Marek Przybyła
It was probably not by chance that I was born in Katowice, in the Year of the Dragon, on the 13th day of the month, fifty years and two months after Hans Bellmer. I began my “golden age” series of over 50 paintings in the fifth year of the first decade of my regular practice in inner alchemy, and it forms a map of experiences, epiphanies, discoveries and raptures accompanying this practice. Reading whatever was available on the subject at the time did help me considerably during this solitary journey. I was studying and making progress, and my state of melancholy, contemplation and restrained euphoria was well mirrored in a certain type of Renaissance portrait painting. I can still hear the swoosh of the bamboo forest of Chinese calligraphy which kept inviting me to get to know it better, to reach its heart. I was glad and obviously curious to follow the few other pioneers who had taken paths parallel to mine, particularly when they came from the West. I looked at written accounts as well as paintings and graphic works with relevant elements. Having read some Taoist literature I have discovered that my mentality is amazingly congruent with Tao, and as a result I do not believe in the East-West dichotomy. Such openness allowed me to touch upon universal issues and they have found their way into the Key to Colour, my collection of prose writings and drawings devoted to colours of names and names of colours.
Somewhere I feel I have this inborn understanding of art as a universal, timeless chariot of transgression which never fails on the bumpy roads of mystery. The unfathomable possibilities of the ride reveal themselves even in the smallest artistic endeavours. Sometimes the vehicle itself guides us unerringly and sometimes we drive it confidently. We may be bruised, but we always get somewhere, discovering, on the way, new fertile recesses of our souls. And if the travels find their independent expression, the eternal unacknowledged truths will be revealed anew through dazzling, convulsive beauty which unites body and soul. The two mighty wheels of my chariot are the ancient art of Egypt and classical art of China.
Official website:
http://www.przybylam.art.pl
E-Mail:
marek.przybyla@gmail.com
