Henry Orlik, Cosmos of Dreams
Maas Gallery, London

LIKE me, you have probably not heard of the painter Henry Orlik. That’s because painting, not fame was his game. Eschewing the conceits of the art world, dealers took most of the money, leaving little for the artist. 

A recluse for 50 years and now aged 77, Orlik has agreed to his first major retrospective, Cosmos of Dreams, at the Maas Gallery London, and later in his hometown of Marlborough.  

The work is engrossing. 

“They say I’m a surrealist. I just paint,” is quoted on the wall. Yet the exhibition reveals an extraordinary surrealist talent that he’d reached through his own psyche rather than because it was fashionable.  

Orlik was in his twenties when this talent was spotted. In the 1970s his work was exhibited at the Royal Academy summer show and he had a sold-out solo exhibition at London’s Acoris surrealist art centre, sharing wall space with Rene Magritte and Salvador Dali. 

Orlik’s work was described as technically brilliant; but what of the subject matter? This is intriguing and spellbinding — or maybe intrigue-binding through the visual spells that he creates. They draw you in to another reality — a “sur” reality. And yes, Orlik was into quantum physics.  

His paintings are formed of thousands of tiny, spiralled brushstrokes that he calls his “excitations,” which is the term used to describe an excited state of an entity reacting to a stimulus. Just like atoms and electrons, so his work is full of energy and motion.  But his subject matter often leads to e-motion.   

It can appear at first that this “effect” is down to thin paint revealing the surface of the canvas. But no — these are painstakingly detailed and obviously time-consuming tiny marks. They could take months or years to finish. Is this consuming time, or living it?  

I could imagine this practice was holding the artist together. 

The form v subject debate is interesting here (although the driven artist may not care) as in the dream-like forms you can see trouble or desire. Cannon Ballons (pictured) may reference Nazi helmets, that strange aircraft, and war. Is that a Bavarian castle tucked into the folds? There is also the sensuality of some of the other work, bodies enfolded like landscapes melting into each other. 

These are complex works for sure, but they are not complicated. Complication muddles, complexity seeks and presents a clarifying unity. There are also hard architectural forms juxtaposed with the soft and lyrical. Much of the colour is pastelish (my word). I don’t like pastel much — but here it works.

Orlik was born in Germany in 1947 to a Belarusian mother, who had been deported for slave labour, and a Polish father who’d served with the allied forces in WWII. Unable to return to Poland, they, like many Polish families, settled in Britain in Swindon, Wiltshire.

Orlik studied fine art at Swindon art school and later at Gloucestershire College of Art. He had brief spells (my unconscious reference!) in London, Los Angeles and New York before settling back in his mother’s council house in 1985 and retiring from any public life simply to paint. 

Although made in solitude, all the exhibited art is collaborative. The conversation I had in the gallery with Freddie Armstrong, aspiring framer and colleague at Winsor Birch, was fascinating. He said: “There is a deep time element to Orlik’s work.” 

He also talked about how Philip Elletson’s framing skills, imagination and being able to relate to the works has turned these paintings into the beautiful objects they are. I would never review theatre without considering the set designer. 

A serious stroke in 2022 paralysed Orlik’s right side. Now he can’t even sign his works, let alone paint. His housing association evicted him while he was in hospital and more than 200 paintings went missing. Lost treasure. But there is enough work to form this great show. 

I was told by curator Grant Ford that Orlik is finally enjoying the recognition as an artist that he deserves. Ford is a picture expert on the BBC programme Antiques Roadshow and has been a specialist at Sotheby’s for 30 years until 2016. 

The exhibition is organised by a Wiltshire fine art company Windsor Birch. It runs from August 9-20 at the Maas Gallery in St James’s, central London, before transferring to The Little Gallery, 1 The Parade, Marlborough SN8 1NE, from August 23 to September 6. 

For more information please contact: enquiries@winsorbirch.com, 01672 216-472.