The article is the attempt to find symbols and metaphors hidden in graphics by Włodzimierz Kotkowski. Works of Włodzimierz Kotkowski are not easy to „read”, and that’s because the artist chose the language of poetic metaphors marked by numerous ambiguities. The artist, sensitive to social and political matters, in the matter of mezzotint and aquatint has hidden digressions on his contemporary world, which by becoming increasingly more distant to us is depriving us more and more of the context of the stories that take place on his graphics. Kotkowski, just us often using existential problems, creates the series of universal and not devoid of amiguities paintings in which, using metaphor, he creates content that doesn’t debase and always stays relevant, thereby confirming the timelessness of his creations.