"What we should bear in mind is that, the painting, whatever it represents a battle horse, a naked woman or any other anegdote is above all, a flat surface covered with colours in certain order"

Maurice Denis

(...) First he sees and then he translates his feelings into colors on canvasses. As he says, a day without painting is a lost day. For him it is a source of energy and joy of life, especially that there is always the awareness that his best picture is still to be painted. The constant longing for thrills, elation and emotions which accompanies the act of painting makes Iwo hurry. He finishes one painting and he begins to work on another one. A clown in a red costume jumps and runs in prances through the space of the picture n just like in the theatre. The landscapes painted by two are also strange within the sense of complete realism.

Iwo Birkenmajer is an artist with a sense of humor and it is most important that he still feels his great gift of creation, which is a privilege of few people.

Maria Serafinowicz-Molska
Cracow 1999

(...) The unique colors of Birkenmajer's large paintings attract one is eye. There is plenty of gold and the colors are softened, toned down and beautifully harmonized. There is a lot of black color. And at last, a more and more distinct and clear form emerges.

- In the past, I used to be concerned with the literary aspect of the picture rather. I wanted to communicate something. Now, I play with the colors and form, says the artist for whom painting is a modus vivendi. He would also like his pictures to shape the receptiveness of the audience and to evoke in them the emotional states similar to those that were at the bottom of creating the work.

Tatarkiewicz's motto finds its fulfillment in Birkenmajer's paintings. Although one can trace in them some echoes of artistic fascinations, for instance the allusions to La Primavera by Botticelli, Birkenmajer's pictures live their own life. They emanate with individual character and originality. Neither referring to tradition nor the admiration for the past divert the artist from his distinct way.

Maria Ziemianin
(Cracovian Newspaper, May 11, 2000)