Artist Finds Solace In Chaotic Symmetry

The dozens of colored shapes in New Haven-based artist Andrzej Dutkanicz’s paintings might at first appeared to be scrambled, almost in motion, because the visual effect is scintillating. But the lines that divide the canvas, and the focal dot in the middle of it, suggest something else is going on, a kind of symmetry and repetition. At first glance, it’s hard to say what it is. But the system is there, and for Dutkanicz, it’s the combination — of randomness and rules, of chaotic motion and unchanging order — that makes the art. And for the next month or so, that art will be gracing the walls of Never Ending Books on State Street as a show titled ​“Works.”

“Painting has always been deeply significant to me, almost spiritual,” Dutkanicz writes in an accompanying statement. ​“My work starts off with very strict design layouts. From these layouts masses of shapes begin to grow,” as he’s ​“drawing them at random as if tapping into my subconscious. I’ve always found this relationship between control and inconsistency to be inspiring. In life we are constantly handed things that are out of our control and as individuals we find our own unique way to handle them.”

The style Dutkanicz uses in his paintings took a while to develop. ​“I used to draw a lot more,” Dutkanicz said — automatic drawing in particular, a method used to more freely express oneself. When he got a painting studio, he found himself still employing certain lessons he learned from drawing. ​“I took the idea of a quick gesture,” he said, ​“and it kept going.”

Though instead of using the abstract shapes automatic drawing can produce to create more arbitrariness, he placed them within a system — one based on cycles and repeating patterns, to explore the ​“relationship between symmetry and abstraction.”

One of the pieces in the show serves as a kind of tutorial for being able to understand what’s going on in the others. In the simpler case above, Dutkanicz starts with a basic shape as the first layer of the pattern. The second layer involves another shape — this time repeated twice — of a different color from the base shape. They’re placed in balance in one another. The third layer involves a third, smaller shape, in a third color. Things now get interesting, as Dutkanicz adds a fourth layer of smaller shapes that are the same color as the large background shape. These new, smaller shapes can be laid over the second and third layers, which are different colors, but can’t touch the original layer, which is the same color. The effect is to visually complicate the form of the painting quite a bit, though the rules are really the same as they ever were.

For Dutkanicz, going back to the original color is the beginning of a new cycle of the system. To complete the painting, he has to add layers of smaller shapes of the other two colors in the same order, following the same rule. He knows he’s done through a combination of rules and judgment. He has to reach the end of a color cycle for the painting to be balanced, but also assesses whether he’s pleased with the results. If he isn’t, he may go around another cycle. If he is, then it’s done.

The finished canvas is almost something you could program a computer to create, though perhaps a better analogy is to plants or fungi. ​“Doing it in steps, you can see the growth coming out of it,” Dutkanicz said, with the first shape in the system as the ​“the original host.” The rules can get more complicated, too, as Dutkanicz may alternate the color rules from shape to shape, as on a pinwheel, or have more variables in play. But the overarching logic is still the same: a set of abstract shapes, a system of color rules, and a cycle of decisions that’s technically open-ended by bounded by Dutkanicz’s intuition.

To Dutkanicz, the irregular abstract shapes and the underlying system that they exist in aren’t in tension with one another; they’re part of a complete whole. ​“I just really like the idea of the balance of rules or restrictions to free gesture,” he said. ​“I like it when it looks chaotic or random but at the same time organized — abstract but super-refined.” There’s energy and unpredictability in each of the shapes, but then a careful order in how they’re deployed and how they relate to one another. ​“It has this loose feeling but also a controlled feeling,” he said.

The overall effect in making the pieces is ​“calming,” Dutkanicz said. ​“It’s very meditative. I find when I’m painting these, if I start thinking about day-to-day things, I make a mistake.”

Painting the canvases is also a kind of catharsis. ​“We all suffer from from some sort of anxiety,” he said. ​“It helps to have a release.” Dutkanicz revealed that he made many pieces during the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic. ​“It was heavy and I had a lot going on, like everyone did,” he said. Painting the canvases ​“definitely saved me.”