A Different Way of Perceiving

“In one of the naves of the church of the Saviour in Warsaw, you can see a small exhibition of gouache sketches, compositions almost abstract, amongst which we find the simplest sign-like motives depicting a tree, a window or a road. Sometimes we look up into a high bright space in which, in accordance with the intentions of the artist we recognize the interior of the church.

Bold, strongly and confidently constructed paintings resemble the “informel” style of the early 1960’s, particularly Soulage’s. A little like de Staёl.  However all aesthetic influences are impossible here.  The author,  Kasia Puciata, was borne with Down’s Syndrome. The usual way of perceiving was not available to her. She tried with the help of those close to her to somehow join the world. She copied letters from a first grade schoolbook, tried embroidery and playing the guitar. Three years ago she tried painting for the first time.  I consider the results astounding.  It has to be a different way of perceiving since this art is so mature, so beautiful.  The paintings are maintained consistently in one color scheme. Usually the colors are warm, juicy and soaring. The world has been divided into two planes; the first, dark, with muted colors, opens up into a more distant space and there you see nature, air, sun. The trees are blooming and the grass is green.  Bright hues connect artistically with muted ones. Together they form perceptible matter and, what is very difficult to achieve in a flat painting, spatial depth. Unexpectedly landscapes of the romantics aren’t brought to mind.  This is emotional art, romantic, and the style of execution remains always similar. Through a dark frame you see a bright and colorful world.”

Andrzej Oseka, renowned Polish art critic, published in Gazeta Wyborcza, June 19, 1992

 

It’s hard for me to define Kasia’s style, because it’s not expressed in a line, an accepted form of expression but with a wealth of colors wonderfully, intuitively selected by her higher instinct and from this arrangement of colors emerge shapes that for me are not objects in the colloquial meaning of the word, but somehow subtly processed.

There is no accidental selection of colors, and what’s more, Kasia’s paintings have a mood and a soul.

Hanna Preiss, Art Historian, June 26, 1999

The VIEW painting by Kasia Puciata is a deeply moving work, like many other paintings by this author. This is not – as it usually happens with the work of amateurs – a naive enumeration of characters, animals, houses and trees arranged on a plane, but rather a uniform vision of where the smooth wide spots of color create a kind of a landscape – a serious, dramatic, and full of tension world. The space opens wide, we recognize the horizon line, the weight of the earth, the light of the sky. The colors are voiced as musical chords. Such half-abstract landscapes are described by art historians as ‘inner landscapes”. They directly reveal what is happening inside, in the emotional world of the painter: passion, sadness, delight. Looking at this picture, we hear the cry of the person who created it – a beautifully sounding human voice.

– Andrzej Oseka, renowned Polish Art Critic.

Polish Translation

Co napisal o pracach Kasi  znany krytyk p. Andrzej Oseka  obejrzawszy jej  wystawe  prac

 w kosciele Zbawiciela w 1992 r.

Inna droga postrzegania

W jednej z naw kosciola Zbawiciela w Warszawie zobaczyc mozna niewielka wystawe szkicow gwaszem,  kompozycje  prawie abstrakcyjne , znajdujemy w nich jednak najprostsze, sprowadzone do znaku, morywy przedstawiajace: drzewo, okno, droge lub patrzymy w wysoka, rozswietlona przestrzen, w ktorej zgodnie z intencjami autorki rozpoznajemy wnetrze kosciola. Smiale, mocno i z rozmachem budowane obrazy przypominaja “informel” z poczatku lat 60, zwlaszcza Soulagesa. Troche de Staa-dla  .

Wszelkie wplywy estetyczne sa tu jednak wykluczone. Autorka Kasia Puciata, urodzila sie z zespolem Downa. Zwykla droga postrzegania zostala  przed nia zamknieta. Starala sie z pomoca najblizszych jakos wchodzic w swiat. Kopiowala litery z elementarza, haftowala, usilowala grac na gitarze. Trzy lata temu  sprobowala malowac. Rezultaty uwazam za zdumiewajace. Musi byc jakas inna droga postrzegania, skoro to malarstwo jest tak dojrzale, tak piekne. Obrazy sa utrzymane konsekwentnie w jednej gamie barwnej. Zwykle sa to barwy cieple, soczyste, strzeliste. Swiat zostal podzielony na dwa plany: pierwszy ciemny, o stlumionych kolorach, otwiera sie na bardziej rozlegla  przestrzen i tam widac  przyrode, powietrze, slonce. Kwitna drzewa , zieleni sie trawa. Barwy ostre powiazane  sa malarsko  ze zgaszonymi. Razem tworza czytelna dla zmyslow  materie i co w plaskim obrazie  jest rzecza naprawde trudna, glebie przestrzeni. Nieoczekiwanie nie przychodza na mysl krajobrazy romantykow. To jest sztuka uczuciowa, romantyczna a jej przeslanie pozostaje  zawsze  podobne: poprzez  mroczne obrzeza obrazu widac swiat jasny i barwny.