Provenance: Private Collection, Wellington

Exhibited: Henryk Szydlowski Exhibition,International Art Centre at Duxton Hotel, Wellington, 2003

The work of this Polish born artist is characterised by vivid colours and poetic titles. He says I like to give my paintings names that have a kind of poetry to them, so that people can discover for themselves much more about the painting than they might see at first glance.

Szydlowski attributes his style and proficiency as a painter to the 11 years of intense art training he undertook in Poland. He was awarded a Masters Degree in Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, in 1976. Henryk Szydlowski's works utilise influences and symbols from many cultures.

Szydlowski emigrated to New Zealand in 1978, moving to Australia in 1985. During his seven year stay in New Zealand he lectured at Whitecliffe Art School. During this time he developed a revolutionary printing technique, naming it Polprint in honour of his Polish heritage.

The integrity of Henryk Szydlowski's paintings lie in his unique interpretation of line, form and colour. Szydlowski has absorbed the philisophical planes of the 20th Century German Movements, such as Der Blaue Reiter, incorporating artists such as Klee and Kadinsky. He reinterprets their meaning as tactile jungles of richly applied paints suggesting both abstract thought and concrete image. There is a sanguine harmony evident in Szydlowski's work, achieved by the subtle blending of elements - a notion of a no beginnings and no end.

Szydlowski's work, like the artist himself, knows no international boundaries. It utilses the brilliant and emotive use of colour from Fauvism to geometric dissections of Cubism and psychology of Surrealism. The artist combines the innovativeness of Joan Miro, the intuitive work of Klee and brilliance of Picasso, whilst hinting at a resurrection of Kadinsky's fascination with circular geometrics.