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For the reader who wants to be acquainted with Jan Sawka's early work (1970-1990), I greatly recommend Elena Milles entry in Contemporary Designers (St. James Press, 1990), which focuses on the artist's graphic design production and his paintings. "Perhaps," Millie states, "Jan Sawka is a visionary of our time." This was written long before the important reorientation and change -- which confirmed Millie's judgement -- had occurred in the artist's approach to his work. The 49-year-old maverick American of Polish extraction with Slavic temperament and wit works now hand in hand with electronic and high-tech tools, enriching his material with visions originating in his childhood. Trained in architecture, based in rationalism, experienced in painting and printmaking, exploring old masters' engraving techniques and drawing, skilled in book illustration and poster design, collaborating with illustrious poets and playwrights, author of "artists books" and "postcards," scenic design, illustrations, sculpture, a craftsman, believing in the power of a pencil, brush, eye, and hand, Sawka is more than any one else in the contemporary art world fully conscious of the new dimensions and scale of the coming era of communication. In the 1990's Sawka, who lives in the country outside of the great art centers and works in a barn, started down a new path. One could call it an "acceleration in rhythm and in the tempo of being." From and artist who performed quite successfully in distinguished New York galleries and museums, and other indoor sites, he started to bring his ideas and dreamlike visions to macro space, to the modern agora where thousands of people gather in order to participate. It's there, like in ancient times, where young and old, rich and poor, can enjoy the mystery of music, word, and spirituality. The "ego" and subjectivity of an artist can no longer be maintained -- it is divided, transformed by a team of equal creators: producers of images, music, technicians who operate light, sound acoustics; constructors and computer operators. Isn't it that kind of production that was known in Greece during the Dionysian or Olympic festivities or later on at Bacchanalian wine orgies? Sawka's work appears nowadays in theaters, rock music festivals, concert halls in the USA as well as Japan, Spain, Poland, Hungary, with a perspective which can be extended to the Near East, Italy, Taiwan, and other places in the world. The artist defines himself as a multi-media man, which is correct in definition but doesn't indicate the cultural context of his work. One must recall here Wagner's vision of Gesamkunstwerk, Baudelaire's ideal of "Correspondence des Arts," Scriabin, and Kandinsky's modern model of unified art work, where music, dance, poetry, rhythm and light support spacio-architectural concepts and vice versa. In our time such ideas -- revealed here and there -- oppose the gloomy perspective of a "global village" uniform, passive, without joy and interaction. Sawka's recent images derive from his previous iconography -- colorful and powerful banners float in the air set on open-air platforms: mysterious large eyes move in obscurity, frightening and evoking anxiety; pieces of paintings, blown up and synchronized by computer, bring to the contemporary eye and ear new experience. Let us quote among other projects and productions the first gigantic outdoor objects and banners for The Grateful Dead rock performances (1989), the British rock group Traffic (1994), "Eyes" at the Art Tower Mit in Japan, "The Messiah," an audio-visual project based on the masterpiece by Handel -- images appearing in the air -- the Vatican version appearing in 1992. Sawka is currently working on "The Tower of Light," a 100-meter-high obelisk with kinetic art projections to the music of Summerlin, in Abu Dhabi; and "The Window of Hope," a 35-meter-high monument to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan. The dimension, format, and geometrical range of these
multi-media concepts give and idea of Jan's endless energy and artistic
vitality. --Szymon Bojko Contemporary Artists - Fourth Edition
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