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In November 2000 I bought Andrzej Jackowski's painting The
Black Bride and in a certain respect completed a circle
in my life.
I have followed Jackowski's work, on and off, for the
past 15 years. Introduced to his work by the educator, writer
and artist Iain Biggs (a lecturer of mine) I became drawn
to his paintings relatively slowly. At the time it was that
period in the eighties when painting seemed to have returned
centre stage and talk of the 'School of London' continued
to capture a young student's imagination. The international
market saw the rise of the art superstars like Schnabel,
Chia,
Cucchi,
Salle
and Kieffer.
While back in this country Le
Brun and Oulton
gave me a sense of the possibilities of commercial success
for a younger generation.
But Jackowski seemed misplaced. Not quite '"Old School"
of London', yet identified as such in Alistair Hicks's book
of the same name; not a player in the new international art
scene but neither, given his Polish roots, an 'English' artist
either. Nor was he quite
the rising star, despite being signed to the Marlborough
Gallery - home of Le Brun, Oulton and much of the 'London
School'.
I'm certain now that it was the refusal of the work to fall
into easy categories, as much as the quality of his canvases,
which attracted me to Jackowski's work.
Having completed my dissertation, in which Jackowski featured
heavily, I moved on and have carved out a career in what has
become known as the creative industries. My love of painting
has rarely dwindled. The exhibitions I have visited and the
catalogues I have collected have informed much of the work
I have been involved with, none more so than the paintings
of Jackowski. When my commercial work has limited me from
developing an overly creative approach, Jackowski's paintings
have been a welcome respite from the sometimes clinical nature
of digital media. When I have needed inspiration in my work
the Jackowski catalogues have usually been my first port of
call.
Then, during that summer of 2000, Iain Biggs informed me that
Jackowski had produced some interesting prints that were relatively
affordable, and maybe I would like to check them out. Having
contacted his gallery, Purdy
Hicks, I took a trip to the see the prints and a week
later walked away with the painting The Black Bride,
one of the first paintings of the artist's I had ever seen,
and one I have returned to as a catalogue illustration many
times since I left college.
This website has been created primarily for selfish reasons.
I wanted a place where I could view as much of Andrzej's work
together as possible. But the beauty of the Internet is that
it allows for sharing and I hope that others will find it
interesting.
I have attempted to design this site to minimise it's impact
on the works themselves, after all this is about Andrzej's
work not mine. The paintings available here provide an almost
complete picture of Andrzej's works since the early 1980s.
(I know of at least three works that have been destroyed and
I have been asked not to include them.) The list of drawings
is less comprehensive and I would welcome any additions. Finally
I hope that Andrzej and Purdy Hicks find the site useful.
Richard
Sedley
richard@cs02.com
Acknowledgements
Thank you Andrzej and Rebecca, Sabrina, Frankie, Nicola and
Jacqui at the Purdy
Hicks Gallery for being brilliantly forthcoming when faced
with my barrage of requests for information and images. Many
thanks also to my friends Michael, Bridget and Steve at Troika
Photos and Phil at Genesis for scanning work. My biggest debt
is to Hodge who found ways of implementing my design that
we thought were initially impossible, and for all his hard
work. And lastly thank you to Josie and Alex for inspiration
on this and other projects.
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