Jan Eustachy Wolski often takes up the theme of vanitas. His manner of depicting death betrays inspiration from such styles as the Gothic, the Baroque, Romanticism, movements from the turn of the 20th century, as well as fairy tales and legends. His landscapes evoke the Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia and the Prussian Lower Silesia. But his approach is ahistorical and filtered through subculture and pop culture codes drawn for example from black metal, cold wave, horror, fantasy, and aestheticization of niche revolutionary-terrorist factions.

On the formal level, most noteworthy is the colour scheme, often intense and toxically sweet, generating dissonance in the perception of the themes thus presented. The method of applying paint is also characteristic of Wolski’s painting. The texture is highly plastic, multi-layered, and sometimes even protrudes beyond the painting. It is expressive, but at the same time thoughtful and precise.

Author: Michał Woliński