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Looking at some of Wojciech Łazarczyk’s paintings, one can come to the conclusion that they do not depict anything or depict “nothing.” The artist has abandoned the plane of iconic narrative in his work, rejecting the symbolism and realm of meaning that could adorn the crosses, rectangles or lines appearing in his works. Łazarczyk has limited his means of expression solely to colour, though he also deprives it of the symbolic value that has been increasingly attributed to it over the centuries. The artist’s approach forces us to perceive his works as distinct realities, autonomous entities that express nothing but themselves and pure, raw painting.

In the case of Łazarczyk’s practice, the fundamental issue seems to be the question of painting in and of itself, with its sense and its means of existence. “I wanted to find more than what can be seen in a painting,” declares the artist in an interview. His technique involves a long process, usually lasting several months, of applying glaze layers of paint to the canvas. Surprisingly, however, the works arising through this method do not bear any clear signs of this systematic and almost meditative process. Their surface seems perfectly unified, with the colour assuming a cold and refined manner. So, it is not about the material quality of the paint or the painterly essence, nor is it about coming to grips with matter or striving for the deepest possible understanding of it. The act of painting is of no relevance to Łazarczyk, with each successive layer of paint intended to cover it up and each mark serving to conceal the one before it. Hence, the process of painting should lead to a disengagement of the work from its creator.

Taking a close look at the thick, velvet-textured canvases it is difficult to concede that they do not depict anything. The individual layers delicately permeating to the surface through each other demonstrate the infinite power of illusion and seem to embrace the reality of an autonomous “world of the painting.” Likewise, in this very moment, the work which has to some degree been detached from the artist becomes the domain of the viewer and of the imagination awakened by the power of colour.

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