Ewa Borysiewicz: There are a lot of such historical references in your painting: Klimt, Bonnard, Turner… You once mentioned to me that painting is such a densely codified medium. That this baggage of iconography, tradition, or technology, is so heavy that it cannot be discarded entirely. Consequently, there is no such thing as complete freedom, the author does not have full control of the painting process. Do you think of your copying of the “old masters” as a kind of gesture of emancipation?

Ant Łakomsk: It seems to me that striving for complete control in painting will always fail. But appropriating art history is a game rather than a manifesto. I like speculation, wondering “what would happen if…”. On the other hand, sometimes I think I’m obsessed with falling into historical contexts. No matter what I’m painting and no matter how, I never stop wondering what art historical terrain I’m stepping into at each moment. And that’s great. I love it. In general, that’s what’s most interesting to me about painting: it’s a very complicated game. The moment you give it all your attention, it turns out that in your head, there are motifs that overlap, distorting or leveling each other, fighting each other, competing. It may be something that has been with us forever, but it seems to me that it’s now very prolific, and people are very eager to use this mechanism now: to refer to specific motifs, eras, histories, creating “an aesthetic” or “aesthetics” based on this.

The beautiful, delicate paintings hanging on the walls take the place of the landscape. They depict morning mist, tree branches, reeds, calabash (sticks on water), a girl and a horse. This has to appeal. Again, it's all without pacing or strutting about using giga formats. The paintings presented in the exhibition are melancholic landscape postcards, images from memory. You look at them and have to think a little, twist the jumpers of your imagination. For this one, for example, I felt as if I were proudly collapsed on hay with an ear in my mouth. Maybe someone will be reminded of their grandparents' holiday in the countryside or last week's nature trip outside Warsaw. And yet another will recall nothing and say: but awesomely lightly painted. And they are all right.

Janek Owczarek on Ant Łakomsk

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