Gérard Gasiorowski inspired Still Life Diptych
The oeuvre of French artist Gérard Gasiorowski (1930–1986) is characterised by surprising changes in style. From his first hyperrealistic pieces and his fictitious Académie Worosis Kiga to the primitivism of the Indian Kiga, yet another imaginary figure from the academy—Gasiorowski questions all of the states and phases of painting. Antagonisms and contradictions are inherent aspects of his artistic practice and personality, taking him from hyperrealism to abstraction, from sobriety to deeply acidic irony, and from excess to asceticism. The important cycles of Gasiorowski's works span from the Approche series (1964–70) to Fertilité; his last piece consisted of 12 canvases (1986). The large series of flowers – blooming and wilting – (which he looked after and kept under daily observation), on the A.W.K. academy and the broad cycles on war and the object montages on the »violation of painting« were all created simultaneously. A white space always appears between the flowers and the pots, but the flowers and the pots always appear as a delimitation of the sign and the painting.
The students in the Virtuoso program were introduced to a new genre in art through the still life art of Gerard Gasiorowski and discussed the differences between the landscape, still life and a portrait. They painted their own flower pot using a stencil and learned about tonal values through the process. Next they used different types of paintbrushes that leave different brushstrokes on the paper and added flowers to the still life. To finish they made 3d flowers from tissue paper and glued them down to complete their still life composition.