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Patrycja Sikora, Piotr Stasiowski, Wojciech Pukocz

Painting! Alternating current

This time we are not asking whether painting still has clout in the world of art dominated by such a number of morphing techniques and media. That is because we know it does. The form faces no crisis. Good old canvas stretcher is as privileged today as other means of expressing ideas – process, installation, interactive art, video, or all kinds of events. Let us be honest, though – there are no particular painting trends that might focus our attention on a given set of formal or content-related means to distinguish the art of painting in the first decade of the 21st century. New, great painters keep coming and they use their talents to break the anti-painting status quo. Each of them has an individual approach to their canvas work, which in effect marks out new values in art. There is no single painting trend that might be neatly expressed by an adjective. There is no generation manifesto of a collective idea in a group or painting society. We avoid marking exhibition paintings with the blunt label “young art” in an attempt to substitute a nonexistent common denominator with a statement that means nothing in such a diverse and individualistic art community. Instead, we stick another label: WET PAINT. We hope for a fresh outlook, a variety in the artistic message, a step beyond painting, beyond metapainting. The canvas has been exploited so hard before that now its structure resembles a semantic palimpsest. It is tempting to ignore the formal hybrid, strip it off its cracked old layers of meaning and take a properly-grounded canvas to finally do some… painting. Will the painters who exhibit their artworks at the exhibition accompanying the Geppert Competition resist the temptation of including irony in their pictures? And will their message go beyond a self-commentating rebus then?

Since its first edition in 1989, the Geppert Competition has been a test field for many clashing approaches to painting. It has identified the most important problems bothering young artists with surprising insight. A look at the list of artists who took part in its previous editions is enough to see how right the curators were in their choices, how their forecasts influenced Polish art in the years to follow. The well-established names of today, including Zbigniew Rogalski, Grzegorz Sztwiertnia, Marzena Nowak, Laura Pawela or Two?ywo, are among those past contestants who were then virtually unknown on the domestic and international art scene.

At the same time, observing the exhibition that accompanies the Geppert Competition, we have been witnessing changes in the approach to painting that have been results of various ways of understanding this genre. The eminent figure of the event’s spiritual patron Eugeniusz Geppert, as well as his artistic output and academic work, is associated with traditional painting. Despite that, each edition features works that depart from the traditional, two-dimensional concept of a picture, thus contesting both the thematic range and formal limitations of the undertaking. And this is exactly what makes it important – the competition, one of the longest-running in Poland, looks back on tradition and simultaneously remains open to the broadly understood notion of painting, focussing on content rather than strictly delineated formal requirements.

This edition’s novelty is inviting curators who belong to the same generation as the artists themselves. The difficult task of constructing the Geppert Exhibition has been entrusted to people who are also entering the artistic scene but have already been noticed for their originality and exhibition ideas. The young curators are still enthusiastic enough to guarantee a fresh look at this traditional medium. In this way, apart from a review of intriguing artists, we also offer a review of interests that curators and critics present more and more often these days. Will they be up to the job and select original entries? Do they draw conclusions from their own observations of academic circles? How exactly will it be manifested? When the heated discussion concerning the role of curators in shaping up the image of art in Poland is still on, we give a double-edged sword of final decision to those who are still struggling with their own identity in the art world. Will their choices confirm the assumption that today’s painting is an alternating current?



Eugeniusz Geppert Competition

The idea of Eugeniusz Geppert Competition as well as accompanying, periodic presentation of young artists output began in 1989 on initiative of PWSSP tutors and critics from Wroc?aw in cooperation with Hanna Krzetuska – Eugeniusz Geppert's wife.
The main aim of the competition is to promote painting, perceived not only as traditional medium but also providing broad spectrum of possibilities for young artists. Exhibition, initially limited to promoting local circles, soon became a national event.
Students or graduates of artistic departments from the whole country are chosen by the group of especially invited nominating curators. Organizers try to invite different curators each time in order to guarantee broad insight into specific character of painting environments from various regions of Poland. Up to this time these were: Hanna Wróblewska, ?ukasz Gorczyca, Grzegorz Dziamski, Magdalena Ujma.
Final verdict is established and announced by jury – the most prestigious curators, critics and artists from Poland and from abroad. It is worth mentioning that last time these were: Anda Rottenberg, Bo?ena Kowalska, Piotr Piotrowski, Anna Maria Potocka.
In this way, the opinion-creating competition is one of the most important reviews of new ideas in Polish art. Grzegorz Sztwiertnia, Wilhelm Sasnal, Two?ywo group, Agata Bogacka, Mariola Przyjemska, Zbigniew Rogalski, Marzena Nowak, in last edition Olga Lewicka and Laura Pawela are the artists who began their careers taking part in the competition.
For the first time the exhibition is going to be presented not only in Wroc?aw but also in ?ód? and Bydgoszcz. We hope that in the future the spirit of the event will ensure international rank. Present, the eight exhibition connected with the seventh competition is called "Malarstwo! Pr?d zmienny" (Painting! Alternating Current). The title suggests multitude and ambiguity of perceptions included in the contemporary notion of painting.