My Landscape Ars Aquae
vernissage – 08.09.2008, 18.00

Zbigniew Papke, born in 1936, in Niemcz near Bydgoszcz. Ever since he lives and works there. Studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Mikołaj Kopernik in Toruń. In 1962, he graduated under the tuition of Prof. Stanisław Borysowski. Since 1963, a member of the Association of Polish Artists. He deals with easel painting and publishing graphics. He’s had 14 individual exhibitions, participated in several group exhibitions in Poland and abroad. Also took part in foreign open-air painting exhibitions. Himself, he is an organiser of many open-air exhibitions, including Leon Wyczółkowski Open-Air Exhibitions. His works can be found in museums, galleries and private collections in Poland and abroad (Czech Republic, Romania, Germany, Bulgaria, Denmark, Sweden). Zbigniew Papke paints in oils and watercolours, draws, is the author of many graphic designs for artistic publications and posters. He mainly paints landscapes of vast meadows and fields, lightened by a sheet of water, with a road cutting through. He paints sceneries with rural architecture and boats on water. The space is open deep into the composition. He observes the landscape from above, from a high point of view. Papke simplifies the form, makes it cubical, gives up on contour in favour of intensive colour spots. He uses distinctive, resonant colours. Colourful contrast determines the expression of his works. His oil paintings, with a majority of horizontal arrangements, convey the power of his painting matter. It becomes immersed in watercolour realisations. It is done by the technique itself, as well as by the change in the structure of the composition, which becomes very light. The horizontal arrangements are counterbalanced by diagonals, a colourful spot is more dispersed, blurring the explicitness of presented shapes. Pure colour and a bit of fantasy and freedom define the value of watercolour works by Zbigniew Papke. (Elżbieta Kantorek)