SOMETHING NON-RATIONAL BUT REAL

AMERICAN IN POLAND

Frederick Bidigare, the American born contemporary artist and graduate from the University of Detroit, School of Architecture, is best known for his vivid watercolors, whose numerous awards have drawn international attention. He is a signature member of various art societies, including the American Watercolor Society, the Transparent Watercolor Society of America and the National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society. Besides numerous exhibitions in the Unites States, his paintings have been shown at Daimler Benz Headquarters in Berlin, Germany and the Globe Trade Center in Warsaw, Poland. Recently, he participated in the Shenzhen International Watercolor Biennial 2013-2014 in China. Bidigare artworks are part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Warsaw Uprising in Poland.

Bidigare dedicated his early career to architecture, running his own studio while teaching architectural design at the University of Detroit, School of Architecture. The latter brought him to Poland in 1987 as an exchange professor at the Faculty of Architecture, Warsaw University of Technology. The radical political, economic, and strongly emotional social transformations at that time ignited his continuing attachment to the Polish people and culture. He expresses the fascination that never ceased to inspire his imagination: “A bewildering country of great friendliness and constant adventure, oscillating between conservatism and surprising innovation”. With his vivid creativity and organizational skills, Bidigare absorbed anything intellectual and innovative available to contribute to the process of rising post-communist economy in Poland. In the vein of those changes, he was acquainted and kept strong ties with Stefan Kuryłowicz, the late, famous Polish architect and professor of architecture.

CAREER TURN TOWARDS ART

The main trigger for his career turn from architecture into painting was the tragic loss of his wife in 1990. It was the beginning of an intense commitment to visual arts and a fruitful search for own artistic expression that matured after a decade spent in studies with an intense curiosity for fine arts and investigative creativity.

“As I look back at my paintings over the past twelve years, I see in their structure the intuitive sense of organized chaos which is so essential to my work. My paintings are put together like one is designing a piece of architecture. They are thought out. Nothing is arbitrary. It may look spontaneous, but much reflection and work is involved, with a goal to simplify and let the emotion of the work come through.”

The many artworks that accumulated over the next twenty years – watercolor, acrylic, tempura or oil – focus on mutually interacting portraits and abstracts:“I constantly go back and forth between my portrait work and abstractions. For me, one type of expression leads to new ideas in the other. There seems to be a cross-fertilization of ideas between these two means of expression always going on in my head. As far as I see, there is no difference between them”.

ABSTRACTION AND UNIQUENESS OF HUMAN GESTURE

What makes Bidigare artworks unique and exceptional, is their enduring vitality, yet radiating deeply human understanding of our fragility and complexity. Perhaps it is an intentional escape from the celebrity culture into another form of human beauty. The paintings are often impregnated with ease and humor, powerfully emotional and comprehensive. His art touches our soul: “The paintings are, in my opinion, a reflection of something within us, something non-rational, but real”. Composing his figurative portraits, Bidigare works almost exclusively with female models explaining that: “To me, all women have a veil which hides what they think”. Bidigare captures, with flair, their transient, un-posed expressions and gestures in all their messy and wonderingglamour: “She was walking by the school of architecture, I just had a glimpse of her and she was gone. I went to my studio immediately did a quick thumbnail sketch and then the large painting while the image was fresh in my mind.”

TECHNIQUE

Simultaneously, strong and soft harmony of colors, with subtle, refined nuances and purpose dissonances or conflicts, sates his palette. The forms and shapes are applied in a natural gesture of perfectly falling light. Bidigare’s technique and method of working with watercolor implies covering with numerous layers of paint washed out and applied again using mostly a wide brush. Special attention is given to the elaborate background, whose carefully adjusted intensity and texture defines a balance between depth and convexity of forms in two-dimensional representation.

TRIBUTE TO MENTORS

Bidigare pays tribute to his most notable mentor, teacher of architecture and close friend, Jerzy Staniszkis, Professor of Architecture at the University of Detroit: “He empowered me with tenacity to never give up on anything and to continue even when criticism and things seem against you. He formed me more than as an architect or a student, his attitude towards life, formed me as a man”. With other highly recognized personalities from the University of Detroit Bruno Leon, Father Green, and his colleague, best friend and great architect, Algis Bublys, together they exchanged and shaped new ideas about art, architecture and modern culture.