Page 26 - Studio International - May 1970

In the land of my
own vision
Henryk Gotlib
Right :
Henryk Gotlib
Self-portrait 1961
Oil on canvas
THE FIRST RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION OF
GOTLIB'S WORK SINCE HIS DEATH IN 1966
OPENS ON JULY 11 AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY
OF MODERN ART IN EDINBURGH, SPONSORED
BY THE SCOTTISH ARTS COUNCIL. LATER,
WITH ASSISTANCE FROM THE ARTS COUNCIL
OF GREAT BRITAIN, IT GOES TO THE NATIONAL
MUSEUM OF WALES IN CARDIFF AND THE
SOUTHAMPTON ART GALLERY.
IN 1939 GOTLIB WAS COMMISSIONED BY AN
IMPORTANT PUBLISHING HOUSE IN WARSAW
TO WRITE A BOOK UNDER THE TITLE `THE
TRAVELS OF A PAINTER'. THE WAR INTER-
VENED, AND IT WAS NOT PUBLISHED UNTIL
1947. IT WAS TO HAVE BEEN ILLUSTRATED
WITH NUMEROUS DRAWINGS AND SKETCHES BY
GOTLIB OF THE WORKS OF ART ABOUT WHICH
HE WRITES, BUT THESE WERE DESTROYED
DURING THE WAR. THE LAST CHAPTER OF THE
BOOK IS CALLED `IN THE LAND OF MY OWN
VISION', IN WHICH GOTLIB DESCRIBES HOW HE
CONSCIOUSLY STROVE TO FIND HIS OWN VISION.
IT WAS WRITTEN IN 1939. GOTLIB
HIMSELF WROTE THAT IN THE COURSE OF
YEARS HE MIGHT `MODIFY OR EVEN CHANGE'
THE PRINCIPLES HE DESCRIBES. NEVERTHELESS
THEY CONSTITUTE THE `ELEMENTS AND BASIS
OF A DISCIPLINE IN PAINTING' WHICH
PERHAPS DISTINGUISHES GOTLIB'S PAINTING
AND KEPT HIM TO HIS OWN PATH, REGARDLESS
OF CURRENT FASHIONABLE TRENDS.
IT HAS BEEN TRANSLATED FROM THE POLISH
BY HIS WIDOW.
Contributors
to this issue
HENRYK GOTLIB was born in Poland in 1890, and was
one of the leading artists in Poland during the period
just before the war. He came to this country in 1939.
Work by Gotlib was included in the Tate exhibition
`Fifty years of British Art', 1964.
somehow simple, strong and decided.
Back in the room which served as my studio,
I would take one of my old canvases and in
half an hour paint the scene I had just
observed. By now it was almost dark and my
eyes and nerves were too exhausted for me to
be able to judge the results of these spontan-
eous outbursts. My instinct, however, told me
not to underrate these moments of revelation.
After a time, I began to regard my whole day's
work as a mere preparation for the evening's
exaltation.
The rainy weather of November interrupted
my arduous excursions into the meadows and
lanes of the Breton countryside, leaving me
with much free time on my hands. I used this
to look carefully through the large number of
canvases which were stacked around the
walls of the room. One thing was clear: the
After many years spent working in Paris and only canvases of any value were these
travelling to the main centres of European art, instinctive sketches done in the evening. I
I realised a few years ago that ifmy own paint- recognised that they were mine, that every-
ing were not to remain for ever a repetition thing in them, every touch of the brush, was
of what others had done before me, I needed, right and true, and came unmistakably
for a time at least, to detach myself from the straight from the heart of a painter. These
work and achievements of other painters. canvases revealed to me what I saw and my
In the early spring of 1929, therefore, I way of seeing things, without reference to
went to Benodet, a small fishing village in anything or anyone. Continuing in this way
Finistère in the heart of Brittany, where for scrupulously to analyse my canvases in terms
almost a year I lived in virtual isolation. I of painting, I became conscious of my own
would leave my room in the morning and vision of reality. Thus I found my own road,
stay out until dusk. I painted trees, black and the road I have never since left.
white cows and grey-blue cottages, trying to All I do is to try to express more and more
achieve a full resonance of colour and to clearly what I see, to make the content of my
express the shape of objects, animals and pictures visually full and complete, to leave
people in as concrete a way as possible. As I out nothing worth recording, so that the
prepared my evening meal I would glance paintings express all that was comprised in
sadly at the fruits of my labours. They were the first moment of seeing, all that contained
practically worthless. The canvases were my first enchantment.
overworked, chaotic and lifeless.
Thus I wore myself out for several months, II
obstinately refusing to give in, vainly deluding Anxious that my pictures should not remain
myself with each new canvas that with this just a happy chance and, more important still,
one I would surely somehow succeed in that I should be able to continue to work on
extracting a spark of life and thus express them with a proper sense of direction over a
exactly the enthusiasm which I felt when long period, without fear of losing the spark
looking at the phenomenon of nature. of life contained in the first impulse in front of
Often, on the way back, weighed down with nature and without fear of losing the authentic
my canvases, easel and my box of colours, I spontaneity of the first brush strokes, I tried
used to stop, struck suddenly by something I to extract from my pictures some general
observed: some yellow-grey figures walking principles.
in the middle of a road, surrounded by green Many of these 'principles' are still today a
hedges, or by the red patch of a cow tended mystery to me, but some I managed to
by a grey girl in the field. I noticed that these identify. These I will attempt to record.
impressions, received when I was physically 1. Painting has been based, and is still based
exhausted after my long day's work, were today, on the 'principle of contrasting warm
MICHAEL MOYNIHAN is a feature writer on the staff of the June 1969. Part 1 of his series, on Brancusi, appeared
featured in the Print Supplement, Studio International,
Sunday Times.
in the April 1970 issue of Studio International.
JONATHAN BENTHALL is acting as adviser to the Institute
of Contemporary Arts for an exhibition of Dr Hans ROBERT KUDIELKA is assistant editor of das Kunstwerk.
Jenny's work on vibrations and periodicity, scheduled
for six weeks from June 10. GENE BARO is a frequent contributor to Studio Inter-
national.
WILLIAM TUCKER, the sculptor, exhibited most recently
at the Kasmin gallery in the summer of 1969. An HELENE WINER is assistant director at the Whitechapel
exhibition of his prints at the Waddington gallery was Gallery, London.