Miłosz Matwijewicz was born on October 27th, 1930, in Leszno. In 1949-1955, studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, under the tuition of Professor Stanisław Borysowski and Professor Tymon Niesiołowski. Since 1955, member of the Association of Polish Artists. He is a painter. He did functional art. Also worked as a teacher (1958-1987). He has participated in many regional and national exhibitions and exhibitions of Polish art abroad. The author of twelve individual exhibitions. His works are in the collections of the Leon Wyczółkowski District Museum in Bydgoszcz, the Museum in Włocławek, Municipal Gallery bwa in Bydgoszcz, in private collections and on the m/s Bydgoszcz ship. Honoured with the Gold Cross of Merit, the Medal of the Commission of National Education and the Medal of the President of the City of Bydgoszcz. The Library of the University of Bydgoszcz (2810.2014-17.01.2015) hosted a major exhibition of Miłosz Matwijewicz, titled “Przestrzenie wyobraźni” (Spaces of Imagination), which presented his achievements in the field of oil painting. It was complemented by presentation of watercolours. These will dominate the current exhibition. The author is going to present 25 watercolours created after 2000, with addition of works from 1990s none of these have been exhibited yet.
First and foremost, Miłosz Matwijewicz is a landscape painter. He also paints still lifes and floral compositions, but the landscape is of paramount importance to him. His paintings are arranged horizontally, most often in three strips. The first plan is designated by grasslands or water, the second area by trees and shrubs, and the last one by the sky this is to some extent an obligatory scheme, within which there are various visual and colour variations. The dominating colours are blues and greens enriched with ochres and yellows, and small patches of pink, purple and sometimes red make the composition shine. Using colours, the artist creates the atmosphere and mood of his works. With a spot of colour, the author brings out shapes, defines the space, suggests light. This is painting of sensations and emotions. In the past, many of the works were created outdoors. Watercolour was important as it allowed to quickly register the sensations. It’s the favourite technique of the artist; for many years, Miłosz Matwijewicz has been painting from imagination processing on canvas and paper the themes he remember, he records his own landscape, his mood, his physical and mental state, joys and sorrows. The painter loses sight, but is still working creatively. Now his compositions are getting free of details, lose the realism of presentation in favour of free arrangements of colour patches — what’s in his heart, creates a space full of colour and light. Selecting the works for the exhibition together with Miłosz Matwijewicz, I watched dozens of unframed watercolours. Those in frames, exhibited once, stood quietly on the shelves of a small workshop in which the artist has been working since 1960. That small space holds a lot: portfolios with works on paper, cases with projects of functional art, several dozen of oil paintings. The rest of the works decorate the Matwijewiczs’ apartment. But there were more of these works. Some of them can be found in the institution and private collections, many decorate different houses. Several hundreds of works it’s an enormous output of Miłosz Matwijewicz, worthy of recognition and respect. (Elżbieta Kantorek)