Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
movie info: MP42 720x576 25.0fps 556.1 MB /SubEdit b.4072 (http://subedit.com.pl)/
We are
Paintings of Rossakiewicz
Saint John Passion
The paintings were exhibited in many places already.
For example in Church of St. Sigmund in Bielany (Warsaw, Poland).
The interior was splendid there and the paintings
looked as if they were painted exactly to match it.
Later, for a long time, they were exhibited
in Parish Chapel of the Czestochowa Divine Mother's in Wolomin.
And there they also looked very well.
This exposition isn't typical.
It is staged in a 19th century factory - contrasting with it,
but the paintings exhibited here have dominated the interior.
And I am glad because they fit in here as well.
Everything started from reading the Gospel.
From deepened spiritual development,
for which I felt a need so intensely,
that I reached for the Gospel.
First I read the Old and then the New Testament.
Already when reading the Old Testament
I began to work on paintings connected with the themes mentioned in it.
The first paintings were "Adam and Eve", "Kain and Abel"
My painting was gradually becoming like the evangelical paintings.
When I was reading the Gospel,
images connected with the life of Jesus Christ appeared.
One of them was for example the painting "Hidden life",
relating to the period, when Jesus was a carpenter.
As I was becoming more and more moved by Jesus' story
and as I was drawing wisdom from the Gospel - from Jesus' words,
passed on by apostles,
in a natural way I was including this subject matter in my painting.
I painted "The Last Supper" and "Jesus Washing the Feet of the Disciples"
Slowly I began to realize that I should paint a whole cycle of paintings
dedicated to the Gospel
I decided to limit myself just to the end of the Gospel.
I chose the Gospel according to Saint John
because of its description of the events after the Resurrection.
I was determined to paint a fragment of the Gospel;
from the Last Supper to the Resurrection.
As I was working on these paintings, my spiritual life was deepening.
It was a personal, emotional experience.
Without the faith these paintings would have never come into being.
This was a testimony of my faith
and a desire to provide a testimony of adoration for Jesus.
And this is how I started working on this cycle.
"Saint John Passion" consists of twelve paintings.
Sometimes people confuse it with the Way of the Cross.
The 'Passion' differs from the Way of the Cross
with regard to the number of paintings
as well as with regard to the range of the story told.
The most important change is the fact that in "Passion" there are
four paintings dedicated to the Resurrection.
Everyone knows that the Way of the Cross ends with the deposition.
It ends with the most pessimistic moment
in Jesus' life and in the history of Christianity.
I however decided, that the Resurrection was most important
and I couldn't omit it.
And therefore I dedicated as much as four paintings to the Resurrection.
In the cycle there arose a continuum
from the Last Supper to the Resurrection.
The Last Supper is painted in the most traditional way,
with typical symmetrical composition,
with Jesus situated centrally.
The following paintings were painted more freely.
They are more and more expressionistic.
At the same time, the events that are being depicted cause
that the paintings lose color.
The first painting, where color has been eliminated
almost entirely, is "The Flagellation".
There is white, black and red only.
It is a very dramatic painting.
In "The Crucifixion" the color still appears.
It is the ancient olive green,
which originated from a biblical sentence:
"For if men do these things when the tree is green,
what will happen when it is dry? " (Luke, 23:31)
This sentence inspired me to paint "The Crucifixion" in these green tones.
I was looking for the right color for "The Crucifixion" for a long time.
This painting came into being after a long break.
After this inspiration, that it was supposed to be in the green tones,
I painted it in one day.
And it is probably one of the most beautiful paintings of the Passion.
The next painting is "The Deposition".
It is painted in the green tones as well
but here it is an earthy green - green ground.
This greenness is muted.
It is visible that Jesus is dead.
There is no life in Him anymore.
The next painting is entitled "The Tomb Guards"
It is an amazing painting.
It has many versions.
In the beginning - thinking about the Resurrection -
I painted an angel between the tomb guards,
an angel that would announce the Resurrection. But later I removed the angel.
The painting became a depiction of total destruction.
The paint was scraped off and burnt.
A black abyss was created and it is the main theme of this painting.
This black abyss, such a painting of total destruction
is for me - with regard to spirituality - a reflection of our times.
In my opinion such destruction is taking place right now.
After many years when I didn't paint,
I resolved that art should be created no matter what,
that art is stronger and more important than all problems,
with which we struggle every day.
I began to work on paintings related to the Resurrection.
These are the four paintings, with which this cycle ends.
They are dominated by the white and by the pure color.
In the last painting "Follow My!" a full range of colors reappears,
though white color is also present here.
To me, whiteness is the symbol of purity and humility
and that is why I have chosen it.
At the same time I wanted to show that the color comes back
and it happens so in this painting.
What is more, there is no black color in it.
It is based on Neapolitan yellow generally.
There is a bit of blue, violet, and a lot of orange.
It is a contemporary icon for me.
To some extent inspired by the icons of Andriej Rublow.
In my understanding, the art is expression of spiritual man’s life.
And the subject of the painting doesn't matter.
because they could be entirely abstract paintings as well,
like Rotho's paintings,
where the impression of sacrum is brought out
by using abstract means, by pure color.
But art has to originate in the inside,
it has to be a result of man's life experiences.
It cannot be simply planned;
how to shock, how to draw attention to oneself.
It cannot be done for the money either,
Because the spiritual and emotional state
of an artist while painting,
or working on a different work of art,
is encoded in the painting
and this energy is emanating from it.
and they evoke such great emotion,
because van Gogh was aware of this.
In one of his letters to his brother Theo he wrote:
"nothing is more truly artistic than to love people".
Love to men is presents in his paintings,
even though he mainly painted landscapes and flowers.
And that is why his paintings are so excellent,
they are still alive,
because this enlivening feeling is there.
The guest of the program was Jacek Andrzej Rossakiewicz