Jerzy DUDA-GRACZ (1941-2004), Image 2414 - Rybokarty - Requiem for a State Farm, 1999

oil, panel; 69 x 100 cm;
Signed l. d.: DUDA GRACZ. 2414/99.;
On the back, top left, no. 16; below, 2414; next to it, author's sticker with information about the painting;
Image included in: Duda Gracz. Provincial and Municipal Images. Polish Borderlands 2000 (ed. M. Branicka), Silesian Library, Katowice 2000, ill. 56, s. 125

Jerzy Duda-Gracz's paintings were characterized by insightful observation of the surrounding reality with a large dose of satire and grotesque. The artist fearlessly depicted the worst in the world around us - ugliness, human stupidity, rudeness. On the one hand, everyone wants to escape from this negative side of humanity, but on the other - everyone feels an unexplained attraction to it and can't hold back their interest. Duda-Gracz builds his art on these extreme emotions.
The artist's paintings, and the emotions they arouse, are aptly described by Wojciech Skrodzki: "What are the reasons for both this distance of the so-called environment and the enthusiasm of the public? In the most general terms, it is a fact that Duda Gracz feels the authentic atmosphere of contemporary life extremely vividly and accurately, and that he manages to express this in his paintings in a suggestive, extremely adequate and legible way - and so he skewers the sublimity of the art of painting, while at the same time winning success for himself, he is clever and courageous."