Grzegorz Rutkowski has studied the great masters of texture and light—Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Vermeer—and his ability to mimic their techniques has made him an in-demand painter of fantastical beasts and landscapes for the videogame industry.
But these days, instead of devoting all his time to painting in his sun-dappled studio near the picturesque medieval square in the town of Pieńsk, Poland, he’s spending ever more of it on Zoom calls, talking to lawyers, artists and others about the strange reason he is suddenly far more famous than he ever thought possible.