“Stanisław Lem — Lifelike” — a drawing by Andrzej Wajda to PDF

“Stanisław Lem — Lifelike” — a drawing by Andrzej Wajda
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Author Andrzej Wajda Date of production April 23, 1983 Dimensions height: 14.7 cm, width: 9.8 cm ID no. MSITJM0935 Museum The Manggha Centre of Japanese Art and Technology Availability in stock Subjects painted, famous people Technique ink drawing Material paper Acquired date 2006, donated by the Kyoto–Krakow Foundation Object copyright The Manggha Centre of Japanese Art and Technology Digital images copyright all rights reserved, The Manggha Centre of Japanese Art and Technology Digitalisation RDW MIC, Małopolska's Virtual Museums Plus project Tags Andrzej Wajda, rysunek, 2D, WMM Plus In the collection of the Manggha Museum, there are 242 portraits by Andrzej Wajda in the Familiar faces series. One of them is a drawing signed by the author — Stanisław Lem — Lifelike. Indeed, the author has captured the resemblance perfectly using hatching and many strong lines, as in the case of the many other drawings of the series sketched on notebook pages or graph paper. The head and arms of the writer, then sixty­two years of age, are shown turned away from viewers, only a quarter of his profile is visible as if he was focusing on and listening to a concert or lecture.
Andrzej Wajda cooperated with Stanisław Lem (1921–2006) during the film adaptation of the novel Czy pan istnieje, Mr Jones? (Do you exist, Mr Jones?) It is a story of a rally driver who has several consecutive accidents, but regains his fitness again and again thanks to transplantations of the body parts of the people killed during the accidents caused by him. Along with the body parts, he also receives some fragments of those people's personalities, and it causes that his own personality to be more and more marginalised. There are also doubts about his legal personality. The film version of the novel titled Przekładaniec (Layer Cake Hodge Podge) was made in 1968. After the première, Lem, who was the author of the original and the script, wrote to Andrzej Wajda: “Dear Sir,
The day before yesterday I watched the film Przekładaniec on television. I believe that both you and your actors' work, as well as the set design were very good. The role of the advocate was especially well played; the surgeon was very nice, and, of course, Kobiela needs no special praise. The only substantive reservation I have concerns my doubts whether the whole story was not too complicated for the average viewer, due to the very fast pace of the film. However, I am not able to judge it as I know the script.
The “future”, close but undefined, was ingeniously depicted, considering the fact that it was created with such meagre resources. (...)”*.
The collection of the Manggha Museum also includes other portraits created by Andrzej Wajda of people of the film and theatre circles such as Gustaw Holoubek, Stanisław Radwan, Stanisław Tym, Allan Starski, Roman Polański, as well as of other personalities, including the 14th Dalai Lama, Jean–Luc Godard, Nagisa Oshima or Ernst Fuchs. All portraits are like brief records, hints for memory that help to reconstruct reminiscences of past moments. Some of them are black and white or drawn with a ballpoint, other are drawn with coloured pencils or felt­tip pens. All of them are connected with anecdotes and the author's interesting comments on those familiar faces.
Elaborated by Aleksandra Görlich (The Manggha Centre of Japanese Art and Technology), editorial team of Małopolska’s Virtual Museums, © all rights reserved
*source: http://www.wajda.pl/pl/filmy/film11.html, accessed on 24.02.2015