Hodowla pasków 2019

Lech Jankowski made this drawing, Hodowla pasków, with graphite on paper. I love the way this piece teeters between representation and something more ghostly and abstract. Check out how the graphite’s been layered to create those fuzzy, vaporous shapes hanging above the little stools. You can almost feel the artist’s hand at work, the careful build-up of tone, the subtle gradations from light to dark. It makes you wonder, what’s going through Jankowski’s mind as he’s making this? Is he thinking about weight and mass? Or maybe it’s more about capturing a feeling, a mood, or even a memory. I can imagine him, lost in thought, gently shading and smudging, coaxing these forms into existence. Looking at this drawing reminds me of the work of Vija Celmins and her obsession with rendering the surfaces of things, like the ocean or the night sky.