Hope
Painting
ID:
1727
Number in cycle:
23
Ending number:
225
Date:
November 1972
Medium:
acrylic; canvas;oil
Dimensions:
146 cm x 114 cm
Description:
E.D.: This painting was taken down by censorship - right off my exhibition at the Kordegarda Gallery in 1977. It was an interesting situation. We were arranging the works and the censor came. He looked at us and said: "Listen, you absolutely have to take this painting down. So many clergymen walk this way every day, many of them young and very sensitive. This would offend their religious feelings. Such open gobs tongue out. This cannot hang here." So we hanged something else.
P.D.: Did you mean anyone specific when you were painting the priest? He's incredibly handsome. He has the looks of an actor.
E.D.: No, it's just a priest with such a crest. Oh, and the censor asked: "Why does the priest have such a crest?".
P.D.: Why does the priest have such a crest?
E.D.: Because I wanted him to be attractive, strong, masculine, with big hands, with a cool hairstyle. Generally, this is a painting about the Eucharist sacrament, about the Polish Holy Communion, nothing more.
P.D.: It does have a quite satirical look.
E.D.: But this is how people who take Communion in Poland do look like - gobs sticking their tongues out. In most countries you get the Eucharistic wafer into the hand. In Poland you have to stick your tongue out.
P.D.: You clearly have a negative attitude towards this sacrament.
E.D.: Of course it's negative! This is silly, and they keep telling you that it's God's flesh and blood! And it's merely some wafer. You're not even allowed to chew it at the risk of bloodshed. So everybody is afraid and they wait until the wafer melts on their tongues. Ridiculous.
P.D.: You're not a believer?
E.D.: Rats! Me? A believer?
P.D.: You think there's no afterlife?
E.D.: Of course! There's nothing after death. A complete void. Nothing.
P.D.: And you have a generally negative attitude to the Catholic Church?
E.D.: No, I don't have a negative attitude. Faith is very important for many people and you can't take it from them.
P.D.: And religious rites?
E.D.: Ceremonies are important. They purify people with hope. You can’t expect a loo lady to go to church and do nothing there or to pray alone at home. She needs the whole ritual - greeting, kneeling down, singing, sitting, suffering a little, thinking, greeting others, crossing herself. It is very important to every believer and I do understand it.
P.D.: Don't you need such rituals?
E.D.: Lately I've been to many weddings and funerals. All this ceremonial is still functioning and if you want to pay due respect to a person or e.g. accompany him or her on the last journey, you have to take part in the ritual - this is the tradition and it's all right. But believing in the afterlife, resurrection, and other tales?
P.D.: Angels, devils?
E.D.: Angels, devils, damn it! But the worst thing is when the Church sticks its nose into politics. I will never accept this. I painted a lot of works criticizing this.
Owner type:
institution
Tags:
Polish people;priest;religion
