This Polish woman seeks faces among the faceless

Klaudia K.A., a painter from Poland, works on a canvas at the Artist Residency, Wagamon, in Idukki district.— Photo: Giji K. Raman

She brings colour to the faceless. Their emotions captured in various moods make her a painter of repute.

Born in Warsaw, Poland, Klaudia K.A., along with her husband, Krizystof Kudeisky, a professional documentary film-maker, was at the Artist Residency, here, working on different moods of people and the local landscape.

According to her, these faceless people have a common rhythm everywhere. Her own country had gone through an artistic suppression that indirectly helped in creating some internationally renowned works in the fields of painting and film-making. In those days of state suppression, there were artists who where with the state and were mouthpieces of the state machinery. At the same time, there were film directors and artists who lived ‘underground’ and expressed their creative works. In the art scenario, she says there are always two classes — one with the powerful and the other with those at the receiving end.

“Now in Poland, you can experience freedom and openness. There are no long queues for your monthly meagre allowance in terms of food items or clothing,” she says.

However, what did not change in the world order are those faces that can easily be identified in a crowd. “These faces and their expressions are the same in India, the U.S., or in Poland,” she says. “As for this country, what inspire me are its colours, landscapes, and the lights,” Klaudia says. In her country, almost six months are in darkness.

She likes to work on acrylic and oil paste in the abstract forms that make the paintings different from the real. Showing a few pieces of her works, she says she does not know whether they are completed works or not. “However, for me they are finished works,” she says. Wherever she goes, it is the locale that makes her work out the themes and the backgrounds.

Klaudia got her master’s degree in painting and graphic designing from the European Academy of Arts. She was born in a family of painters. She says that travels to the interior villages and acquaintance with the local people made her a painter. Poland, after its large-scale destruction in the Second World War, is in a resurgence state, she says adding that the city of Lods has created the biggest mural of street painters, a sign of reformation in the art and cultural fields. This has ripples in the life of an artist too.

When a government promotes arts, it is the cultural life that gets promoted. It is a sign of a civilised society where artists can also work independently and can have a decent living, she says.