I am grateful to the headmaster of II LO for his help,” the artist said. “Mr. Sakowski found a place in his school for my works, which had to be stored after my studio in Parzyce was closed.
On the gallery walls, the artist hung works that, as he put it, were pages from the calendar of life. The exhibition featured watercolours depicting views of the viaduct, drawings of the surrounding landscapes, studio sketches, portraits and nudes. “This is my personal perception of reality,” Matyjewicz said. “Each place and person I have painted is connected with an experience, a sentiment, a place and a moment that have passed irrevocably.
The studies were created in the 1970s at the studio of the Art High School in Wrocław. The artist recalled that when he and his colleagues were sketching models there, they could see filmmakers shooting scenes from Prus’s “The Doll” through the window. When they wanted to take a few photographs near the Embassy of the German Democratic Republic, the area suddenly swarmed with plainclothes officers and they had to quickly hide their cameras.
“Those were wonderful times,” the artist said. “Back then they seemed frightening to me. Now I am no longer afraid of them. I shared a special bond with each of the people sketched here; every one of them was important and precious to me. I did not know that these papers, beginning to turn yellow, would come to mean so much to me,” Matyjewicz added.
The new exhibition at the Michał Twerd Gallery has a unique atmosphere and evokes many feelings and memories. The opening organized at the II General Secondary School was one of the most interesting and pleasant evenings in Bolesławiec’s artistic community.
(information: G.H.)