Between 1929 and 1931, he created a series of pen drawings, spanning several hundred works. The white blank background shows isolated, marionette-like figures: yarn people, dancers, wizards, a family, pining horses.
In 1930, Włodarski joined the Association of Visual Artists Artes in Lviv, which changed its name to Neoartes in 1934. Its members included: Jerzy Janisch, Mieczysław Wysocki, Aleksander Krzywobłocki, Ludwik Lille, Otto Hahn, Tadeusz Wojciechowski, Aleksander Riemer. The environment of the Lviv painters was strongly connected with the social left. The influence of avant-garde Soviet art, including Tatlin, Malevich, and Lissitsky, was also evident. Certain experiments of a constructivist nature can be seen in some of Włodarski’s compositions in his early period.
Włodarski was associated with the leftist milieu in Lviv, collaborating with the magazines Sygnały and Omnibus. In the mid-1930s, Włodarski expressed his leftist views in his reportage sketches and paintings (for example Barricade, 1936) on revolutionary themes in what the artist called factual realism. In them, he noted fragments of events with the figures of workers, policemen and soldiers.
In the 1930s, Włodarski became acquainted with Bruno Schulz, and their meetings and discussions left a deep mark on his work. Recalling his conversations with Schulz, Włodarski said:
We put emphasis on the matter of our paintings. On their literary and artistic matter.
The paintings from this period clearly show Włodarski’s characteristic way of painting: the artist applied paint thickly, densely, with the addition of resinous bindings (Romantic Objects, 1932; A Walk in the Garden, 1932). The texture of his paintings was rough, the brushstrokes clearly visible on the canvas (Abstraction in Space, 1933).
Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, Włodarski’s paintings became increasingly abstract, although the artist did not completely break with representational art. Włodarski’s post-war work is closely associated with Warsaw, where he became involved in the avant-garde movement from the very beginning. He took part in the activities of the Young Artists and Scientists Club and participated in exhibitions of Modern Art. At that time, Włodarski also came unexpectedly close to Colourism. The colours on his canvases, mostly still lifes, became brighter, cleaner and more sonorous. In 1947, the artist spent his first summer holidays at sea, which resulted in a series of marine-themed works, such as Fishermen, The Departing Ship and Sails (1948).
In the 1950s, Włodarski returned to figural compositions (Car from Flowers, 1954; Burnt Orthodox Church, 1958), but his canvases also featured almost abstract forms that were strongly geometric (Evening, 1954; Architectural Composition, 1955). Later he softened the contours by painting more biological forms. In the last years of his life, landscape – a metaphorical landscape of imagination – played a large role in Włodarski’s work (Landscape with a Drop of Dew, 1954; Springtime, 1955). In his post-war art, one can find affinities with Italian and French lyrical abstraction.
Selected group and solo exhibitions:
- 1927 – Galerie Au Sacre du Printemps, Paris (together with O. Hahn and W. Wolska)
- 1928 – The Art of Primitives, TPSP, Lviv
- 1932 – VIII exhibition of ZAP Artes, Jabłkowskich House, Warsaw
- 1933 – Neoartes exhibition, Lviv
- 1940 – Visual Art of Western Ukraine, Kharkiv, Minsk, Kiev
- 1947 – Pre-war drawings by Marek Włodarski, The Young Artist and Scientist Club, Warsaw
- 1948/49 – Exhibition of Modern Art, Kraków
- 1950 – National Art Exhibition, National Museum, Warsaw
- 1956 – Polish Art. Exhibition, New Delhi, Calcutta, Bombay
- 1956 – 28th Biennale di Venezia, Venice
- 1959 – Exposition de l’Arte Polonais Contemporain, Musée Beaux Arts, Alexandria
- 1959 – From Young Poland to our days, National Museum, Warsaw
- 1961 – Polnische revolutionäre Kunst, Art Pavilion, Berlin
- 1969 – Artes (1929-1934), Silesian Museum, Wrocław
- 1970 – Painting in People’s Republic of Poland, National Museum, Warsaw
- 1971 – 25 Years of Polish Painting, National Museum, Poznań.
Originally written in Polish by Ewa Gorządek, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, December 2006, translated into English by PG, June 2021.