Robert Proch was a Polish painter, muralist, and animator with his own unique picturesque language which represents numerous stylistic expressions. His style was inspired by state-of-the-art animation, Impressionism, and modern graffiti.

Proch was born in Poland and was educated at the Academy of Fine Arts (animation department) in Poznan. First steps in outside painting he took in 2002. During his studies, he had major exhibitions in both Europe and the United States.

Robert Proch began putting up graffiti in his hometown of Bydgoszcz, Poland as a teen. He soon experimented with traditional painting too. Proch painted aspects of motion and processing taken strictly from an urban environment. As he said, nowadays the cities-environment of his world are starting to look extremely plain and futuristic. What he did was try to imagine the modern city without all the small details like benches or trash bins. This artist compared it to a painting of a cubist and had a problem with deciding whether it’s good or bad phenomenon.

The mini-narratives he painted examine the modern human condition using vivid colors and tangible emotions. Sentimentality, ambition, fear, loss, hubris, greed and friendship play their roles in snapshot dramas set in coffee shops and shopping malls; or during pregnancies and suicides. Proch stressed the intensity of experience in his vibrant portrayals of situations that could be considered ominous, maudlin or plain mundane.

Realism was his natural choice. Having a common background is important to remain readable in final impression, Proch claimed: Metaphor, Symbol, Deconstruction, Metamorphosis, it all works well if the first step comes out from defined universe which is possible to identify with. Good painting should speak itself. No user guides.

He learned from his own experience that if one paints in a realistic way on and on and on and on and on, there comes a moment, where one starts to reduce this reality to search more into what’s behind the straight representation of each motive. Things like space, time, mood, tempo, rhythm, come to the forefront.

He was not using photography, many times avoids to even make a precise sketch for the painting. This made painting process so interesting for him. If the major idea of finished canvas is kept behind it and the artist follows this path to reach the point when the work is done – it is a good way to learn how to choose and operate with space and form of the objects.

This young painter was inspired and influenced by the artists such as Francis Bacon, Claude Monet, Miles Davis, Sat One, William Turner, Caspar David Friedrich, Edward Hopper, Józef Brandt, Boards of Canada or Jerzy Duda-Gracz…

He exhibited in his native Poland, Denmark, Italy, Hungary, Estonia, and Germany including at the respected Stroke urban art fair, as well as Moniker art fair.

Robert Proch lived and worked in Poznan, Poland. He died unexpectedly on July 17, 2019.

Robert Proch

Similar Artists