INTRODUCTION
Ewa Gargulińska’s lifetime of creative work delights our senses and our minds. Her painting, like the works of old masters she admires, reaches one’s soul. She is searching for what is eternal in the experience of life – rendering on the essence of emotions, feelings and dreams lived and remembered. She transforms her longings, joys and sorrows into her own world of textures, shapes and colours, treated like abstracts, but often evoking heads and figures from statues of ancient heroes or gods lost in time and space.
They radiate beauty of the eternal kind, yet when you look at them more closely, one can find abstract landscapes of textures, cracklings and delicate lines, which make the beauty of Gargulińska’s paintings so sensual and spiritual at the same time.
Apart from romantic introspective paintings, Ewa expands her receptive spirit into other worlds of human destiny and struggle; as in her black and white series “Art in the Times of Covid 19”, or her work, “Home?”, exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 2018.
Ewa writes profoundly moving poetry; completing her third volume of poetry, “Exit”, to be published in Spring, 2021, which follows “Poems”, 2013, by Artists Lives and “Melancholie”, 1996, by Grasshopper Press.
Ewa grew up in Kraków, surrounded by the charm and majesty of the old capital of Poland, in the home where everything reflected her family connections with art. Looking at the deep, rich colours of her oil paintings, you can understand why she sometimes mentions that an Austrian oil copy of Titian’s Danae, was the most inspiring memory from her childhood, which, together with paintings by both her uncles, influenced her decision to study art.
After her first year in the Krakow Academy, she chose Warsaw Academy of Fine Art for her Alma Mater where she studied painting with Professor Jerzy Tchórzewski and artistic graphics with Henryk Tomaszewski. Warsaw offered her new experiences in the rebellious spirit of artists, poets, students and professors.
After finishing her studies, Ewa’s created book covers for various Polish publishers, posters for films and satirical drawings in magazines. In 1970 Gargulińska left Poland, living in London, Dublin and New York; painting, exhibiting and lecturing.
Since settling in London in 1983, Ewa Gargulińska continues to exhibit her paintings internationally. Her work is represented in public collections at: National Museum of Women in the Arts, Archives, Washington DC, ‘Zacheta’ National Gallery in Warsaw, Archives, National Museum in Krakow, Torun University, Academy of Fine Arts Museum in Warsaw, Madame Tussauds, the British Library, London, the English National Opera, London, Union of Polish Writers Abroad, London.
Private Collections include: Sir Michael Scott, Ireland, Cyril Cusack, Jeremy Irons, Dr Arthur Sackler, founder of the new wings in the Royal Academy, London, and the Metropolitan Museum, New York, Sir Vernon Ellis, Chairman of the English National Opera and British Council, London, Lord Brook of Alverthorpe, London.
Ewa Gargulińska’s work is published in Studio International, London, Print Magazine, New York, Pamietnik Literacki (Literary Memoir) by the Union of Polish Writers Abroad, Nowy Czas (New Times) Magazine, London.
Gargulińska exhibited her painting in Krakow, Warsaw, Dublin, London, Paris, Rome, Stockholm and Bejing.
Andrzej Maria Borkowski
Courtauld Institute of Arts, London