Publication date: 17.05.2024

The title of the exhibition refers to Krzysztof Klimek's words quoted by Marek Chlanda - they are an accurate mental shortcut defining the area of the artist's current interests, and at the same time his commentary on being true to his autonomous creative vision. The theme of the 'view' as a natural space of seeing leads the viewer into a unique presented world, which at the same time turns out to be surprisingly close. The exhibition of Klimek's paintings presents a wide selection of realistic landscape painting, which has been the core of his work since 2004. The exhibition of almost 60 works presents a representative cross-section of themes and painting motifs over the years.

The breakthrough year of 2004 is associated with a radical change in the artist's practice. Initially Klimek, a graduate of Jerzy Nowosielski's class at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, created analytical canvases operating in colourful abstraction. This period in the painter's oeuvre is represented by two canvases placed at the sides of the entrance to the exhibition. The remaining works presented in the first room illustrate the artist's path from abstraction and still life composed in the space of the studio, through increasingly realistic views from its windows and doors, shots of corridors and courtyards, to the exit into the wider space of cities, towns and villages. The paintings in the 'View from the Window' series are created according to a simple rule supported by the patient use of the passage of time. The canvases reproduce the windows in the artist's studio, which divides the view of the courtyard into equal sections. The view from each part of the window is painted separately, over the course of a day. The passage of time is also documented in the artist's subsequent series, illustrating the changes taking place in the urban and rural landscape.

A novelty introduced at the Zachęta exhibition is the inclusion of Klimek's photographs in selected works. In addition to oil paintings, the exhibition also presents the artist's photographs created in the 1980s and 1990s, chronologically preceding the period of painterly realism. The black-and-white series, created with passion over a dozen years, chronicled the life of the city. The juxtaposition of these two fields of Krzysztof Klimek's artistic activity reveals his ability to observe everyday life.