Bogdan KORCZOWSKI, Shaman's

oil, canvas, 130 x 97 cm, signed p.d.: KORCZOWSKI, described on the reverse. Exhibited: Paris, Galerie Albert Ier, 1990; New York, Frank Bustamente Gallery, 1991.

Graduated from the Cracow Academy of Fine Arts in 1978, in the studio of Prof. W. Kunz. He made his debut at the "Nowa Ruda" festival in 1974 with the performance "White Bicycle" as a homage to Marcel Duchamp. In 1980 he settled in Paris, where he has lived ever since. In Paris, in 1985, he received a diploma from the National College of Fine Arts (Beaux-Arts) in the studio of A. Hadad. He was awarded a prize from the Ile-de-France Regional Council in 1986 for his artistic activity. From 1986 to 1995 he regularly stayed and exhibited in New York where in 1988 he received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation scholarship. In Korczowski's works, different colored paints thickly and irregularly cover the canvas. The artist applies them with violent, spontaneous strokes, as if resulting from internal impulses, which heighten the impression of the painting's expression. Often the excess paint used runs down the surface of the painting, creating vertical, chaotic and irregular lines. These "unpredictable" streams further thicken the dense, suspended texture of the canvases.