Zbigniew Makowski, *LA DESTINATION*, 1978

22.50 x 14.70 cm - ink on paper
Title page from René Magritte’s book *La destination*, Brussels 1978
signed in the center: Zbigniew Makowski | 1978


Zbigniew Makowski (Warsaw, January 31, 1930 – Warsaw, August 19, 2019) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw from 1950 to 1956, earning his diploma in Kazimierz Tomorowicz’s studio. Initially, he was drawn to Surrealism—during his stay in Paris in 1962, he met André Breton and became involved with the international Phases movement. However, his artistic expression was most decisively shaped by his non-painting interests, to which he devotes himself. He is a writer, poet, and scholar, and above all an expert on a broad spectrum of philosophy and the esoteric knowledge of many cultures. He draws on this expertise in his paintings and drawings, as well as in the unique books he creates by hand on specially prepared paper. In his works, he layers symbols, quotations, and meanings into what appears to be illegible chaos. However, it is worth heeding the critics who claim that Makowski’s works open up a world of a unique narrative to the patient and intellectually prepared “reader.” The artist himself, meanwhile, draws attention to the “permutational” structure of his works, in which various quotations and cultural references intertwine with his personal iconography. In any case, it is certainly possible to identify a certain visual-symbolic “alphabet” in Makowski’s works, the elements of which appear consistently in various configurations. These include, for example, images such as a key, a ladder, a well, a mandala, a chalice, etc. They are surrounded by inscriptions—often in Latin—as well as individual numbers, letters, and ornaments. Someone described them as rebuses of great beauty, which can be deciphered or simply contemplated. Since 1982, the artist has stopped exhibiting, but has not stopped creating. During this period, he produced works that serve as a kind of modern notebook, begun as early as the 1960s, to which the artist returns with new reflections. The artist is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Norwid Art Critics’ Award (1973) and the Jan Cybis Award (1992). His large-scale composition “Mirabilitas secundum diversos modos exire potest a rebus” (1973–1980) adorns the United Nations headquarters in Geneva as a gift from the Polish government.