Konrad Jarodzki, Witness IV, 1972, oil on canvas, 100 x 130 cm

Konrad Jarodzki (1927–2021) was a painter associated with the Wrocław milieu. He created works that referred to the tradition of surrealism, the most important of which are his series Space from 1971–72 and Penetrations, created between 1972–74. He practice also included abstract painting. In his work, he focused on light and movement and used repetitive rhythmic sequences. He belonged to the Wrocław Group (Grupa Wrocławska) together with Józef Hałas, Alfons Mazurkiewicz, Zbigniew Paluszak, Jerzy Rosołowicz and Janina Żemojtel. From 1967 he taught at the Higher School of Fine Arts in Wrocław (today the Academy of Fine Arts). A cell of the Solidarity Trade Union (NSZZ „Solidarność”) was formed in Jarodzki’s studio, and, as a result, he was interned for six months after the introduction of martial law.

The painting Witness, located in the Galeria Studio Collection, is played out in grey scale. It presents an abstract composition containing anthropomorphic and biological references. Jarodzki’s painting oscillates around motifs embedded in the memory of a young boy who experienced the war and the Holocaust. These traumatic images, accumulated in the child’s memories, return and are reflected with distant reflections in undulating, pulsating as if living structures, that seem to burst their picture planes.

Dorota Jarecka