László Fehér – Roman Lipski

In 2010, we showed a solo exhibition of Roman Lipski's works at Atlas Sztuki. The exhibition was of interest to the audience and critics, despite the fact that the artist was not particularly famous in Poland, and was basically unknown. Many guests from abroad attended the opening of the exhibition, among whom I will mention only two: Dr. Erich Marx - a German collector of contemporary art who has works by Roman Lipski and Volker Schlöndorff - a German director, Oscar winner. It is worth adding that the largest of the works of the Marx Collection on a daily basis are a fundamental part of the permanent exhibition of Hamburger Bahnhof. After four years, we decided to show Roman Lipski's paintings again, juxtaposing them with the works of László Fehér - an outstanding Hungarian artist whose work in Poland is practically unknown. In Hungary, László Fehér is one of the most famous artists, in 1990 he represented Hungary on the 44th. Venice Art Biennale. Roman Lipski and László Fehér have not yet met in person, despite the fact that they are represented in Germany by the same gallery - Sophisticated from Munich. The first time they will face to face in Łódź a few days before the opening of their joint exhibition in Atlas Sztuki.

In one of the texts published in this catalogue, Magdalena Lewoc from the National Museum in Szczecin notes that: "both are excellent painters, using a perfectly painting workshop and both have developed an individual formula of the painting based on their characteristic iconographic repertoire" and that: "the relationship between Fehér and Leipski is more emotional than formal, it is created by the surreal spectrality of the paintings, the disturbing relationship between the characters and objects appearing on the canvases and their surroundings, the poetics of the painting space". 

The curator of the exhibition, Agata Mendrychowska, points out in her text that: "what connects the sensitivity of both artists is the sense of what arouses anxiety, what is amazing, related to the passage of time, the subconscious. However, the element that builds the exhibition is contrast. Roman Lipski's emotional and dramatic paintings complement each other in the exhibition with the narrative and balanced painting by László Fehér. 

In the catalogue, we also publish a short text by Volker Schlöndorff, who, when he learned about the re-presentation of Lipski's works in Atlas Sztuki, wrote a few words about his feelings about Lipski's work.

I also encourage you to read conversations with artists. Dr. Gudrun Szczepanek spoke to László Fehér a few months ago in Budapest, while I spoke with Roman Lipski a few weeks ago. I would like to add that six days after the opening of the exhibition in Atlas Sztuki, the National Museum in Szczecin will present a solo exhibition of Roman Lipski, and on September 25 this year, another individual exhibition of the artist will be opened at the Kraszewski Museum in Dresden.