Artist     Nigel Casseldine
Title      The Academy’s Hands: Portrait of John Burzynski
Date      2000's
object    Painting
Media    oil
Size       91.5 x 66cm
Ref          902

Purchased from the RWA Academicians’ portrait exhibition in 2000

Other websites featuring this artist's work
www.rwa.org.uk/memfrm.htm
www.medicigallery.co.uk
www.finial-press.co.uk/pages/romanystudio.html

The Academy’s Hands: Portrait of John Burzynski
The painting shows John Burzynski sitting informally in the porter’s lodge. The accoutrements of his position hang on the wall behind him. The focus of any portrait might be considered the head, but in this painting the hands have been offered equal prominence, reflecting the title (this is a reference to Mr Burzynski’s past in hanging the Academy’s exhibition for many years). The paint, for the most part, has been applied in a fluid manner suggesting passages of secondary interest and contrasting the skillfully worked areas of head and hands, even to the extent of retaining random splashing, creating a lively surface across a quiet passage of painting. The face is carefully built with ‘fat’ pigment sectioned by deep facial lines almost carving the character of the subject in paint. The hands clasped together on his lap are larger than life, enhancing the perspective and seemingly projecting them beyond the picture plane. They are described with the same visual intensity as the head, emphasizing the painting’s raison d’être.

John Burzynski was a reserved man who displayed a calm strength and confidence in all he did. For many years alongside other duties he was responsible for the physical hanging of all the RWA galleries. Remarkable in many ways he had walked across Europe after the fall of Poland (His country of Birth) to find refuge in England and where after War service he decided to settle.

The artist and Mr Burzynski met when Mr Casseldine was an Academician and was invited to join the selection committee for the Annual Open Exhibition. This involved, apart from selection duties, hanging one side of the large and intimidating galleries. The artist comments that 'I was fortunate enough to have John as my aid and we became friendly. A few years on I was invited to take part in "The Royal Society of Portrait Paintiers and Academicians' at the RWA and I asked John if he would sit for working drawings. After a little persuasion he agreed".

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