Tuesday, November 25, 2014

World Cup '74 Portrait #197 (Andrzej Szarmach: Poland)




graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

Today we (re)present, randomly-chosen as usual, what constitutes the fourth of the Project’s subjects & drawings processed from a constructed ‘sticker’ image, of one of the vividly-remembered names from my experience of the televised coverage of the 1974 World Cup who previously had appeared in neither the FKS ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’ or Panini ’München 74’ commemorative albums which have inspired & provide the original source material for the Project.

This, then, is a re-mediated image, of a 1974ish vintage, of Andrzej Szarmach, who came to be selected as a member of the Poland squad for the Finals, subsequently starting in six of the Poles’ matches (being substituted in five), scoring 5 goals, all in the First Round & including a hat-trick in the 7 – 0 thrashing of Haiti, missing the only game the Poles lost, crucially, to West Germany in the countries’ effective semi-final: given this transpiration of events, he might reasonably be regarded as being the tournament’s surprise packages’ surprise package, but instantly memorable for his exploits, & subsequently achieving some form of legendary status by playing at both the 1978 & 1982 World Cups & scoring a goal at each.

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