TADEUSZ ŁODZIANA - SEARCHING FOR PERFECTION.

15 – 28 marca 2018
RACINGOLD S.A., WAUTHIER-BRAINE, BELGIA

Tadeusz Łodziana is a significant artist in the history of Polish sculpture of the second half of the twentieth century. Meritable educationalist, the orginal creator, belonged to the generation that initiated the modern transformation of the sculpture, which at the turn of the fifties and sixties radically changed the frame, form and dynamics of this medium.
The works presented at the exhibition, which are just a part of all Tadeusz Łodziana works, cover female nude sculptures. These are easily recognizable works characteristic for the artist's style.

Łodziana's sculptures can also be relatively easily placed in the panorama of modern sculpture development. Their synthetic generalization, skipping unnecessary detail - also elegance based on the structure of gentle arcs and curves, are a lesson that comes from the work of Brâncuși. The extreme simplification of forms exposes the spiritual and mystical, more than the material and carnal aspect of the subject. The use of the natural beauty of the material, its smooth, polished surfaces enhances the aesthetic effect, while the work seems to be like an object of the industrial standard at the same time. Łodziana balances this aspect with the organic and biological principles of building a form - flowing, rhythmically composed, absorbent and open to the surrounding space. This way he takes the direction designated by the achievements of the unsurpassed master of outdoor sculpture of the twentieth century - Henry Moore. Similarly to him, Łodziana performs the synthesis of the female body shape very consistently, approaching the borders of the abstract form. He exposes just a fragment, usually the torso, decapitated and without limbs. Like the great Rodin once – now Łodziana intentionally presents the dismembered body as a completed sculpture. But these fragments still remain in relation to the human figure, which the viewer reads - basing on the experience of one's own body - as complete.

Łodziana's acts are a pleasure to the eye. They are sensual and intimate. The artist deliberately uses haptic qualities of the sculptural medium. The rhythm of the concavity and convexity, diversification of the structure of materials and surface textures, fluency and the combination of profiles enhance the desire to make physical contact, to touch, to stroke, to feel.

Syntheticity of these sculptures inclined critics to read them as objective forms, coldly calculated, also indicated by their titles - as suggested - characterizing only the language describing the space and body. And yet: "Open", "Compact", "Standing", "Ethereal", "Lying," "Horizontal" or "Spiral" should necessarily by recognized not only for their form, but also (perhaps above all?) for their important theme, which is a sculptor's own, innermost story of femininity.

Studying the human body is an expression of the search for selfidentity in the most individual and irreducible area. It is discovering the diversity and differences in the natural human environment, which is his physicality. If this perspective, if we try to "read" Łodziana's sculptural acts, they reveal to us as the incarnation of the eternal - in this sense, very traditional - story of the male eye. As the image of woman-piece, female-object, a fetish and the object of the male delight, the source of inspiration, pleasure and suffering. As an unfathomable mystery. In this context, the consistency of form, harmony and aesthetics receive a deeper importance. We can see it as a picture - a prototype of femininity, formed by a vision of a sculptor.

What is the woman created by a look and hand of Tadeusz Łodziana like? The artist described her as the harmony of flowing lines, concavity and convexity, the contrast of moods texture, volatility of profiles. She is the convergence of opposites - open and compact, empty and pregnant at the same time. She can be an ethereal being, floating in space, she may be a roadside figure. For a man, she always remains an unfinished fragment, the lack, the romantic longing for fullness.

dr Katarzyna Chrudzimska-Uhera