"Edward Dwurnik passed away on Sunday morning on October 28, 2018" - this sentence, which depicts the whole content of life, can and should begin a new stage in the broadly understood reception of this painter. The authors of the last retrospective in Krakow in spring 2013 regretted the apparent simplicity of his work. A little earlier, in 2012, in the outdoors in Świeradów, the story of a friendship with Joanna Mieszko, documented with photos, began. This publication is a record which is not a record of In memoriam of life events, but a portrait of a person "painted" with a photograph and a commentary, but by the painter's hand. Although now it is easier to talk about Dwurnik: the paintings, many of which he painted, are exhibited in various places, sold at auctions, everything turns in its own rhythm, nevertheless it rotates in similar registers of generalizations and approximations, touching this person with seriousness obscuring helplessness or insincerity. Too monumental, it becomes too invisible. Like the figure of Caravaggio in the literary investigation of Gustaw Herling-Grudziński, the image of Edward Dwurnik asks for a detective who trusts his intuitions. It's probably the so-called it is no coincidence that it is precisely the paintings of Caravaggio that Dwurnik has been watching closely in recent years. Joanna Mieszko's book-album about Dwurnik, supplemented with two reflections on him by Rajmund Kalicki and Barbara Tylewska, may lead the reflection on the work of the outstanding painter in some new directions. March 23, 2013 - retrospective exhibition prepared by the National Museum in Krakow on the occasion of Edward's 70th birthday. It included 150 paintings and drawings from 15 painting series, created from the second half of the 1960s up to the first decade of the 21st century (Sportsmen, Workers, Warsaw, Big Pictures, Hitchhiking, Passions and the Cross). He was very focused. We visited the exhibition the day before the opening. The assembly was in progress. We were welcomed by the curator of the exhibition - Dominik Kuryłek. Then an interview with the director of the National Museum, Ms Zofia Gołubiew. A short film promoting the exhibition was also made. We stopped by the paintings and Edward told me their stories. "Boredom of a provincial city" from the series Big Pictures, 3 September – 10 October 1983 (276x451): he talked about how his four-year-old daughter Pola drew with him, interfering with the lower parts of the canvas. Many of his friends and lovers of creativity came to the vernissage, including well-known restaurateur and collector of Edward's paintings - Jan Baran with his wife Krystyna, a student friend Przemysław Kwiek, art-dealer Rafał Jabłonka with his wife. I had the opportunity to meet them. The catalogue entitled "Obłęd", in it interesting analyses by Anna Markowska about the paradoxes of tradition and Kamila Wielebska about Polish crucifixions.

ZAPOL publishing house, Szczecin |
Photos and text Joanna Mieszko |
1st edition, circulation of 1000 copies |
ISBN: 978-83-8185-042-1 |
Hardcover, 172 pages |