12 Jun - 30 Sep 2018
Ryszard Kaja
What Ryszard Kaja Painted
The theatre was Ryszard Kaja’s element. For years he had created scenography and costumes for shows at places like Poznań’s opera house. He painted, he designed prints as well as film, theatre, and tourism posters. He freely mixed disciplines and modes of expression. His stage design was painterly, whereas his prints and paintings – theatrical.
Kaja proudly admitted to being a master of the “artistic mess.” As he said, “minimalism is completely foreign to me. I’m bourgeois-baroque. Everything in my life comes in piles, one on top of the other. That’s the way my home is and my art studio. That’s how my drawings look, where on the margins you will find copious notes and ink blotches, surrounding the page like a swarm of ants.”
The exhibition at the Courtyard Gallery presented the multidisciplinary achievements of Ryszard Kaja, as well as evoking the colorful personality of the creator: a traveler, collector and storyteller. In Stary Browar works from all areas of the Poznanian artist's work were put on display: from painting, through costume and theater set designs, to a wide selection of posters, including the cult series of graphics "Polska". At the exhibition, works of art intertwine with personal souvenirs from Kaja's apartments and fragments of his diaries.
