Jan Gryka, HERE AND NOW.

Quite some time passed since the first exhibition of Marzanna Morozewicz in Galeria Biała in Lublin in 1996 and many changes have also appeared in her creation. Generally speaking, her first paintings were abstract and included geometrical forms connected with a painter’s gesture. They had some traits, say, of contemplation or meditational value, though they were not “sharp” and did not reveal the point of those early paintings’ cycles. From my perspective, the paining seemed to result from the process of academic studies, which does not, of course, undermine its quality, but only breaking the path introduced “the thing” which now defines the art of Marzanna Morozewicz.

The time, when she started to create the body prints as Torsy (torsos), about 2003, or the paintings and embroidered objects, can be read as the moment of discovering her own personal visual language. Anyhow, those facts mark some crucial change in the artist’s painting which thereon convey a completely different message. To me, the most important moment was the appearance of a pink crown of thorns painted at a grey, not primed canvas. The fact that it is pink and was painted by a woman places this time of her work among feminist artists. Although Morozewicz runs from it, for me the awareness of the fact strengthens the meaning of this work. The message of Różowa Korona Cierniowa (Pink Crown of Thorns) concerns not only itself but the teachings of the Church and its hierarchic structures, where there are basically no women and the meaning and visualization of faith is presented only in the form of male iconography. Therefore Różowa Korona Cierniowa poses a question of female position in faith, culture and generally civilisation. It turns out that females also take part in its development and are no less important. Moreover, they can create such paintings as the male world might have never thought of!

The next view of Morozewicz’s art, which shaped in the meantime, are different kinds of embroidered pictures and works including material objects, connected to her personal or family areas. Again, it turns out that the most personal which transforms into forms of artistic expression does not easily and obviously become a piece of art. It seems one must go through and understand a lot to complete such a gesture consciously. It is also a sign of returning to one’s identity and a final closure in terms of school and its restrictions towards art, e.g. that one should paint the paintings, mainly oil, to be an artist! A striking example is story of a jewish soldier told by Morozewicz: We were tidying dad’s things, the artist says. There was “pelisa”, a kind of a coat of pre-war tailoring, lined with fur and with otters’ collar. Terribly archaic item, but my father used to always wear it, for as long as I can remember. This fur coat came from Bialystok’s ghetto and the artist’s grandmother got it in return for food. I have decided that such a thing could not be thrown away just like that. I ripped the collar and put it into a picture. The fur was also covered with a tulle veil. You need to raise it to see the otter. Michał Jachuła in the leaflet to exhibition Widok zapożyczony (Borrowed View) in Galeria Biała in 2011 describes the works of this cycle as a collection of works using the true family “treasures” in the most poetic way. The items borrowed from the history of private life, more precisely childhood, become symbols reminding artist’s near relatives. Everyday objects, with the meaning changed by the author, are treated with solemnity as relics and talismans.

The works and cycles named here function naturally until this day. Some kind of an open gate is left in her creativeness as some kind of necessity or even unavoidance! Again I will use a quote of Michał Jachuła, who describes the paintings of Morozewicz’s above mentioned exhibition most accurately, characterizing all her creation connected to painting plots: The collected works, (…) express first of all a deep insight and contemplation of passing, transience of human life and spiritual issues, which are essential to humanity. The cycle of Widok zapożyczony made with the use of such different media as painting, installation, artistic object and tissue can be more precisely defined as artist’s pictures of down-to-earth and eternal issues. Let us recall here another creation of this artist, which directly links with the history of art and uses it in a creative way by “borrowing” the motive to create an artifact of primary art at the same time creating a message of a totally different meaning!

The black painting, referring to Czarny kwadrat na białym tle (A black square on a white background) by Kazimierz Malewicz, is a rather small, 30×30 cm, Widok zapożyczony (Borrowed view). In reality it is an embroidery made directly at under painting. Once again let me evoke Jachuła’s text: In the version of Morozewicz we yet have a chance to see a “multiplied” black square, or, more precisely, an accumulation of teens of for hours and hours embroidered squares. The squares pilling up one upon the other, growing bigger in the process of building the composition, where the borders are restricted only by the scale of the white canvas and the endurance of the cloth. The final effect is an organic mass, self – referential, ideal “performative” mass being a record of time it was made in. This description is extraordinarily accurate and gives this work an exceptional meaning! For me, it is again another thing, just as Różowa Korona Cierniowa. It is also – in my opinion – a way of communication where the artist contests for a “normal” treatment of WOMEN in art. Sewing or embroidering are culturally connected with so called “women’s work”, and art, such as war – men’s work and values, therefore a form of domination! Embroidering of Czarny kwadrat na białym tle this way certifies an attempt to break the stereotypes and standards which were decided by by men.

The distance to reality and a sense of humour included in the objects such as Tajemniczki (Small Secrets) or Kolorowe Waginki oraz inne części ciała (Colourfull Small Vaginas and other body parts) will let Marzanna Morozewicz live young until a very old age, just as Louise Bourgeois.

Jan Gryka

Jan Gryka, habilitated doctor of art, professor at Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, artist in visual art, head of Zakład Intermediów i Rysunku at Faculty of Arts at UMCS, co-creator and co-runner of Galeria Biała in Lublin.

HERE AND NOW, Sleńdziński Gallery, Bialystok 2017