'He was an iconic figure, as we'd say now, and so was his apartment located in an old townhouse on Wiejska Street, which attracted Warsaw's cream of the crop when that still meant something. There, you were greeted by Jerzy himself, drawing on his ever-present cigarette, an architect by training, a painter by vocation, and a erudite by intellect. A great music lover who taught himself to read and play music, he would also host scores of musicians at his place. The gatherings he held on the occasion of the Warsaw Autumn festivals were particularly unforgettable, with guests including composers and performing artists from abroad. Renaissance men like him have gone extinct by now.'
'Jerzy Stajuda's paintings are abstract, yet full of subtexts; subtle and poetic. Some call them 'musical', perhaps because each piece has a uniform, yet nuanced, tone of colour. He made his watercolours in an intuitive, improvised manner, spilling colourful ink across a sheet of paper and using a nib to draw structural lines across it (I have witnessed the process in person). Some watercolours were studies for oil paintings. I interact with his work on a day-to-day basis, being a proud owner of 11 of his small watercolours and one large piece, but they never bore me – you simply can't grow bored of his art. And that's why I encourage everybody to go see the exhibition.'
Dorota Szwarcman, Co w duszy gra and an interview with the Polish National Opera
