In 1960 Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz suffered a heart attack, so he was unable to sculpt. A visit to his father’s metal shop made him decide to learn to weld, and so his work with metal began. Also important for the creation of spatial compositions is certainly the environment of artists working at the Art and Research Department of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, where Jarnuszkiewicz taught at the time (Jerzy Soltan, Zbigniew Ihnatowicz, Lech Tomaszewski, Oskar Hansen). This experimental design and teaching unit then developed a new concept for organising space, based on the theory of Open Form (the interaction of elements that make up a sculpture). Jarnuszkiewicz’s most intense period of work in metal was between 1963 and 1967. About 1968, the artist had already begun to move away from abstract compositions of this type, which was related, among other things, to the lack of access to stainless steel.

Objects is a metal, black-painted abstract sculpture from 1972 — a late representation of the group in question, in some ways related to Spatial Composition from Ravne (Yugoslavia, 1964) and Ostrava (Czechoslovakia, 1967). It consists of geometric forms (two circles formed from metal strips, different sized cuboids) inscribed in a standing cuboid structure made of horizontal and vertical bars. This mock-up was created during the artist’s stay in Montreal. The abstract compositions were appreciated by critics, but the artist himself treated them only as a preparatory exercise for Pieta, which he considered the most important sculpture in his life.

Karolina Zychowicz

translated by Paulina Bożek