The Limit(s) of Color.
The experience of color in the WORKS of Aleksandra Szewczuk
Małgorzata Paszylka-Glaza

By definition, color is a sensation of the visual sense caused by electromagnetic radiation. In this sense, color is simply a physical phenomenon. But color also has its psychological significance. It is linked to direct human physiological activity, which in turn depends on temperament as well as on the momentary mood of homo sapiens. Warm and saturated colors not only improve the mood, but also have a motivating effect. Cool colors help with concentration, calm the passions – but they can also have a demotivating effect. Color is a structural and at the same time extremely emotional element of a painting. It has almost always been an element of extraordinary importance in art. It determined individuality, breakthrough, novelty, strength, uniqueness, revolution. On the one hand, it carried emotions, had hidden content, and was a symbol’ on the other hand, it was “only” an element that built the image. 

Color has also always been utilitarian; it introduced a certain systematics to an image, testified to its aesthetics and at the same time connected its hidden meaning with its psychological function. It is color that often attracts, intrigues and does not let us forget. It is common to speak of the “strength and power” of color, of its “magic and charm”. Color can build up and at the same time practically annihilate an image. It has within it as much demiurgy as it does destructive element. It can be like a passion that allows you to be born but can also kill you. However, focusing on color in one’s work, “only” on the configuration of color structures, is still not only attractive, but above all extremely inspiring.

Aleksandra Szewczuk is an artist who has “bet” on color in her work. As she herself says, “I reject rules in order to create favourable conditions for myself, the only rule is that there are no rules”. “For me, painting is an attempt to liberate my mind ‘from everything’ that surrounds it, that is in it, that blocks it”. “I don’t think too much about what I’m going to create, I don’t design – I go into the picture with my whole self, here and now, putting everything else aside. My aim is color, composition and painting itself. As a result, art has a therapeutic effect on me”. 

And that could pretty much be the end of the discussion. She herself perfectly defined what color is, not only in her art, but also in her life. It is a sincere declaration that clearly and precisely defines her art.

The artist loves color; she knows its creative and purifying power. But at the same time she has a respect for composition. It is these qualities that position her as a worthy continuator of Abstract Expressionism – color field painting. And she is really extremely convincing in this. Her color has a real impact also in the material sense, as she paints on raw, unprimed canvas. The color thus becomes even more perceptible, also in its haptic sense. 

The painting of colorful planes is characterised by the calm construction of the canvas, where flat patches of color are intended to bring out another dimension of the emotional impact of color. 

Aleksandra Szewczuk understands and feels this perfectly. She combines the spontaneity of her painting gesture with her belief in the power of inspiration from the subconscious. This is because she uses the technique of mindfulness in her creative process. 

Her colors have the power of subtlety and compositional sophistication; they arise by themselves; they are autonomous entities in which only the here and now is important. She uses almost the entire color palette, avoids strong contrast, but is able to draw the boundaries of neighbouring colors brilliantly. There is a strange remembering in all this, a kind of painting to the limit, to the ultimate limit of color perception. There is a rejection of the outside world with its disturbing impulses, there is a rejection of the past, of life stories and disturbing questions about the future. 

By “painting” the canvas with flat patches of color, the artist simultaneously gives them spatiality and allows the viewer the freedom not only of interpretation, but above all of feeling. 

The therapeutic value of her canvases, which she emphasises, includes the free feelings of the viewer of her art. Everyone can “create” their own story of sensitivity to these colors. Everyone can immerse themselves in them, feel their literalness, their materiality. But everyone can also measure themselves by the feelings that the artist’s color structures evoke in them. There is strength combined with subtlety, the grace of color space with the unconditionality of the boundary between one color and another. 

By painting her color fields, she does not tell any particular story; this experience of color seems intuitive, created here and now but nevertheless containing an aspect of spirit.

Colors have always meant something; they have always symbolised something. Even if attempts were made to strip them of content, the emotionality always remained. Aleksandra Szewczuk also understands and feels this perfectly. Her blues and cobalts are calming, eye-catching, and they allow the spirit to capture our imagination. Her reds (either just marked by a small patch or taking possession of the image) are intriguing and stimulating. Her greenery combined with grey brings respite and allows you to relax. Her purple smells a little melancholy. Her yellow activates, dynamises and prompts action. 

The artist handles the meaning of color with great skill. This knowledge allows her to paint the canvas with impetus, expertise and astonishing skill. It is an intuitive passion, an almost magical submission to the power of color and its causality on canvas. And this is not easy at all, because the power of color can sometimes almost “kill” the structure of an image. 

In the power of color, Aleksandra Szewczuk also boldly faces the “tradition” of color field painting. She “frees” color from the servile function of shapes, gives it independence and a kind of “immateriality”. In a way, she continues the tradition of the greatest artists in this movement – from Ad Reinhardt to the one and only Mark Rothko. 

The artist conventionally sets color boundaries on her canvases. The asymmetry of colors does not jeopardise the balance of the composition and the sometimes translucent dark field even creates a glowing effect. Painted with firm but slow brushstrokes, they gain an air of transparency. It is an intuitive yet conscious and coloristically consistent composition of the space of paintings. 

The colors in Aleksandra Szewczuk’s paintings have their own weight on the one hand (when they are firmly set in the space of the canvas, they “cut” its surface vertically or horizontally and try to mark the limits of their colorfulness) and on the other hand – sometimes they seem to be almost monochromatic planes of pure manifestation of light. 

The artist creates her works in series. It is a conscious consequence of reaching the “bottom” of the meaning of pure color space. But she is not entirely constant in this continuity, as each of these canvases can live a life of its own. It is the color of each one that gives it the boundaries of its individual life and allows it to be treated individually. 

Color field painting guru Mark Rothko believed that “a picture lives by companionship, expanding and quickening in the eyes of the sensitive observer. It dies by the same token. It is therefore risky to send it out into the world. How often it must be impaired by the eyes of the unfeeling and the cruelty of the impotent who could extend their affliction universally!”

So let us bravely experience the colors of Aleksandra Szewczuk’s paintings but let us look at them with a sensitive eye, an open heart and a wise soul. Let these colors delight us with their tangibility and at the same time teach us respect and a wise distance from the stories told in the paintings. Let them allow us to experience the magic of a color symbol and at the same time “sink” into the obviousness of the color structures. May they be a respite and contemplation for us. Let these colorful fields completely fill our field of vision. Let them make us reach out and immerse ourselves in the materiality of immaterial color. Let them emit their colorful light, which we will carry under our eyelids for a long time to come.