ArtFutbol 2012. Painting by Piotr Pawiński

The spectacular clash between the national teams of Spain and Italy concluded the fourteenth European Football Championship. The 31 matches played by 16 European teams attracted millions of viewers to Polish and Ukrainian stadiums, fan zones, and television screens. Among the spectators were not only passionate football fans but also laypeople captivated by the atmosphere of sporting competition and the magic of the game. Magic is a fitting term… It is what makes football competition an extraordinary, one-of-a-kind phenomenon that engages the minds and hearts of both players and fans.

Football evokes emotions. It is therefore no surprise that it sometimes serves as inspiration for artists. Although the phenomenon of the intersection of these two distinct fields may be surprising, it is nevertheless an undeniable fact. Just as emotions are key to understanding the phenomenon of football in the world of stadiums and spotlights, they also serve as a source of understanding in the realms of painting and music.

The ArtFutbol 2012 project is interdisciplinary, combining visual, musical, and literary elements into a cohesive whole. Piotr Pawiński, the project’s initiator, is also the author of its visual component—a series of 22 paintings presented at the Steelworks Gallery. Since the author’s interests focus on sports themes, the central topic of the works is football scenes depicting various events that occur during a football match. This is an artistic vision of football emotions translated into a universal and colorful language of painting.

The exhibition consists of two series of paintings featuring a distinctive motif of the goal, creating a unique framework for the entire collection. The dynamics of the presented works, which correspond to the number of players competing on the pitch, is highlighted by both their color palette and the vitality of the depicted subjects—scenes directly from the football stadium—showing individual players or groups.

The musical part of the project, performed by the duo Robert Grudzień and Georgij Agratina, is a kind of Polish-Ukrainian musical duel enriched with Polish pieces and Eastern, borderland sounds. The whole is tied together by a musical composition prepared specifically for the ArtFutbol 2012 project, clearly marked by motifs of Ukrainian folk music. Thus, the ArtFutbol 2012 project effectively combines image and sound, proving that football struggles inspire not only painters.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog featuring an excellent essay on football by renowned sports journalist Stefan Szczepłek.

Piotr Pawiński was born in 1953 in Wieluń. From 1973 to 1976, he studied painting at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Wrocław and physics at the University of Wrocław. He spent his youth in Zgierz, where he took his first painting lessons from the wonderful teacher Kazimierz Naryniecki—a student of Stanisław Teisseyre and Piotr Potworowski. From 1976 to 1992, he lived in Warsaw, then moved to Rozwadów, a former town by the San River, now a district of Stalowa Wola. Since 2004, he has lived and worked in Warsaw again. During his first long stay in Warsaw, the artist collaborated with numerous art galleries and the National Museum, creating commissioned copies of works by old masters. In 1996, he created a series of frescoes in the Church of St. Joseph in Warsaw, based on his own design. For a long time, his favorite painting genre was portraiture, although he also has numerous landscapes and still lifes in his portfolio. From 1988 to 1990, he created a series of miniatures—illustrations and lettering—of the Haggadah in watercolor and gouache for a German art collector, based on the rich works of Arthur Szyk. In 1998, Piotr Pawiński began, according to his own concept, a series of numerous paintings depicting relief themes from the iconography of ancient Greek art. This pioneering achievement in contemporary painting—continuing to this day—resulted in two exhibitions. The first took place at the BP Art Gallery in Warsaw in 2006, and the second exhibition at the Museum of Sport and Tourism in Warsaw in the Olympic Year 2008 presented 35 paintings under the common title “Heroes of Olympia Looking at Beijing.” In 2010—the Year of Fryderyk Chopin—the artist showcased a unique collection of 24 portraits of Fryderyk Chopin titled “Painting Variations CHOPIN 2010” during two exhibitions. The first was at the “KRESY 2000” Foundation in Nadrzecze near Biłgoraj, and the second at the Legnica Cultural Center in Legnica. This cycle of 24 paintings, in reference to the 24 preludes, was based on the portrait of the composer created by the outstanding Polish sculptor Józef Gosławski. Piotr Pawiński’s works are held in numerous private and museum collections in Poland and abroad. A significant collection of the artist’s works is also held by Royal Talens, a respected producer of paints and other supplies for artists, for whom he conducted tests on paints, canvases, and grounds. Recently, the artist painted—ausing painting and graphic techniques—a new cycle of 22 paintings depicting scenes from football matches. The inspiration for tackling football themes came from the documentation of Polish sports photographer Kamil Pastusiak, founder of the KamPas Sport Photography Agency. This subject is dedicated to the current exhibition, which is an integral part of the “ArtFutbol 2012” project.

The exhibition will be open to visitors from August 19 to September 9, 2012.

Steelworks Gallery, ul. Hutnicza 17 (next to the permanent COP exhibition for the future)

Opening hours: Tuesday 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 8:00 AM – 3:00 PM

Sunday 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Closed Monday and Saturday

Additional information:

Joanna Wójcik

jwojcik@muzeum.stalowawola.pl

tel. 15 844 85 56 ext. 11