Andrzej Leszczyszyn was an extraordinary painter on the artistic map of the Tricity. He painted mainly still lifes and portraits. He did not impose himself on the audience with many shows, excessive exhibition or egotistical attitude. He created his incomparable paintings in the privacy of his studio, perfecting composition and technique. In one of his rare statements, he expressed an apology for true painting:
"I paint in a "traditional" way, with oil paint, obtaining a flat texture of the image - just like the Dutch masters of still life of the 17th and 18th centuries did. Without any frills, I present the juiciness of fruit, the smoothness of faience pots, the roughness of wood. Painting is a craft - a form of inner expression, which we have to improve until we reach perfection (...) I feel a certain satiety with the excess of modernism. I think that realistic painting, especially still life, is being rediscovered (...) I like still life. All painting contents and relationships can be expressed through still life. Painting objects simply brings me joy. (...) My paintings are viewer-friendly, easy to read and I think that they bring some relief and respite from stressful everyday life to those who look at them.
Superficial criticism classified him as a realist. However, a closer analysis of the images reveals the obvious truth that realism has been exceeded here. A refined composition, rare among other painters, seemingly still static. It has a magical, even therapeutic effect on the recipient. About the astonishing accuracy of the structures of the presented objects. For wonderfully captured light and sophisticated color. Andrzej Leszczyszyn was one of those extraordinary artists who touched the "mystery of existence". It is contained primarily in this transcendence of realism, in the magnetism of the effect on the recipient. Leszczyszyn's paintings seem to soothe and "heal". They have a soothing effect on our strongest sense - sight. A similar secret of transcending realism finds place in the poetics of expression by Bolesław Leśmian, discovered today anew, deeper and more true. Maybe that's why the humanistic values of both creators endeared them to their audiences. Leszczyszyn's paintings were a great success with the public. These were not ordinary still lifes, but (obviously) magical signs that hypnotized and freed one from the negatives of this world.
His portraits had a similar power. Built not only on the principle of psychological truth, but also transcending conventional realism.
Biography:
Andrzej Leszczyszyn was born on July 21, 1940 in Sanok. He attended the State Secondary School of Fine Arts in Gdynia Orłowo, which he graduated in 1962. He received a diploma at the Faculty of Painting of the State High School of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, in the studio of prof. Jacek Żuławski in 1971. He also collaborated with prof. Kazimierz Ostrowski on his wall projects. Leszczyszyn's works can be found, among others, in the Gdynia City Museum and in many private collections in Poland and abroad. At the Gdańsk Art Biennial in Sopot, he received a distinction for a wonderful portrait of his daughter Ola. In 1989, he went on an artistic trip to Canada. He died in 1996 in Gdynia
