Xavier Libbrecht
"Une question d`emotion"
L'EPERON, Paris, December 2002-January 2003, no.219
A QUESTION OF EMOTION
Lagny, a rainy day in October, 2002. An old abandoned tannery. An
artist's workshop on the second floor. A wooden staircase.... A certain
ambiance. Strange to find oneself there again. It's he, Grzegorz
Jakubowski artist-painter, around 45 years of age, shaggy hair, small
round glasses, a thick moustache, a bulky pull-over and wide-ribbed
corduroy pants in a garnet color. Already having met last year in
Saumur, now he has arranged the coming here of Lubomir Tomaszewski,
another Polish artist, older....
Everything had happened with a jolt of the heart. The one
written up in L'Epéron magazine, at the time of the Exhibition of the
Salon d'Automne de Saumur. "The Hunter" of stone and bronze, and his
counterpart named "Alaric" form a beautiful pair. Lubomir Tomaszewski,
well over 84 years old, is the author, the sculptor of these pieces. He
uses stone, wood, copper and bronze, and assembles them to conceive his
works: they are often animals, but also men, musicians, dancers. He has
a real gift for seizing life, animality. "The stone gives the energy
and the mass, the wood renders the essence and the form expresses the
gestures, the metals show the bond and the muscles". Some statues are
gigantic.
Having arrived from Poland in 1966 where until then he was a designer
for Rosenthal, the famous German House of porcelain, the emigrant
decides to devote the remainder of his life to his art. Thirty years
later, sponsored by wealthy patrons of the arts, this workaholic (he
gets up every morning, like monks, at 2 am.), has imposed his signature
stamp. But he has gone farther. In his wake, his exile, he has drawn
other artists thus, in this way constituting a group which is inspired
by common values under the title of "Emotionalism". The majority of the
artists are of Polish descent and live on the East coast of the United
States. You can find sketch artists (dessinateurs) and painters, such
as Aleksandra K. Nowak, Janusz Skowron, Jak Kovatch and our "French"
Grzegorz Jakubowski, sculptors like Maria Fuks, Ivan Bradko, Piotr
Wroniec, but also, and this is what distinguishes this group from
others in the past, whose fame is synonymous with legend (the
impressionists for example), photographers (Jan Hausbrandt), musicians
(Krzysztof Medyna) or dancers (Kathryn Kollar).
The fact is that the notion of emotionalism, a combination of reality
and abstract art, would not be satisfied by only one means of
expression. The definitions are multiple and many. For example Lubomir
says with simplicity: "Only the meeting of nature in its grandeur and
generosity with the artist in his internal complexity, is emotion
created. It is that which we are looking for, that which unites us".
Grzegorz Jakubowski, his French mentor, with a Bachelor's degree from
the School of Architecture in Cracow, an émigré to France 20 years ago,
an alumnus of the Fine Arts of Paris, who is exhibiting until January
2003 in Saumur in the Center of Modern Art Bouvet-Ladubay - where
ironically the 10th Annual exhibit of the International Salon of Saumur
is being held for the first time - has another approach of the
movement. "One distinguishes today the conceptual Art which is a
reaction to the academic world where the gesture of the artist is
stronger than his work, from abstract Art where the visual, the color
and the stroke of the brush are of prime importance. Emotional art can
be abstract, but cannot be limited to that. It must generate a natural
emotion".
As to the perpetuity of the movement created by Lubomir
Tomaszewski to which he adheres "because the need of man and in
particular of the artist must more than ever be in harmony with nature
which surrounds him and which escapes little by little", he says that
he ignores that nature is within his reach and his potential. "Will the
group survive Lubomir? Are we at an impasse or at a turn?" he asks
pensively, in a small voice with a heavy accent while going down again
from his benchmark where he looks for himself without respite through
his work.
translated IRD
Gregor Jakubowski
ARTWORK DETAINED / STOLEN / in NEW YORK, PARIS & LUBLIN - /
ZAWLASZCZENIE
- Lawyer / Adwokat : LETTER 1 //
LETTER 2 / see page 2 - Complicity of Ewa BOBROWSKA-Jakubowski / Mieczyslaw "Mietko" RUDEK, Lubomir
TOMASZEWSKI, Janusz SKOWRON- / wspolnictwo w zawlaszczeniu
- EXPLICATIONS EN FRANCAIS
EMOTIONALISM. In Tune with Nature
Gregor Jakubowski ARTWORK DETAINED / or STOLEN / in NEW YORK, PARIS & LUBLIN - / ZAWLASZCZENIE OBRAZOW
- EXPLICATIONS
EN FRANCAIS
G.J. ART ACTUALITIES 
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