Jerzy Duda-Gracz

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Monument in Katowice

Jerzy Duda-Gracz (born March 20, 1941 in Częstochowa , † November 5, 2004 in Łagów Lubuski ) was a Polish painter and graphic artist.

Life

He studied at the graphic faculty of the Katowice branch of the Cracow Academy of Fine Arts . After graduating in 1988, he stayed at the university as a lecturer. From 1992 to 2001 he lectured at the European Art Academy in Warsaw, later he was professor at the Silesian University of Katowice in the radio and television department and taught directing . He was connected to Upper Silesia all his life. The gloomy Silesian industrial landscape is reflected in his pictures.

His works show a strong tendency towards caricature. He painted his fellow citizens as they are - quarrelsome, sloppy, sometimes drunk, but also willing to sacrifice, even heroic. The critics compared his works with Pieter Brueghel . But you could also find a certain similarity with Manfred Deix .

The artist has given each picture a serial number. That now helps in tracking counterfeits. Typical of his art is the oil painting “The Knights of the Apocalypse or Black Work” (1977). Three construction workers, unshaven, in rubber boots and a tattered chasm, pull a cement mixer. The scene, shown frontally, is reminiscent of well-known Russian troikas - or the Berlin Quadriga . The clash of the banal subject and the pathetic portrayal is typical of Duda-Gracz's art. His art left no viewer indifferent.

During the boycott of artists against the regime from 1981 to 1989, he continued to paint. His pictures unveiled the bitter reality of the time.

The socially critical painter managed to come to an understanding with the Catholic Church. He created a Golgotha ​​cycle for the Czestochowa Marienkloster.

bibliography

  • Jerzy Duda Gracz, KT Toeplitz, Arkady 1985, 1990
  • Powroty, A. Matynia, Agaton 1994
  • Duda Gracz, IJ Kamiński, Penta, 1997

Web links

Commons : Jerzy Duda-Gracz  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Internet page of the university newspaper No. 3, 2004
personal data
SURNAME Duda-Gracz, Jerzy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish painter and printmaker
DATE OF BIRTH March 20, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Czestochowa
DATE OF DEATH November 5, 2004
Place of death Łagów Lubuski