We are all affected by the actual Coronavirus Crisis and most of us are stucked at home... Anyway, we stay optimistic and we use the time to explore new aspects of Stefan's work we want to share with you. Let's start with an artistic trip through Stefan's Jamaican memories and inspirations !
At the beginning of the 1990's, Stefan Szczesny traveled to the Caribbean and in Jamaica where he visited Bob Marley's hometown, Nine Miles. The mediterranean colors, the Caribbean culture, the Reggae music and style inspired the artist who realized a portrait of the musician and a series dedicated to his impressions of the Jamaican way of life.
In this portrait, Bob Marley's face emerges from a tricolored background which is, in fact, a representation of the Jamaican flag (green, yellow and red stripped). The face of the singer is painted with the same colors, non-imitative colors, which make us thinking about the expressive and gestural paintings by the Fauves. Abstract motives, figurative forms, miniatures nudes, portraits and landscapes, music notes and instruments are dispatched all around the musician's face which occupies the full height of the composition.
Before he realized this portrait, Stefan Szczesny painted the "Jamaica Series" in which we can admire the artist's virtuoso technique mixing printed patterns and painted colored motives :
Céline Seidler-Bahougne