Reviews

Jacek Barszcz paints to capture and hold time. To preserve moments filled with warmth and tranquility. His paintings, though rendered in a refined palette, are built above all with light. This is a painterly affirmation of the world, an expression of awe at its beauty — yet praise and wonder not loud or imposing, but expressed in silence and concentration.

The artist is not a greedy seeker of ever-new motifs. He studies and explores the same places, the same subjects with an almost prayerful focus, finding in them everything that matters most to him.

The atmosphere of these works can perhaps best be described by the French term sérénité — a state of serenity, equilibrium, and peace. That is exactly the spirit that pervades this painting.

What unites both brothers is their artistic independence and faithfulness to their own choices. In their creative work they do not run to the rhythm of a frenzied era, but tread carefully, aware of each step, valuing its uniqueness and worth.

The younger of the brothers, a graduate of the Academy of Applied Arts in Poznań, paints sun-drenched landscapes. Jacek Barszcz's paintings evoke impressionism — the art of fleeting impressions. The artist captures transient views, ephemeral phenomena, shimmering colours. His favourite season is summer; the views that attract his eye are mosaics of shadow on bright surfaces.

In the composition "Wall by the Church on Dewajtis," the shadows of branches create a fantastic pattern on the whitewashed wall. You can feel it is so hot that even the shadows bring no relief. Similar sensations are evoked by "Shadows on the Path" — a painting of a fragment of a road scorched white, on which shadow falls in a black pattern.

Jacek Barszcz's paintings are saturated with colour and warmth. Their reception depends on our mood. Either we will be enchanted by the beauty of the world and sink into contemplation, or we will simply consider them highly decorative works, perfectly suited to complement an interior.

The Barszcz brothers emphasise that in a world where they often feel alienated, they seek the silence of experience through art. One through still life, the other through landscape — they move towards the same light in a metaphysical sense.

Surrendering to the mood of each work shown here not only reveals the painter, not only opens the viewer, but generates an engagement that demands some articulation, intellectual effort. And on the other hand, this mood that I see cannot be put into words. And that is what I find most fascinating in Mr Jacek's paintings.

These works are more reminiscent of David Lynch's films — a play of senses and meanings, seeking confirmation or questioning assertions about reality. The author resolves nothing in his consciousness; he gives the viewer what painting reveals.