Ryszard WINIARSKI (1936 - 2006), Space with elevated areas, 1978

described on reverse: WINIARSKI 1978, on the plate a paper sticker with the description: R. Winiarski / Space with elevated areas and an area / with different in drawn zones probability / of appearance of black color / Random variable: Dice / Acrylic, plate, 100 x 100 cm, 1978 (typed).

PROVENANCE:
- private collection, Warsaw,
- private collection, Cracow,
- private collection, Lublin.

The purpose of attempts to visually present statistical distributions is to make clear the important role of chance in the modern world. The subject would be the statistical manifestations of life in both social and psychological fields. To put it simply - the game of dice ceases to be just an instrument with the help of which something is achieved, but becomes the subject itself - Ryszard Winiarski.



Richard Winiarski's theory of art was based on two principles - order and chance. Order is a mathematical principle - number sequences. Coincidence is a random variable, which most often was the toss of a dice or coin. It was the one that determined the first field in the carefully drawn grid, from which the artist began to build a composition that was often treated as an additional element in his actions, rather than their goal. As a graduate, not only of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, but also of the Polytechnic, his theory of art was to combine it with science, to realize an objective work of art that would not be characterized by emotions. Hence, too, the choice of color: black and white, as well as the reference to a zero-one system or code. He often called the resulting physical effects of his work "attempts to visually present statistical distributions." It seems that for Richard Winiarski, a scientific, investigative approach to the time-complicated systems extended with further colors or a third dimension was more important. With further complications "attempts to visually present statistical distributions," the artist began to create spatial objects. The most interesting of them were realized in the Netherlands. It is also worth noting the opinion of Bożena Kowalska, who points out that in the artistic attitude of Ryszard Winiarski one can see not only the seeds of conceptual art, but also the role of process. Currently, the work of Ryszard Winiarski is juxtaposed with a hint of op-art, as the artist's spatial compositions in particular create a kind of illusion and delude the eye of the observer, and with the consistent artistic concept of Roman Opalka and his paintings counted from the series: 1 - ∞ realized since 1965.