Elegies. Łukasz Stokłosa. Painting

The exhibition of Łukasz Stokłosa’s paintings at Wawel Royal Castle will showcase paintings in which the artist discusses the topic of the monarchy history in Early Modern Europe. Stokłosa has a habit of ‘telling’ the story of rulers who passed away a long time ago through objects that belonged to them: coronation insignia and coats, carriages, armours, and interiors of their residences as well as surrounding gardens. The elegiac reflection resonating from his works results, on the one hand, from the choice of topics, and on the other from the way in which they are painted. Stokłosa experiments with the ‘sfumato’ effect, i.e. soft chiaroscuro transitions, achieving on his canvases the impression of viewing the precious objects depicted on them as if through a fog or smoke, or perhaps – as he seems to suggest – painting in rooms lit only by candlelight. The artist wants the Wawel exhibition to include not only works referring to the history of Poland, but also, through the complicated net of alliances and royal marriages, to the history of other dynasties, shaping the picture of the world back then.

Agnieszka Jankowska-Marzec, exhibition curator