Chopin Remixed

Urbański belongs to the most important figures of Polish typography. He designed over 200 books, many graphic symbols and leaflets. 'You can either relish in typography… or resign and search for different, easier occupation’ said Urbański in an interview with Ewa Prządka. His designs were above all functional, but also refined and thought through to the tiniest detail.

In the logo of Fryderyk Chopin Society he used the portrait by Delacroix. However, he transformed it monochromatically using a raster effect. In a large scale, on a preparatory drawing, we can look closely at the technology of that procedure based on illusion and simulation. 

What can be a common thing linking the modern Poles with Chopin? Marcin Maciejowski’s painting tells us that this might be the emigratory experience. One of the most ubiquitous takes on Chopin by Ary Scheffer, on Maciejowski’s canvas is additionally simplified, reduced to the grays, blacks and whites. It becomes a pretext to comment on the current reality. 

To decode the meaning one needs to know the title of the painting and the context of its creation. Without that knowledge we could indifferently pass by the next repetition of a well-known image and not involve in any kind of dialogue with it. 

Anna Piesiewicz’s drawing is a remote repetition of Chopin’s portrait by Ary Scheffer, although one can easily notice the characteristic style of the young graphic designer who also designs products and visual communication. The characteristic contour is not finished, it looks understated.

The image seems dreamy and subtle. It reinvents Chopin’s romanticism anew, as seen and interpreted from the perspective of the year 2015. 

What is the difference between Chopin’s image and a graphic sign? Chopin’s face depicted in many portraits seems to act as a symbol, logo, icon. The potential of this sign was used by Robert Kuta who took part in the Fryderyk Chopin’s Portrait Competition for Young Artists creating a drawing that is very bold in its simplicity. It is a concise portrait en face drawn on a sheet of paper taken out from a grid notebook. 

The elements of this composition are dislocated so that we do not know whether it was to depict two faces or only one that however goes out of a scheme and the correct arrangement of elements. The artists plays with the viewer on different levels. He not only creates a baffling image, but also titles it in a mischievous manner: 'Fryderyk Chopin’s portrait drawn while listening to a piece by AC/DC’. 
 

Francis Bacon’s paintings were one of the inspirations behind Janusz Przybylski’s work. Coming from the blackness and greenness, painted with broad strokes of a paintbrush Fryderyk Chopin’s portrait suggests an insight into the deeper region’s of the composer’s psyche. Behind the dignity and coldness of Chopin’s look one can discover complicated feelings and emotions.

Slightly deformed version of Ary Scheffer’s original, affects the viewer with planes of deep colors and a relatively large size. It is one of the best Chopin’s portraits that belong to the Chopin Museum’s collection combining the individuality of the painter with a canon of Chopin’s depictions. 

Tomasz Wiktor in his portrait brought the young Chopin back to life. He does not resemble any of his historical depictions, yet, still and all, he is convincing, close and modern, although he does not wear neither tracksuit nor sneakers, neither headphones nor mp3 player).

He looks ahead into the future with a brilliant look, his hands are not on the keyboard, but in his pockets… Is he a romantic or a timeless hipster? 

Although the painting is painted on canvas in a traditional technique, it frees itself from the yoke of remixes: the transformations of well-known images known from the daguerreotypeand the portraits by Scheffer and Delacroix.