P o czet dziek anó w - Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Gdańsku

J E R Z Y K R E C H O W I C Z
The department is the collective experience of all its educators. It is the combination of
their talents, knowledge, imagination and personalities. It is a place where different ideas
and attitudes, being a natural reflection of variety in arts, manage to find friendly space,
the indispensable element of rational self-determination.
And what has become of the department since that time? It changed almost entirely, new
names, new faces appeared – mostly the artists who graduated from the Academy of Fine
Arts in Gdańsk and now they constitute the next generation of its educators.
Like in the old times, however, the intellectual sophistication of this team lingered. A selfironic
climate of conversations and disputes, a distance towards all kinds of frames or
limitations. Solid professionalism, specific sense of humor and friendly relationships with
the students.
There were also others who worked there for some time. They were the following: Jan
Loreńczuk, Piotr Kowalski, Jerzy Ostrogórski (he is currently a leading professor of the
Studio of Elementary Drawing and Painting), Bogdan Bartkowski, Marek Brzozowski,
Grzegorz Protasiuk (he currently manages the Independent Studio of Typography and
Visual Communication), Andrzej Kuich, Jadwiga and Zygmunt Okrassa (they both manage,
after a long break, the Studio of Elementary Graphic Designing), Cyprjan Kościelniak,
Mieczysław Wasilewski, and Mariusz Sładczyk.
It was Zdzisław Walicki who joined at the earliest stage, in 1979. He regarded us with some
doubt, obviously disturbed by the state of our minds – as he still is…
Then, in 1983 – Tomasz Bogusławski. “I could dance this armchair” – Isadora Duncan is
known to have claimed. Bogusławski, currently one of the most original of the Polish
poster designers, informs us of the advantage of such paradoxes on daily bases.
Janusz Górski joined in 1983. He is the only one among us who surely knows how to remain
in harmony with one’s self without turning against the market economy.
And the future will be shaped by those who, by “the mercy of the late birth” were positioned
at the end of a queue to pedagogical glory, even though their names have been
well known already. They are: Sławomir Witkowski, Piotr Kazigrotowski, Jacek Staniszewski,
and Krzysztof Stojałowski.
And since three of the Rectors of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk do come from this
Department, one should expect that its condition is not bad.
Almost all has been said. Graphic designing was a special challenge and intellectual adventure
in those years both for the educators and for the students. It is worth remembering
this. It may also be added that we still learn more from our students than they do from us.
Nevertheless, who said that the world has to play fair?
Freudenreich seemed to possess in great abundance. Like a guard guarding the invisible
borders of imagination, he shared this knowledge generously with all of his students.
And although the nostalgia for Freudenreich that we feel today does not equal the one
connected with “Mano and mano” – the tango sung once by Carlos Gardel – it cannot be
denied that he does hold a firm position within our memory.
With his gentle arrogance, he used to deliver one word per minute, postured as the young
Gombrowicz, kindly offering his students ideas and solutions, in a way the jagged plate
with cubes of sugar on it might be offered. And most often only to strip them, slowly but
steadily, from any meaning. In this way he would encourage his students to be independent
without even mentioning this word. One took him for either the participant or the
maker of some unclear staging, in which the irritating combination of uncertainty and
determination played somehow undetermined but significant part. He used to stroll nervously
around the studio, putting himself together, in order not to yield into a stutter – and
then he would do no more then just wave his hand, in a gesture of utmost disgust.
His studio soon gained the opinion of purgatory for professionals and hell for amateurs. And
it started to resemble the exclusive club of war veterans – everybody being a victim of
Freudenreich – still, resurrection was always the speciality of this studio. With a gloomy
face and his body swinging slightly from side to side, he examined the displayed works
and in his language of monosyllables communicated that although every somewhat
shifted dot can start never-ending stream of new possibilities, the only new possibilities
that he could see here were the students themselves. When somebody’s work deserved
acknowledgement, he delivered his unclear praise. None of the hoarse cheers. And if he
came across a somewhat worse work, he would begin to load his weapon with heavy
ammunition. Yet he was always ready to stand firmly in defense of irony.
Merciless as he was, like a New York theatre critic (which, after all, won him even more liking),
towards himself he often acted as a renegade since, apart from his gifts and professional
fluency he administered the inconvenient skill of attracting all possible contrasts. His
independent way of thinking and malicious opinions about irrefutable truths unceasingly
provoked students into creative ripostes. And Freudenreich soon became a favorite icon
of the Department.
Zabłocki, Janowski and Freudenreich, like Karamazow brothers, kept holding endless disputes,
as if they were to establish a new schedule for half of the world – and then they sat
happily together at the bar of Sopot Grand Hotel, if only Zabłocki was free to do so. And
there they would start another of their disputes. Not only in my memory did they leave
a clear trace. They all have strongly influenced the shape of the Department, and their
influence is still visible today. They created a harmonious and conscious team and they
doubtlessly contributed to the development of the art of graphic designing in our region,
as well as to the easier access to studying this faculty.
W Y D Z I A Ł M A L A R S T W A I G R A F I K I A S P G D A Ń S K 2 0 0 7
Gdańsk, February 7, 2005