About me

(translation checked by Mr Peter Preston)

 

Welcome to my Internet site. My name is Bogumił Hoder. I am an artist painter. I was born in Zielona Góra (Poland) in 1982. In 2007 I was awarded a master's degree in painting from the Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Zielona Góra. Also since 2007 I have been a member of the Association of Polish Artists (ZPAP).

 

About this Internet gallery

 

This is the space dedicated to the display of my constantly expanding artistic works – painting, drawing and traditional graphics. Therefore I invite all my visitors to frequent this site as often as possible, since I will regularly update the gallery with my new works. The section exhibitions, as the name suggests, provides information about all my exhibitions. Here also I will post invitations to upcoming expositions. I encourage you to share with me your critical reflexions on and opinions about my works as well as this site using the e-mail address in the contact section. I will respond to any communications if it's possible or necessary. In the section links you will find the addresses of other artistic, scientific and cultural Internet portals. I warmly encourage you to visit these.

 

Learning and philosophical thought

 

For me, there are no borders between art and learning, for the two dimensions form a conglomerate which increases understanding of the meaning of philosophy. Therefore, in addition to the artistic work, I want to share my learning experience, which will also continue to increase. The texts of my thoughts you can find in the section about me, below my portrait. To open the text files you need the Acrobat Reader application. As a beginning I recommend you read my thesis (there is only a Polish version for now). This is a monograph about one of many questions and elements of the prominent art works of Zdzisław Beksiński – the pure theory of the surrealist group led by André Breton at the beginning of XX century, and it's echo in the Beksiński's masterpieces.

 

Art

 

In order to know the world, one should know himself, but how does one go about the latter, since there is no way of doing so? Even living a thousand years a man could still ask the same questions, believing naively, that some day he might reach the end of all things. A man is a particle of the Universe, but at the same time he is the Universe. I would like to refer to a fragment from Thoughts by Blaise Pascal:

Man's size is big in his knowing of his own misery. A tree doesn't know it's misery. […] A man is only a reed, the weakest in nature, but a thinking reed. It isn't necessary for the Universe to arm itself to crush him: a fog, a drop of water will be enough to kill him. But even if the Universe crushed him, a man would still be a nobler thing than the strength that kills him, because he knows that he dies, and he knows the superiority that the Universe has upon him.

A man divides his existence between life and death, what was before and what will be is unknown, but yet a man has built his own consciousness by work, learning, and play. I don't ask for the sense of the one that seemingly passes away, because though everything will get finished some day, I must say that this is not the nature of the Universe, which is eternal. Giordano Bruno asked himself: What does exist beyond the Universe? The answer was simple. Since the Universe has no end, we cannot speak about its borders. And if there is a space which we know exists in some one place, then there must be an infinite number of such places. A man is just one of such places of the Universe, but since he is the Universe himself, then everything depends on point of view, a fact which Albert Einstein elucidated upon. Therefore I show in my pictures my own way, which neither has a beginning, nor an end, but exists divided into chapters. According to metaphysics, every one of these chapters may unite freely with another one. On this point I would like to recommend you read the Futurologists Congress written by Stanisław Lem (actually I recommend you read all of his superb books). I paint and draw man because actually only from his point of sight can I describe an eternity and an infinity. A transcendental though is not based on the senses but on the Universe, which is unknown but closer to the mind, and represents a kind of reverse foundation. According to this, one should not look for any literal sense in my paintings, but rather for metaphysical sense.

 

My interests

 

As I mentioned, art and learning shouldn't be totally immanent fields. What am I interested in? From the field of art it's obviously painting, drawing and traditional printing. And also I don't shun photography. The history of art for me means first of all the Renaissance and XIX century Polish painting (with some exceptions). There are also some prominent and often underestimated "exceptions" from modern art, for instance, Zdzisław Beksiński, Jerzy Duda-Gracz, Franciszek Starowieyski, H. R. Giger, Wojciech Siudmak, etc. In philosophy I mostly value ontology and metaphysics. I'm also interested in ancient history and the history of the tragedy known as World War II. I adore astronomy, vulcanology and biology. From the field of literature I recommend S. Lem, H. P. Lovecraft and J. R. R. Tolkien. I don't know if I could work for a long time without good music, but I'd rather not try. Of invaluable help to me is the classical music of, for instance, Chopin, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Czajkowski and Schubert. From film music I like E. Morricone, J. Williams, H. Shore, H. Zimmer. The best cinema was finished a long time ago, but there are many excellent exceptions. I mostly value the films of S. Leone, C. Eastwood, P. Jackson, S. Spielberg, R. Scott, etc. Apart from these there are many films of various genres that I like, but most importantly I always value works well done in every meaning of the word (which has little to do with the fascination with special effects for their own sake).