Zachęta – National Gallery of Art

curators: Anna Budzałek, Janusz S. Janowski
production: Michał Kubiak, Michał Jachuła
collaboration: Zuzanna Andruszko
graphic design: Lotne Studio (Barbara Sługocka, Julia Wróblewska)
exhibition installation: Andrzej Bialik, Dariusz Bochenek, Remigiusz Olszewski, Grzegorz Ostromecki, Paweł Ostromecki
conservator: Michalina Sobierajska
exhibition communication: Zofia Koźniewska, Milena Liebe, Alicja Malicka, Aleksandra Sienkiewicz
programme accompanying the exhibition: Elżbieta Dmochowska, Jędrzej Zakrzewski

Jerzy Nowosielski (1923–2011) set off on his artistic journey in 1940, studying at the Staatliche Kunstgewerbeschule in Krakow under occupation, in Stanisław Kamocki’s studio. After the war, in 1945–1947, he continued his education at the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts, under Professor Eugeniusz Eibisch, however, he did not receive his degree until 1961. In 1945–1949, he was member of the Young Visual Artists Group, later, in 1957–1958, he was associated with the Łódź-based Piąte Koło group, and in 1957, he became member of the 2nd Krakow Group (hailing from the tradition of the prewar Krakow Group). Since 1957, he lectured at the Higher School of Fine Arts in Łódź, and in the years 1962 –1993 — at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. Nowosielski had an opportunity to show his works at major art events, such as the Venice Biennale in 1956 and the São Paulo Art Biennial in 1959.

Awarded numerous accolades for his works, including the Jan Cybis Award (1985), Polish Culture Foundation Award (1995), and Witold Wojtkiewicz Award (1999).

The exhibition organised on the 100th anniversary of the artist’s birthday features four themes present in his oeuvre: landscape, body, abstraction, and icon. The landscapes, composed using flat, geometric forms and painted from various perspectives, bring to mind film shots. Secondly, the body is not an object of aesthetic contemplation, but becomes an almost geometric form, it is simplified, rhythmic, anonymous — the artist sought to depict a sanctified body, abstracted from earthly reality. The third theme, abstraction, refers in this painter’s work primarily to the divine being, transcendence, whose emanation is light, including the light of knowledge and epiphany. And finally, icon — seeing reality through a modern ‘iconic’ prism, Nowosielski introduced a single universal norm, which applies both to early representations of secular motifs and later religious themes. His innovative perspective on the canonicity of religious topics allowed for restoring their original meanings.

These four types of imaging combine to form a definition of Nowosielski’s work. Each of the themes reveals a fascination with geometry as a frame for depicting spiritual sensations and utterly real experiences; each also represents a mystical vision of reality replete with symbols. Viewing these paintings offers an opportunity, rare nowadays, of experiencing a world in which reality is an emanation of the absolute.

works from collections: Wojciech Fibak, Wojciech Grzybała, Tomasz Michalski, Leon Wyczółkowski District Museum in Bydgoszcz, National Museum in Wrocław, National Museum in Krakow, National Museum in Poznań, National Museum in Szczecin, National Museum in Warsaw, STARAK Collection, Zachęta — National Gallery of Art, Association of Polish Artists of the Theatre, Film, Radio and Television (ZASP), Krakow Branch

We would like to offer special thanks for licences to images of Jerzy Nowosielski’s works to Andrzej Starmach and the Orthodox Parish of the Dormition of Virgin Mary in Krakow.