DUDA-GRACZ JERZY, Golya Golya - Gilice, 1974

Oil on panel, 40 x 40 cm, framed 50 x 50 cm, signed l.g. 'J. Duda Gracz 1974', back: author's label

The work is one of the paintings comprising the polyptych, created during the artist's stay in Hungary, the only foreign plein-air painting in which Jerzy Duda-Gracz participated. The painting depicts a pregnant woman with her lips painted over, with calendar pages hovering over her. These are Wilma, the artist's wife, and the subsequent dates of the expected birth. The red date - March 2 - is the actual date of birth of the artist's only daughter.

Jerzy Duda-Gracz was born in 1941 in Czestochowa, and died in 2004 in Lagow. He was a painter, illustrator, stage designer and educator. He graduated from the Faculty of Graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice. From 1976 to 82 he was a lecturer at this university and then a professor at the University of Silesia in Katowice. He also taught at the European Academy of Arts in Warsaw (1992-2001). What distinguishes his paintings is not only his excellent technique, but also his attention to detail. Duda - Gracz's entire artistic output includes more than 180 solo exhibitions at home and abroad (including Berlin, London, Paris, Moscow, Rome, Vienna, Florence, Düsseldorf, Chicago, New Delhi, Munich, New York and others). He also participated in about 300 national exhibitions and international presentations of Polish art. Among others, he represented Poland at the XLI Art Biennale in Venice in 1984, at the XX and XXI World Art Fairs in Cologne in 1986 and 1987, and at EXPO '92 in Seville. His paintings are in the collections of the National Museum in Warsaw, Krakow, Poznan, Wroclaw and Gdansk, the Jagiellonian University Museum in Collegium Maius in Krakow, the Museum of the Earth of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, the art collection at Jasna Gora in Czestochowa and other district and city museums, and in private collections, including those of W. Ochman and W. Fibak; abroad - in the collections of the Uffizi in Florence, the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, the Ghent City Museum, the "BAWAG" Foundation in Vienna and the Vatican Collection, as well as in galleries and collections in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Israel, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, the USA, Venezuela, the UK, Italy and Hungary.

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