Lot 56. Jakub Julian Ziolkowski (b. 1980). Blue rain. Signed and dated ‘JAKUB JULIAN ZIOLKOWSKI 2004’ (on the reverse), oil on canvas, 10⅜ x 12⅝in. (26.3 x 32.2cm.). Painted in 2004.

Best known for his phantasmagorical imagery, Blue Rain is an early work by celebrated Polish artist Jakub Julian Ziolkowski, created the same year as his graduation from the Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw in 2004. Through ‘a mixture of associations and improvisation’, the artist conceives a bucolic scene in cornflower blues and buttercup yellows. Heavy rain falls in distinctly from two thunder clouds down onto blue-leaved trees. The work could easily stand as nothing more than a beautifully conceived landscape except for the one intriguing narrative clue that Ziolkowski places within his scene – a leaning or running figure, depending on one’s point of view. With these surrealist qualities, Ziolkowski gives credence to his assertion that ‘I don’t use photos, I don’t paint from nature. My method may be described banally as ‘painting from the head’ – to that, I would add that painting is a way of airing it’ (J.J. Ziolkowski, quoted in E. Gorzadek, in ‘Jakub Julian Ziolkowski’, in Culture.PL, July 2014).

Estimate: GBP 3,000 – 4,000.