Translating Marek

Marek Zulawski: artist, journalist, my father

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Always look on the bright side of death, 1977

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Brompton Cemetery by scotbot on Flickr

Today marks the 30th anniversary of Marek Zulawski’s death, an appropriate day to share this passage he wrote about a friend’s funeral. Marek was a man who kept himself in prime health until his unexpected parting in 1985 – it seems his heart couldn’t keep up with the rest of him. The translated excerpt below is at once a meditation on age, death, virility and, of course, Marek’s own vanity.

(The banner image is a CC photo of Brompton Cemetery, taken by Scott Wylie)

Brompton Cemetery. Stefan Osiecki’s funeral.

From a distance, I could already see a group of people eagerly surrounding a fresh hole, on the bottom of which rests a coffin.… Keep reading

“40 years wiser, 40 years stupider”: Marek on getting old, 1980

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Marek and Maria Zulawski in 1984

 Today’s excerpt follows on from last week’s in which Marek nearly died on the Baltic Sea. Recalling that episode leads him to mull over just how much life he really does have left after all these years.

The second volume of Study for a Self-Portrait is dedicated to my mother, but it’s only in the more intimate sections where he addresses her as directly as this. They had gotten married earlier that year and were together until death did them part in 1985.

Back then, I was how old?

20.

In other words, half a century ago. More even.

Today, fear has come back to me again and I don’t know how to deal with it.… Keep reading

Romance at the outbreak of World War II: meeting Halina Korn

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Halina Korn and Marek Zulawski in St Malo, France, 1940

Halina Korn (born Halina Korngold) was Marek’s second wife, and a respected painter and writer in her own right. They were married for decades until her death on 2 October 1978 – precisely 36 years ago today. Other parts of Study for a Self-Portrait delve into the darker parts of their relationship, particularly Halina’s depression, but I thought I’d introduce her with this lively country-hopping section that includes how she and Marek first met. I particularly like the part about their life in London during the Battle of Britain. - AZ

It was autumn 1938. Yes, a year before the war.… Keep reading

How Marek ended up living in London in 1936

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Foggy Tower Bridge by MsSaraKelly on Flickr

Life is chaos. It's a cacophony upon which we try to impose a sense of order, often for the sake of our own sanity.

When I read the excerpt below, I was unsurprised to find my father had ended up a Londoner by accident, not design. It was through another series of accidents that he met my mother, that I was born in London and that now I'm writing these very words.

Some people struggle to accept that we primates stumble through existence. They insist that everything is controlled and planned out. One of the gloomier versions of this type of worldview is that everything is manipulated by some shadowy ill-meaning cabal, often labelled as the Illuminati or New World Order.

… Keep reading

Malevich and the birth of Minimalism, 1975

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The 'Malevich: Revolutionary of Russian Art' exhibition at the Tate Modern, 2014

I visited the impressive Malevich retrospective at the Tate Modern recently, and thought I’d see if Marek had a few words on the man. I found this dense extract which talks about Malevich’s role in the minimalism of modern art. The gallery visit he describes near the end left me with the distinct impression he’d be shaking his head at a lot of today’s art were he still alive… - AZ

There is no doubt that, independent from art as a deliberate activity of man, there exist artistic phenomena which move us with their monumental simplicity. The desert, oceans, ploughed fields, steppes, the heavens and earth.… Keep reading

Jesus in St John’s Wood, 1980

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'The Baptism of Jesus Christ' by Marek Zulawski, 1982, Our Lady's Church in St John's Woods

'The Baptism of Jesus Christ' is a massive painting by Marek in Our Lady's Church on Lisson Grove in St John's Wood. This memoir entry from 1980 is about my dad's initial talks with Father McGowan to get the project going. The painting was completed in 1982, just three years before his death, and it's still there today. Although my dad wasn't around for most of my upbringing, Our Lady's Church was a regular feature - I always looked up at that painting and thought of him whenever I had to attend. - AZ

I’m waiting to hear the decision on an important matter for me, very important indeed.… Keep reading

Lady troubles in Ladbroke Grove, 1937

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Marek Zulawski painting in the street, 1937

I think my dad wrote this part in the 1970s, so perhaps those 40-odd years made it more melodramatic in his memories than it really was. He mentions his local was The Mitre which is right at the bottom of Ladbroke Grove - these days, that’s considered more a part of Holland Park. A lot of this part of west London was much rougher before WWII, particularly Notting Hill, but these days it’s all pretty fancy. - AZ

It was 1937. I, a young artist who’d recently been abandoned by his wife, had been milling around in the horrible emptiness of my studio in Ladbroke Grove.… Keep reading

Richard Hamilton at the Tate, 1983

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Epiphany, by Richard Hamilton, 1964 - photo taken at the Tate Modern, 2014

Earlier in 2014, the Tate Modern in London put on a fantastic retrospective exhibition of Richard Hamilton’s work (I snapped this post's main image, "Epiphany" 1964, while I was there). I was unfamiliar with his art but left the gallery hugely impressed, particularly by Hamilton’s sense of humour. To my surprise, I came across a review by my dad of Hamilton’s Tate exhibition in 1983 (now the Tate Britain) in his autobiography.  I can’t seem to find any reference to the dog show he mentions unfortunately – I’d love to see footage of that. – AZ

The Hamilton exhibition at the Tate.… Keep reading

Art vs entertainment at the BBC, 1965

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The Polish section of BBC Radio, photographed sometime during the 1940s or 1950s

Marek worked at the Polish section of BBC Radio for decades as an art critic.  That occupation, along with the books he wrote on the subject and actually being an artist himself, meant he was, unsurprisingly, quite opinionated about it all.

I don't know if The Times ever published the letter he quotes. I hope so, as then there'd be a written record of my dad's use of English, rather than just my translation. Throughout his memoirs, he quotes several letters he wrote to The Times and The Observer. He was a bit of a busybody by the looks of things.

… Keep reading