SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
CONTEMPORARY PAINTING IN POLAND , Richard Noyce, book-album, Craftsman House G+B Arts International, UK, Australia, 1995.
(…) „ Philosophically her work s derived from an abstract realisation of natural phenomena,and from internal insight based on her personal dialogue with her perception of the external world. She considers that abstraction is often more closely related to nature than realism, in that it offers a short-cut to a distillation of visual and other sensations which offers an alternative means for communication, and a greater range of individual possibilities.
Her paintings create transformations of experience, sometimes provocatively, at other times lyrically, but always with a carefully controlled use of colour which adds resonance to what are, initially at least, relatively simple forms. Her work usually results in a series based on a repertoire of themes to which she returns as necessary. She does not necessarily choose the series as a vehicle but finds that it usually comes about from a need to explore her sensations from different points of view and through the search to approach more closely the essence of the point of origin of the series.
Slawkowska-Rode’s adoption of abstraction does not come from a conventional alignment with one part of the abstraction/realism polarisation that runs through Polish 20th Century art, but from an individual predisposition to investigating what she terms “the field of vision” of her perception of the natural world. Images from this world are explored from different directions, through the continuing use of drawings and notebook entries. She categorises her experience into three sections, firstly the record of things perceived in the real world, taken out of context as if frozen in a film-frame, secondly the record of things not so much seen as imagined or guessed at, and thirdly the record of impressions expressed through coded symbols and a visual “handwriting”. In all three there is the sense that the results of these explorations are not fixed, rather they are interim statements, steps along the way towards a more perfect realisation. (…)
“There is stillness in her paintings, not fixed but transitory, implying motion through fixity, and dependent very much of the changing circumstances of the light in which the work is viewed.”
(…) “Delicacy and strength, solidity and the void are counter-balanced, elements from the natural world are summoned up, examined, manipulated and re-presented for further consideration: the journey continues.”
[ANNA SŁAWKOWSKA- RODE . MALARSTWO ]
ANNA SLAWKOWSKA – RODE . PAINTING ,Polish Cultural Institute, London ,catalogue of the individual exhibition, 1998.
Excerpts from the introduction to the catalogue , author Andrzej Maria Borkowski , University of Brighton.
“These oil paintings, gouaches and drawings bring to one’s mind strange coded notes, mysterious sings and compositions of resonating forms. They all grow out of transformed experience, from her extensive travels, from things she sees around, from feelings. Her paintings combine memories of distant places, objects and events but searching for hidden, elusive rhythms in echoes and repetitions of individual forms she constructs a new autonomous world of her own.
In her earlier work this rhythmic rhyming of elements was a basic structure of every painting. In a way, each of these pictures was then all of them at the same time, as any thing: an object, landscape or a sound could have become a mysterious Mirror, a Gate leading to the whole Universe. Everything happens here simultaneously on every level. Something infinitely small is also infinitely large. One who in patterns of divided colours and forms on canvas sees images from under an electronic microscope is equally right, as the one who sees them as visions of distant galaxies and stars.
Slawkowska’s painting is never a naturalistic description. In her representation of a particular place or object she always tries to get deeper searching for its poetical meaning, its hidden essence. Earlier the identity of a particular individuum – object or event behind the image, appeared to be less important. A singular existence was reduced to a vibrant colourful dot or coma always presented as a part of a larger constellation, group or movement. In her recent work, while Anna’s fascination with rhythms continues to be present, these melodies, echoes and repetitions appear mostly as relation between individual paintings. From the “atoms” of paintings and drawings the artist creates the world and each exhibition, each different installation of these “atoms” revels a different aspect, a different melody of the World.
In the past each painting, notwithstanding its particular subject, always used to suggest an image or larger collection.Now is different. Anna attempts to portrait the uniqueness of a particular place, event, object or mood which inspired her. She looks for an ideogram, a magic hieroglyph, her own secret letter representing he chosen theme. The newly created sign is often framed in a simple border as if to underline it among others and hold in place.” Each painting is connected with particular, sometimes very personal problem – says the artist – and during the process of its creation it gains its unique individual and independent form, at the same time opening itself for universal meanings”. The painting appears now more simple, more monumental. It combines less elements and yet it remains strangely doubled, tripled sometimes quadrupled as one sign is compared with other”. (…)
“You may look for many interpretations of the mysterious “ primitive” tablets, these personal secret ” rongo-rongo”. For everybody they will be probably slightly different, but there is no doubt that these images contain secrets. They are not satisfied with and not fulfilled by their supply of simple sensual pleasure gained from combinations of abstract forms and colours. They are the result of a reflection and they demand one.
“Selected catalogue publications :
POLISH ARTFEST ’92, The Polish Museum of America, Chicago, exhibition catalogue, 1992.
STAWSKI GALLERY PREZENTUJE
[STAWSKI GALLERY PRESENTS ], Palace of Art of the Society of Friends of Fine Arts, Cracow, exhibition catalogue, 1993.
ANNA SŁAWKOWSKA – RODE. MALARSTWO
[ANNA SŁAWKOWSKA – RODE. PAINTING ], Zapiecek Gallery, Warsaw, and Stawski Gallery,Cracow, catalogue of two simultaneous individual exhibitions, 1995.
FUTURE TROPICS , Eastwick Art Gallery, Chicago, catalogue of the individual exhibition, 1995.
ANNA SLAWKOWSKA-RODE. PAINTINGS FROM KENYA], Eastwick Art Gallery, Chicago, catalogue of the individual exhibition, 1996.
ANNA SŁAWKOWSKA-RODE. PRACE NA PAPTERZE
[ANNA SŁAWKOWSKA-RODE. WORKS ON PAPER ], Zapiecek Gallery, Warsaw, catalogue of the individual exhibition, 1997.
DANTE W POLSCE
[DANTE IN POLAND ], Centro Dantesco, Ravenna, exhibition catalogue, Ravenna, 1997.
TOLOSY SZTUKI
[THOLOSES OF ART ] , Warsaw Art Presentations at the “Media Art 2000” International Art Fair, Warsaw, exhibition catalogue, 2000.
OTWARTE DRZWI
[OPEN DOORS ], ZPAP Art Gallery, Warsaw, exhibition catalogue, 2001.
30 –LECIE GALERII ZAPIECEK
[30 YEARS OF THE ZAPIECEK GALLERY ], exhibition catalogue, Warsaw, 2002.
PATRZYMY NA SIEBIE
[WE’RE LOOKING AT EACH OTHER ], Exhibition of Warsaw Artists, Pryzmat Gallery ,
Cracow, exhibition catalogue,2003 .
V TRIENNALE SZTUKI SACRUM
[5th ART TRIENNALE “SACRUM” ] , Municipal Gallery of Art, Częstochowa, catalogue of the post-competition exhibition entitled Towards a Civilization of Life, 2003.
FORMA W MAŁEJ FORMIE
[FORM IN A SMALL FORM ], DADA Gallery, Warsaw, exhibition catalogue, 2003.
ARTYŚCI GALERII- WYSTAWA SZTUKI WSPÓŁCZESNEJ
[GALLERY ARTISTS – EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY ART ], Spokojna 15 Gallery, Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw, exhibition catalogue, 2010.
Moreover, numerous articles and mentions in the press, including:
“POLAND NEW ART“, Peter Frank, Los Angeles Weekly, December 16-22, 1988.
„ROZMOWA Z ANNĄ SŁAWKOWSKĄ- RODE “
[“CONVERSATION WITH ANNA SŁAWKOWSKA- RODE “], Roman Buczek, Przełom, Toronto, January 1992.
„CZTERNASTU W PAŁACU”
[“FOURTEEN IN PALACE “], Barbara Wróblewska-Bogoon, Echo Krakowa, February 1993.
„WYDARZENIA .MALARSTWO I MUZYKA “
[“EVENTS .PAINTING AND MUSIC “], Polish News, Sydney, August 30,1993.
„JESTEM ŁĄKĄ , JESTEM RYBĄ “
[”I’M A MEADOW, I’M A FISH ”], Barbara Wróblewska-Bogoon, Echo Krakowa, November 1995.
„ŁAWICE KOLORÓW”
[“SHOALS OF COLOURS” ], Ewa Klekot, Art & Business, Warsaw, December 1995.
“ART- GALLERY WATCH “, Barbara B. Bucholz, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, October 1996.
„MALOWANE PRZESTRZENIE “
[”PAINTED SPACES ”], Agnieszka Partrige, Dziennik Polski, London, February 1996.
„TO CO MAM WSOBIE „
[”WHAT I HAVE IN ME” ], Ewa Szemplińska, Rzeczpospolita, Warsaw, August 1997.
„WYSTAWA”
[”EXHIBITION ”], Andrzej Garczyński, Dziennik Polski, London, December 1997.
„KSIĘZYC W GHANIE I NAD BUGIEM”
[“THE MOON IN GHANA AND ON THE BUG RIVER “], Monika Małkowska, Piąta Aleja, Rzeczpospolita, Warsaw, April 2008.
„ŁAD GORĄCEGO RYTMU “
[”THE ORDER OF HOT RHYTHM ”], Monika Małkowska, Życie Warszawy, May 2009.
„W RYTMIE ŚWIATA”
[“IN THE RHYTHM OF THE WORLD”], Angelika Eliasz, Residencies, Warsaw, March-April 2009.