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by Paweł Jarodzki
Some time ago I watched a programme in a catholic TV. It was a programme devoted to contemporary art and it had a form of discussion between a Vanguard Art Curator and a Recognised Painter. The Vanguard Art Curator offered a thesis that an artist should be a professional delivering an exhibition following curator’s order. The Recognised Painter prefferred a more romantic concept: of an artist suffering for the millions. Then an uncomfortable thought rushed through my mind: And how Jerzy Kosałka fits into this argument? Even if suffers, he doesn’t inform anybody about it. Professionalism? Well, I remember when he was thrown out of some gallery because he and his friend created an exhibition that just annoyed the galler’s management. From the point of view of the curator they showed a lack of mature professionalism. Even worse: they demonstrated frivolous approach to solemn art.
When I realised that Jerzy Kosałka’s activities do not fit into any of suggested categories, I decided that he is simply an Amateur.
Personally, I find the most splendid of all categories. On the one hand it can be applied to such recognised artists as Ociepka, Sówka or even Nikifor, on the other hand it encompasses the species exterminated in our country: the aristocrats. Those, being outstanding specialist in certain domains, called themselves amateurs, since they really loved what they did, and didn’t do it for living.
The fully clarify the notion I hereby following my friend’s advice inform that the word amateur has roots in Latin and comes from the word amo, amare meaning I love. Maybe one of the keys to the artist’s attitude lies in the fact that graduated from Fine Arts Secondary School in Katowice where, as we can figure out, he soaked up the atmosphere of art of Silesian esoterics. If, however, based on this text someone would conclude that Jerzy Kosałka produces inept, awkward and naive objects (this is what we usually expect from an amateur), he would be wrong.
It is enough to see what Jurek does to surrvive. These are perfectly constructed, fantastically professional objects.
But it’s not these object I am intending to write about. I would like to write about annoying, funny and often malicious objects that the artist exposes in various galleries. The objects that have nothing to do in common with borring proffesionalism of many contemporary exhibitions following European trends. Exhibitions with unequivocal message, right and similar to each other, like the songs following one another when you turn on the radio. Exhibitions wchich confirm the viewer’s conviction that they view contemporary art and convince them their nutritious meal of culture has been swallowed. Kosała’s works hardly do this job. The viewer is not sure whether he is being cheated, plainly ridiculed, whether he should admire the form or wheather he should analyse the message, get offended, laugh or, finally, ignore it all.
Unfortunately, the artist’s helpful hand is not there. He does not explain anything, he does not help it anyway. And one should mention one more important fact: Kosałka boldly balances on the border of braggadocio and self-irony (the final evaluation of the phenomenon depends on the viewer). Well, isn’t the monument titled Tribut to Kosałka erected by Kosałka to himself the best proof of it?
His attitude, tactically reckless, should make artist’s career pretty difficult. And it does. Managers of galleries are afraid of Kosałka’s exhibitions: they are difficult to realise, difficult in perception. But the strange thing is, Jerzy Kosałka is the only textbook artist I kone in person. His work Kłobuck Battle Plan can be found in secondary lower textbooks, where it neighbours with the famous poem about a soldier retourning from German captivity written by Broniewski.
I could add, naturally, that Jerzy Kosałka is a graduated Wrocław Academy, that he co-founded Legendary LUXUS group, that he presented his works in the most important Polish galleries, that his works are in collections, etc., etc. But that can be written about any artist and uniqueness of Kosałka lies in the fact that the key to his creativity has been swallowed by small dog. The dog escaped and we all look for him now.
Paweł Jarodzki