Vernissage: Friday, 5 January 2018, 5 pm

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An exhibition of over 30 oil paintings from 2010-2017 by Zdzisław Kudła - director, screenwriter and set designer of animated films and one of the leading lights of contemporary Polish animation. The artist, associated with the Animated Film Studio in Bielsko-Biała from 1963 until his retirement (2010), has recently decided to revisit his old passion of easel painting. His works are large movie-like frames, visions of the surrounding world and personal experiences.

The exhibition will be accompanied by the screening of selected animated films and set designs created by the artist.

 

 

"Zdzisław Kudła's paintings are breathtaking. They surprise with the richness of details filling to the brim the surface of each composition, an orgy of colours imposed lavishly, unhampered by any convention, unaffected by any medieval morality play. These works, shimmering with all the colours of the rainbow, are reminiscent of precious stones made ever more dazzlingly mysterious by the light shining through. These works need time and attention to allow the viewer to penetrate the complicated arrangement of shapes and decipher its message. (...)

Zdzisław Kudła's films, especially those addressed to adult audiences, are dominated by dark, often bleak colours reflecting the themes. His early paintings from the 1960s feature a modest range of colours and simplified forms reminiscent of abstraction or cubism. However, the influence of his Kraków professors, of the Kapists, and perhaps the deeply hidden love for pure vivid colours, once scorned by art critics - all these came to the fore when the artist finally found himself released from all the burdens, free to pursue his own passions. Since his retirement in 2010, he has been creating multi-coloured paintings populated by a wealth of characters. These are stories told by an old sage

Agata Smalcerz Powrót do malarstwa [Return to Painting]
(more in the exhibition catalogue)

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Zdzisław Kudła - born on July 6, 1937 in Wesoła in Poland's region of Subcarpathia; degree in painting under Professor Czesław Rzepiński (1963) at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków; associated with the Studio of Animated Films in Bielsko-Biała; director, screenwriter and set designer of animated films, painter. He has created 26 animated films for both adults and children, and co-produced many more.

Long-serving president of the District Association of Polish Visual Artists in Bielsko-Biała, member of the Polish Filmmakers Association, president of the PFA branch in Bielsko-Biała (1971-1975); long-serving director of the Animated Film Studio in Bielsko-Biała (1993-2010).

In addition to children's cartoons (including a few episodes of the popular Bolek i Lolek series distributed in English as Bennie and Lennie), he has also created a wealth of powerful experimental material for adult audiences, including Syzyf [Sisyphus] (1970), Bruk [cobblestones] (1971), Szum lasu [murmur of the forest] (1972), Kwiat [flower] (1973), Impas [impasse] (1975),  Kat [executioner] (1977), Karaluch. Blatta Orientalis [Cockroach. Blatta Orientalis] (1987, with Franciszek Pyter) and ...ergo sum (2004, with Andrzej Orzechowski).

Winner of numerous awards at film festivals in Poland and abroad for screenplay, directing, animation and visual design, including solo awards for the animated film Porwanie w Tiutiurlistanie [Kidnapping in Tintinating] (1986). In 2009, he teamed up with Andrzej Orzechowski to direct Gwiazda Kopernika (Copernicus' Star) which won awards at the film festivals in Yerevan (Armenia, 2010), and in Łódź and Tehran (Poland and Iran, 2011). Winner of the Minister of Culture and Art Award, the Polish Filmmakers Association Award for lifetime artistic achievements (2011), the Bielsko-Biała Polish Artists Association (ZPAP) Award for lifetime achievements on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of ZPAP and 65th anniversary of the ZPAP branch in Bielsko-Biała (2015); nominated for the Mayor of the City of Bielsko-Biała Award in the field of Culture and Art "Icarus" (2001, 2014), the "Icarus" Award for lifetime achievement (2016); the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture - Gloria Artis presented by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (2017).

The exhibition runs until 28 January 2018.

 

More about the artist, description of films (project), awards at the websites of:

- The Animated Film Studio in Bielsko-Biała  >>

 

- filmpolski.pl >>