Wiesław Sadurski, Biography
1.8.1940 - Born in a small village called Sobieszczany near Lublin, Eastern Poland, I grew up in the countryside during the Second World War. Our large family worked on the land. My childhood was marked by dramatic contradictions, such as witnessing the horrors of the Majdanek concentration camp and being enthralled by a wonderful romantic theater piece, Balladyna by Słowacki, all on the same day. I was the best pupil in school and finished it at the young age of 12. My early hobbies included gardening, building radios, learning Morse code, and breeding rabbits and pigeons.
1953-57 - I attended technical school in Lublin, initially living in a monastery and later in rented rooms or corners of rooms. Poverty was perceived as normality. I read a huge number of books and watched many films. Poland gave shelter to many children who were orphans of the Korean War. There were five boys in our class, including my best friend Kim, who shared a school bench with me for three years.
1957 - Upon graduating at the age of sixteen, I got a poorly paid electrician's job. Though I had good friends there, I couldn't stand the excessive drinking and quit the job. I spent the winter as a homeless tramp and started writing poems.
1958 - I landed an extremely well-paid job as a radio technician, earning in one day more than I did in one month at my first job. I fell in love for the first time and ran away three days before my wedding day! Without a permanent address, I mostly lived in hotels. I loved books, theater, concerts, modern physics, and philosophy. At the age of 18, I visited an art gallery for the first time.
1960 - My press debut came when a poem of mine was published in "Kultura i Życie" in Lublin.
1960-66 - At twenty years old, I wanted to escape military service, so I chose to study philosophy at Warsaw University. Many artists were part of my immediate circle. I had poems published in various art magazines, winning prizes for them and for my short stories.
1964 - I received the "Warsaw Nike 1964" Youth Prize for Poetry on the occasion of Poland's 20th Anniversary.
1966 - My first book of poems, "Pod okiem zegara" was published by ‘Wydawnictwo Iskry‘ in Warsaw.
1967-70 - I spent these years writing drama and short stories, happily in love, and earning money from radio advertisements and working as a reporter.
1968 - I received a one-year long scholarship named after Tadeusz Borowski. Surprisingly, I used this opportunity to indulge my first passion in visual art: Pen and Ink Drawings. I learned by copying masters.
1970 - My book of poems "Nagrobek Człekokształtny" was published by Wydawnictwo Lubelskie.
1970 - I left Poland for Sweden and started exhibiting, living on the road. My first acid experiences showed me that drawing was not the way. I gave it up and wrote "Reportage from an Infinite Journey" and "The Horse-Whisperer, Who Was a Human" in the next couple of years.
I became a vegetarian, stopped drinking alcohol, and used psychedelics only. I practiced Za-zen, traveled, and then in the spring of 1973, I created my first hundreds of monotypes, which marked a turning point in my life. I soon developed my own technique, which I called Print-Painting. My atelier became a wonderful factory. An additional color was added to the painting per day, enabling me to make many different copies. Nobody had seen anything like it before.
1971 - book of poems "Nagrobek Człekokształtny"; publisher "Czytelnik", Warsaw
1975 - Amsterdam, West Berlin, then back again to Stockholm; new atelier, love and approach. New matrices for my graphics were born out of simple drawings. Abstract thinking. I started to use 3 basic colors only. Spectral Print-Paintings.
8th of December 1975 - the End and a New Beginning.
- hung the papers up to dry, put some on the floor, which meant that I had to walk between them on all fours - standing up, I hit my backbone against the sharp corner of the work table and fell down on my face. Spent four weeks in bed. Good-bye Print-Paintings!
I was able to walk again but my back was still painful, I couldn't even hold a cup of tea in my hand. Fortunately the brush was light!
That is how I came to the Paintings of Creation, work of painting which has continued ever since then. Some paintings were created in one go, others had hundreds or thousands of layers. I called it - Art Yoga.
1976, April - 100 Drawings, Print-Paintings and Oil Paintings, exhibition in Polska Institutet in Stockholm.
1976, May - Exhibition of paintings in Gallery Blue; successful - all the large paintings were sold, which made possible to have an atelier with enough white canvases and colors for next two years - in Warsaw.
1978 - moved from Warsaw to West Berlin where I planned to stay for a couple of years on my way to New York. One year long writing a story, in Polish "Człowiek Oko".
Living in Charlottenburg, on sunny days in season spring to an autumn - painting outside of my window, on the street, having fantastic feedback from all kinds of people who were 'normally' not interested in art.
Exhibitions, work is going on mostly in acrylic colors - Lightworlds.
1979, May - I tell you a story; in West Berlin, there is a house called Kudamm-Karree; I went to the Gallery there with my portfolio - the secretary took them to show to the director. I went again a week later; the director was busy with a conference. After a week - he was at lunch. The next week, the secretary told me that the boss was absent, but he had already made his decision - I was invited to exhibit the paintings on all five floors of the house. On one condition - I would be present in person every hour of every day.
A nice surprise. I took a coffee from the bar and went upstairs; I sat down on the top marble step. Elegant house - full air conditioning! While sipping coffee, I thought about the meaning of life. My life. I went home for a sandwich and after a while, I was in the flowering Schlosspark meadow in the tall grasses. Hot day! I undressed slowly and gave myself to the sun.
One hour later, my Decision came unexpectedly. I would not have this exhibition; what sense did it make to spend the green of May in an air-conditioned house? I thought about business; I did not feel comfortable selling paintings. I didn't like my passions being turned into money.
One more hour in the sun passed, and the Decision unfolded. I would never go to a gallery to apply for an exhibition again. The Decision remains valid until now. Artistic extremist!
1980 - a year-long break in painting activity - homeless in West-Berlin.
1981 - based in Kreuzberg (American Sector in Berlin), with a brush in my hand, jobbing in many places and occupations, decided to 'drop out' and have no more exhibitions at all! I revolted against the art market, finding the West Berlin art scene quite imperialistic.
1982 - 84 - a time of basic cleansing and decision-making. Cleansing - 30 days fasting, living on water, sunlight, and yoga. Then I met Saint Thakar Singh and was initiated into the Yoga of Light. Very intensive work. Paintings flowed from my brush: series of Cosmic Landscapes, then One Touch paintings, Labours of Light, then progressing to Blue of the Mystic and the first series of Spectral Paintings.
1984 - everything seems to have its own story. One of my jobs was an Atlas of Man's Anatomy. Half a year of studies and drawings ended; then, having suddenly nothing to do, I enjoyed a new freedom and started to sketch People Faces. Drawing lines were quicker than perceiving them. I concentrated solely on the vibes of my subject. Soon all the walls in my atelier were covered with faces, and I heard them speaking. Started to write down poems to go with the sketches to answer the question: 'Who are you?'
1986 - my daughter Veronique was born. Exhibiting paintings again: in my atelier, then in places where I was invited.
A friend of mine, an astrologist, offered to make me an astrological chart as a gift for my birthday.
I accepted, on the condition that there was no mention of the future. She told me wondrous stories about previous incarnations and karmic relations. Usually, I forget what I hear, but there was one very interesting detail - she asked me if I knew something about an accident, supposedly happening during the fifth or sixth month of my mother's pregnancy.
She told me that I died for a while in my mother's womb - that is to say, before I was born! Only now, could she understand and know the meaning of my paintings - these were remembrances of dying - pure one, with no karma to be involved!
Well, you can be sure that during the visit to my parents I asked them whether such an accident had occurred. They did not remember anything that evening but 24 hours later my mother started to talk! They went on to discover again what had been forgotten for almost half a century.
Yes! there had been an accident when no movement had been felt in her womb for three long days and nights There were no doctors around and no way to travel to town (it was during the first year of the German occupation). Their only recourse: herbal baths and praying. Well, I came back, eventually, for good and bad. Then, with my questions and their remembrances the greatest surprise in their life occurred.
1988 and life after - as a single parent with daughter. As a father, I debuted even later than as a painter, and at the very beginning everything seemed to be colorful and made of light (worlds). I was left on my own with my daughter, when she was in the second year of life and needed care day and night. If you have children you know it's a full-time job! Most tragic - I had to get up so early every day! But it was possible, I painted a lot that year.
1993 - 95 - seeking the healing aspects of the color spectrum I painted large paint-projects Rainbow Hexagons and Rainbow Tower, multi-paintings, paint-installations.
1996 - Bought a computer on New Year's Eve in order to type my story. Two days later I discovered a painting program on the hard disc. My story remains unfinished. Three years long I didn't touch a brush. I embraced the digital revolution and started exploring the potential of computer-generated art. I learned various graphic design, layout, sound, 3-D, movie, animation, and web programs. This new direction in my art allowed me to create digital paintings, blending traditional techniques with cutting-edge technology.
Yeah! Painting still going on, Fields of Energy and Spectrals.
1999 - 2000 - Creating "wisarts.com" in English, Polish, German; containing, beside my artworks, Friends Art Gallery, showcasing 10 great artists; July 17, 2000 - uploaded.
2002 - My daughter Veronique in secondary school, clever and sharp little lady. Life is friendly to us. We travel: Italy, Spain, Sweden, and visit Poland, Veronique speaks Polish very well cause I spoke with her Polish all these years. I paint Rainbow Spectrals.
2003 - Do you have any problems with your inner life, family, creativity? I advice a heart stroke. Some weeks later, after recovery, my life turned into fairy-tale.
2004 - ‘wisarts‘ updated; more Poetry - Snare of Finite on trial.
2004 - Large paint-object 'LIFE' made of 30 painted canvases.
2005 - 'wisarts' ranks in the top 70,000 on Google
2006 - when designing "wisarts" I increased the number of pages and changed internal addresses; after update i lost thousands of linking websites to my site. In Google, the page was in the 23 million mark.
2000 - 08 - Photography, 3-D modelling, jobbing in graphic design for Music CD‘s and book covers. Throughout these years, my art continued to flourish, and I worked on numerous projects, ranging from photography and 3-D modeling to graphic design for music CDs and book covers.
2000 - 18 - Great wave of new digital paintings, which are represented here.
2012 - 15 - Veronique started working/making money early. She delivered newspapers, was a hostess at big events in Berlin. After graduating, she worked as a manager and sales manager. She traveled to Vienna; she found a job - and a father for her future son.
2015 - Winter in India. Back in Berlin, heart stroke and following surgery.
2016 - Winter in India, results in painting Beggars, and Sadhu Portraits.
2016 - David has been born, my grandson!
2016 - Springtime in Japan. Back in Berlin heart stroke and following surgery. After that Painting Kyoto Ladies Blossoming in Gardens.
2017 - Summer in Georgia. Back in Berlin heart stroke and following surgery.
2017 - 19 - I needed two years of work to make ‘wisarts‘ update 5.0. Lots and lots of paintings, graphics, photos, poems, reportages..
2023 - Having a website is like having a farm; there is always something to be done; 'wisarts' gets a new face, in cooperation with Chat GPT 4 texts are created.
1920 - 23 - In all the places where I have lived, plants and flowers have lived with me. In the autumn of 20‘, during my daily walks - just like that - along the way, I was collecting ripe flower seeds. In the late winter of 21‘, I sowed them in containers on the windowsills. In May, I carried the plants, to plant in the public fallow lands of the area; I also sowed the seeds. Spring and summer filled with morning gardening gymnastics; useful at my age. This activity was repeated the following spring, and today, in April, hundreds of flowers are growing on all the windowsills of my apartment; in a month's time the season of hardcore gymnastics will start.
As 2023 unfolds, my passions and interests keep developing. My work continues to evolve, and my ideas and projects keep me busy and inspired. My commitment to art remains unwavering, and I look forward to exploring new artistic horizons in the years to come.
I work around the clock, I'm in the middle of incredible creativity. What I also wish for you!