Arden, one of our EAC Interns, writes about his first day at the Art Center and artwork by Voytek Glinkowski:
On my first day at the Evanston Art Center, I made my way through the gallery slowly, feeling a bit uneasy and nervous, but in a good way. I had always appreciated visiting art galleries, but the thought of working in one felt so much more exciting. Everything in the gallery, from the paintings and installations of local artists to the hustle and bustle of youth summer campers, made my first encounter even more exciting for me. But the piece that truly stopped me in my tracks, and replaced some of my nervousness with pondering, was a large mixed-media work by Voytek Glinkowski, titled "Conqueror."
A fully armored soldier fills most of the canvas. His gun is slung low, his head bent down as if the painting captured him mid-exhale, all in the moment of action. The background is a bruised, metallic amber gold, and the vivid highlights and colors of it all seem to emphasize the intensity of the battle, contrasted with the slightly dimmer and darker colors that the soldier is depicted in. And across the top right corner, in a handwritten, cursive-like script, is a quote from Voltaire: It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in the large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
Glinkowski, who trained and studied at the Strzemiński Fine Art Academy in Poland before his career spanned galleries from New York to Gdańsk, has a distinct artistic style of writing directly onto his paintings, but many appreciate it as the cherry on top and a hint that makes the message and theme ever so clear. Here, the words add more criticism to what happens within the scene. A "conqueror" is supposed to be a figure and symbol of triumph. Glinkowski shows viewers the sheer exhaustion instead, and lets Voltaire say the quiet part of how we've simply agreed to call mass violence something other than what it is, as long as the cause itself ends with ceremony.
I didn’t quite expect my first day to start with a rebuke. However, the insightfulness of Glinkowski’s art reminds us that we all need to look closely enough to distinguish the trumpets from the truth.
