Bartek Buczek
Born in 1987, graduated in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, diploma in Andrzej Tobis’ studio. Former member of the Octopus group. Second-hand book seller. Master of big things and low budgets. Loves hip hop like his own mother.
Bartek Buczek likes to stress the fact that apart from being an artist he also sells books, having recently become the owner of a second-hand bookshop called Optional Reading. His painting interests, as well as those going beyond painting, are not as much inspired by literature as the melancholic atmosphere emanating from an engrossed reader, a thoughtful detective following the development of plots and narrations. This short psychological characteristic may be visually complemented by his “Self-Portrait”(2010), showing the artist in a contemplative pose, facing an invisible window pane with drops of water flowing down. The atmosphere of the painting makes us expect the model to prop up his dropping head with a hand, assuming the age-long iconographic representation of melancholy.
The state of mild depression, popularised by Albrecht Durer’s prints, has been haunting the author since his series of paintings called “Melancholy” (2012), where he tackles the motif of the philosopher’s stone. He treats the theme literally, copying the object and watching it from different angles, yet too afraid to cast an overall look. He sees tradition in a fragmented way, and the development of its elements allows him to discover the potential of a detail by filling it with new stories.
Similarly, during the Art Bloom Festival at the Archaeological Museum in Cracow in 2012, he interfered with an Egyptian sarcophagus, supplementing the exhibition with light pulsating to the rhythm of the breath (“Dream/Curse”, 2012). The artist’s penchant for alchemy is complemented by projects with the use of a dangerous element – mercury (“Poison storm”, 2009 and “Mercury Mirror”, 2011).
His pictures, literal in style and sometimes resembling Scandinavian painting, are far removed from reality and its representation, though. The monochromatic colours and unreal, often square formats approximate him to the tradition of constructivism (“Krakelura”, 2012, “The Captain Has Sailed Away”, 2012). In every case, the work is an alternative, autonomous entity and story, often requiring utmost patience and involvement on the part of both the author and viewer. This aspect may be easily found in his drawings, e.g. “Ghirlandaio” (2010), where he analyses and completes the Renaissance portrait of an old man with a disturbing ornament, or “Jungle” (2010), which refers to the fantasy aesthetics. On another occasion, the artist gets fascinated with the structure of an unglamorous mushroom (“Lycoperdon”, 2012) or the ornamental form of a snowflake (“Winter Series VII”, 2011). The latter work is clearly inspired by the world of simplified symbols of pop culture, the field which the artist has often entered, as usual with a minimum degree of intervention. The film “Milk” (2010) is especially engaging in this context, whereas the works showing crossed bones (“Untitled”, 2010) or a woman’s shoe (“Untitled”, 2011) prove that the sense of minimum intervention is in his case not necessarily connected with minimum effort or means.
Bartek Buczek says he is a master of big things and low budgets. He is the author of a book which he published himself and which is a description of pieces that have never been made – “Too Expensive Too Weak Too Hard”. Just a few recipes for artworks only possible in a hypothetical fantasy world.
Krzysztof Siatka
