Curriculum vitae in English

Krystyna Grygiel

Artist's statement

Déclaration de l’artiste  

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Curriculum vitae en français  

    I started as a figurative painter both in Poland and in Norway and was educated in the European traditions with Rembrandt as a main influence.   Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Amedeo Modigliani and later Serge Poliakoff have always been an inspiration, as well as the English contemporary painters Frank Auerbach and Howard Hodgkin.

    During my art education at graduate school in U.S.A. I have got inspired by the Abstract Expressionists and Color Field painters, particularly Mark Rothko. I have moved from figurative to abstract painting and let the expressive and painterly qualities decide the result of the final work. Spacial depth in the painting is created of layers of clear and transparent colors in a slow technique similar to glazing. All elements have their place to express emotions. The creative expression to me is a spiritual translation of inner concepts into form. It is important that the content of my work is human.

    My approach to work is contemplative. I proceed from long periods of meditation to the physical act of painting. I limit the general format of my compositions and restrict the number of forms allowing color to breathe. It is to enhance rather than to reduce the expressive possibilities of the painting. Formal reductionism gives rise to expanded meaning.

    My goal is to achieve the synthesis of the physical and spiritual with limited means. I instantly explore, reshape and re-evaluate form and color. Measurements and light are crucial. The color is important only as a vehicle to express basic human emotions, moods and situations. It is a vessel of transcendental meaning. In the end I would like the expression to be serene and orderly.

Artist’s statement