Jerzy DUDA-GRACZ (1941 - 2004), Composition [Gadzina], 1975

collage, oil, wood; 150 x 130 cm;
on back on board sticker of author: DUDA GRACZ / PADEREWSKIEGO 42B/31 KATOWICE / TITLE "Composition" / TECHNIQUE wood - collage, oil / DIMENSIONS 154 x 230 cm / catalog no. 402 / SYGN. Duda Gracz / YEAR 1975 / NOTES [text blurred with black marker].
The sculpture has a certificate of authenticity signed by Agata Duda Gracz dated December 2020.

PROVENANCE:
- Agra Art Auction House (Contemporary Art Auction dated 21.03.2021 item 134).

Jerzy Duda-Gracz's sculptures are an extreme rarity in the painter's artistic output. Barely a few such realizations are known. This monumental composition, which is not devoid of a dose of folklore - to which such painters as Kazimierz Sichulski, Włodzimierz Tetmajer and Teodor Axentowicz referred, for example - also emphasizes the peculiarity of the Tatra landscapes, so valued by the artist, who above the urban bustle of Silesian agglomerations valued the tranquility of the areas of southern Poland untouched by industrialization. The offered sculpture may be a tribute, not only to the areas so eagerly visited and portrayed by the painter, but also to its inhabitants, as the presented work depicts a figure known to the artist, the wife of Frank - the master carpenter. This sculpture can be at the same time a drawing of attention and, above all, an appreciation of the "silent heroes" of everyday life, artists using a workshop, whose work is commonly called folk art, and by art historians rightly referred to as art brut. It is also worth noting the material used by Jerzy Duda-Gracz - wood - which is perfectly in line with the canon of Podhale architecture and art, in which also sculpted, today so valued artists associated with the "Zakopane school".