Janusz Maciej Kochanowski, born on August 7th, 1937 r. Works creatively since 1961. Received the diploma in interior design in 1963, at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk.
Does easel painting, monumental painting, designs interior architecture, commercial illustration, cartoons, designs industrial forms, art of exhibition. He is the author of 12 solo exhibitions, among them in Dortmund 1982; Düsseldorf 1983; Kassel 1993; Bydgoszcz 1994 (BWA), 2005 (NON FERE Gallery), 2006 (Port Lotniczy Art Gallery), 2008 („Nad Brdą” Gallery, WSG).
He participated in about 140 exhibitions – national, regional and international (Denmark, Romania, Finland, France, Hungary, Lithuania, Germany). His paintings are in the collections of museums in Poland, and in private collections at home and abroad Germany, France, Switzerland, Canada, Finland. He is the author of many hotel interior designs, spas, office buildings, restaurants, cinemas; as well as the author and creator of several monumental mosaic composition. Winner of many awards and honours in the field of painting, architecture, interior design and design of spatial forms.
Since 1968, he held various positions in the Main Board and the Regional Board of the Association of Polish Artists. In 1991-1994, he served as President of the Main Board of the Association of Polish Artists Polish Functional Art; from 1995 until now, he’s been the Vice-President. Since 1985, he’s the President of the Association of Polish Artists Polish Functional Art in Bydgoszcz.
For his artistic and social activities, he was awarded with: Gold Cross of Merit, Badge of the Distinguished Culture Activist, Award of the Governor of the Bydgoszcz District, Medal of the President of Bydgoszcz.
Janusz Maciej Kochanowski, painter, developed and created his own artistic language, his own style, a distinctive form of imaging. He creates works that are intricate in every detail, which are inspired, first of all, by the nature and creations shaped by it. The compositions are always horizontal and their vertical axis is the exponent. Centralised arrangements and symmetry determine the nature of the works, creating an atmosphere of tranquillity and lasting without a reference in time. The artist gives a new dimension to his works, losing the current meaning of the individual elements of the composition. Locating his presentations on the border of objective reality and absurd one, he becomes a part of the surrealist trend.
Janusz M. Kochanowski seems to pull individual elements from his landscapes and focus his attention on them. He showed an excellent form of a flower. Now a leaf has become his inspiration. He chooses autumn leaves with their rich colours and structure marked by the passage of time autumn decadence. He paints a pile of leaves with a leafless branch leaning over, a single leaf poses for a portrait, the duo is arranged symmetrically, repeating the often used compositional arrangement. He makes spatial forms using leaves tiny, fragile installations which he later reproduces on the canvas, as always putting the finishing touches to every little detail. Just like Giuseppe Arcimboldo created fruit compositions, Kochanowski uses leaves to create images of his dog and the natural forms he admires birds, fish, other organisms, as well as self-portraits. The resulting works are extremely decorative, colour-rich, hyper-realistic in detail, compositionally centralised and symmetrical. He puts his leafy creations in a space outlined with colours, very rarely using his landscape scheme. Maintaining the realism of details, he creates unreal, fairytale-like forms, funny and full of humour.
Why leaves and why autumn ones? Probably the artist got fascinated with their shapes, textures and colours. He organised the paintings into a cycle which he titled „Autumn Transformations.” In addition to witty composition of birds or fish, there are self-portraits of the artist and images of his beloved dog. Timek is fifteen years old, and his master is celebrating the 50th anniversary of his artistic work.
July 5th, 2013. Elżbieta Kantorek
exhibition open until August 31st, 2013