Tag: poland

Antoni Rząsa

The Artwork of Antoni Rząsa

Born in February of 1919 in Futoma, a village located at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains, Antoni Rząsa was a Polish sculptor whose works were inspired by native folk art. He was born in an area where Catholic churches, having been erected since the sixteenth-century, were later  surrounded by Orthodox temples. The art of creating both practical and spiritual objects from wood was a common and flourishing tradition in Poland’s Subcarpathian Voivodeship.

Attracted by the characteristics of wood and its carving, Rząsa carried on local tradition and began combining the religious experience with the folk art of the region. His work presented to the viewer an uncharacteristic understanding of faith, suffering and humor. Rzasa’s figures of weeping Marys and Crucified Christs captivated both priests and atheists with their gestures and openness to more than one interpretation. In addition to his iconic figures, Rząsa also created figures drawn from family experiences and a series of carved chairs and benches with elements of flora and fauna.  

Antino Rząsa graduated from the High School of Fine Arts in Zakopane,  a southern Polish town in the region of Podhale. In 1938, he studied at the city’s School of Wood Industry under Polish sculptor Antoni Kenar, who was reforming the educational system by placing an emphasis on traditional folk art and its connection to contemporary art. In his own work, Kenar combined elements of the Podhale region with influences from Cubism and Art Déco.

In 1939, Rząsa’s studies were suspended with the outbreak of World War II. He joined the local guerrilla group in 1940 within which he served as a messenger runner. During his war service, Rząsa received notice that his mother had died in 1941. He returned to Zakopane in 1948 and resumed his studies under the guidance of Antoni Kenar at the School of Wood Industry. Rząsa graduated in 1952, the same year his father died. Invited by Kenar to teach sculpture at the school, he taught and lectured there until 1973. During his tenure, the school was renamed the Antoni Kenar Art School Complex after Kenar’s death in 1959.

Antoni Rząsa created the majority of his work through the creation of multiple series revolving around themes both secular and religious. His first series was the “Days of War” which covered a two year period from 1956 to 1958. In 1960, Rząsa started the one-year “Saint Annes”cycle and also began a twelve-year cycle entitled “The Pietas”. The most prolific of his series was “The Cycle of Crosses” which include six cycles created over a period of thirteen years from 1962 to 1975. 

Rząsa’s first group showing was the 1952 “Utility in Art” exhibition held in Zakopane. Other group exhibitions followed regularly In Berlin, Geneva, London, Warsaw, Shanghai and Beijing. In 1963, Rząsa had two solo exhibitions: the Artist and Viewer Gallery in Warsaw’s Łazienki Park and Kraków’s PAX Gallery. Other solo presentations included an exhibition at Warsaw’s Gallery of Sculpture in 1966, two shows in Zakopane in 1968 and 1973, and a 1972 solo exhibition in Chester, England. Polish directors Anna Micińska and Grzegorz Dubowski premiered their short 1973 biographical film “Portret Antoniego Rząsy (The Portrait of Antoni Rząsa)” at the Kraków Film Festival where they each were given a bronze award for their directorial work. 

In 1974, Antoni Rząsa with his wife Halina and son Marcin began construction of a home and gallery on Bogdańskiego Street in Zakopane. The next year, he showed his new work at a solo exhibition in Kraków’s Gallery of Contemporary Art. In 1976, Rząsa began his last Cycle of Crosses entitled “The Women of Ravensbrück” in honor of the one hundred and thirty thousand, mostly female, prisoners at that concentration camp. In July of the same year, the newly opened Antoni Rząsa Gallery on Bogdańskiego Street had its first exhibition.

On the twenty-sixth of January in 1980, Antoni Rząsa died and was buried in the Cemetery for People of Merit at the Pęksowy Brzyzk Cemetery in Zakopane. He was survived by his son Marcin and wife Halina Rząsa, who died on the fourteenth of December in the same year. Rząsa’s work is included in the collections of the Polish Army Museum; the National Museums in Warsaw, Kraków, and Poznań; the Reconciliation Chapel of the Ark of the Lord Church in Kraków-Fieńczyce; and in private collections in the United States, Denmark, Belgium, France, Italy and the Vatican. The Antoni Rząsa Gallery is currently managed by Marcin Rząsa and family.

The Antoni Rząsa Gallery website contains images of Rząsa’s work, testimonials from his friends, and contact information. The site address is: https://antonirzasa.pl/en/

Top Insert Image: Krystyna Gorazdowska, “Antoni Rząsa”, Date Unknown, Gelatin Silver Print

Second Insert Image: Antoni Rząsa, “Thoughtful”, 1960, Wood, 67.5 x 29 x 21.5 cm.

Third Insert Image: Antoni Rząsa, “Pieta Tobruku”, 1960, Polychrome Wood, 121 x 81 x 45 cm

Bottom Insert Image: Antoni Rząsa, “Pieta Tobruku”, 1960, Reverse, Polychrome Wood, 121 x 81 x 45 cm

Jerzy Marek

Jerzy Marek, “Spots”, Date Unknown, Oil on Canvas

Jerzy Marek was born in Poland in 1925 and showed early promise in both art and woodcarving.  But the outbreak of World War II in 1939, when he was only fourteen, put a complete hold on his artistic career for many years.  He ended the War with the British Army in Italy and finally settled in the United Kingdom in 1948.  For the next many years, Jerzy pursued a successful career as a civil engineer and bridge designer.

He started painting in oils in 1970 and initially spent much of his leisure time encouraging other artists locally in the Preston area where he eventually found himself.  This group became known as the “Marek Circle” and even included his mother-in-law Margaret Baird who subsequently became a successful primitive artist in her own right.  After taking early retirement in 1983, Marek began to concentrate on his painting.

His early work featured sporting themes; but these soon gave way to pastoral themes and then close-ups of animals and birds, all painted from memory. Jerzy Marek’s work has been exhibited in galleries worldwide including Glasgow, Paris, Hamburg and many other cities.  Reference to his work is made in the Rona Guide to the World of Naïve Art as well as Muller’s World Encyclopedia of Naive Art.  Jerzy Marek died in early 2014 at the age of 90.

Jacek Malczewski

 

Jacek Malczewski, “Polish Hamlet (Portrait of Aleksander Wielopolski)”, 1903, Oil on Canvas, 100 x 148 cm, National Museum, Warsaw, Poland

One of the most famous works of Jacek Malczweski, this painting presents Malczewski’s grandson as Aleksander Wielopolski, a member of the Polish Kingdom government in the early 1860s, standing with two allegorical visions of the fate of the Polish nation. The figure is located in the center of the composition, surrounded by two women. He is dressed in yellow-green dress and belted pouch, in which instead of bullets are tubes of paint, and he thoughtfully pulls on the petals of chamomile.

Located to the right is an elderly woman with white hair, dressed in dark robes, her hands cuffed with shackles. Her face takes on an expression of sadness, despair and awareness of her situation. She embodies Poland enslaved, experienced by fate, remaining under the yoke of others, and who can not be liberated. On the left side there is a young girl, half-naked, shown at the time of breaking the shackles. She is full of energy, and her face is very expressive of joy and life. It symbolizes the “young Poland” which is capable of action and being able to release herself from the long-term captivity.

The image can be interpreted as a question of choosing the future fate of the Polish homeland, upon its entering a new century. This dilemma clearly refers to the character of Hamlet, William Shakespeare’s drama and Hamlet’s life choice. Alexander Wielopolski is an example of the person making the difficult decision, and carrying the consequences of that choice. The figure of a man is pensive, lost in melancholy, and his indecision is highlighted even more by the flower in his hand and a belt on the body. The painting is an expression of Malczewski’s concern for the future of the Polish people.

Calendar: March 8

Year: Day to Day Men: March 8

Center Stage

The eighth of March in 1761 marks the birth date of Count Jan Potocki, a Polish nobleman, linguist, ethnologist, traveller and author of the Polish Age of Enlightenment.

Born into an aristocratic family that owned vast estates across Poland, Jan Potocki was educated in the Swiss cities of Geneva and Lausanne. He frequently visited the Paris salons and toured Europe before returning to Poland in 1778. As a soldier, Potocki served twice in the Polish Army, first in 1778 with the Austrian army during the War of the Bavarian Succession, and later in 1779 as a military engineer. 

During his extensive travels across Europe, Asia and North Africa, Potocki as an early pioneer of travel literature documented prevailing customs, active wars, revolutions, and cultural awakenings. He was also one of the first ethnologists with his studies of early Slavic peoples from a linguistic and historical perspective. Fascinated with the occult, Potocki studied ancient cultures, secret societies and their rituals. As a member of the Polish Parliament, he participated in the Great Sejm, whose aim was to restore the sovereignty and reform the Commonwealth, both economically and politically. 

In 1790, Jan Potocki became the first person in Poland to fly in a hot air balloon when he accompanied French aeronaut Jean-Pierre Blanchard on an ascent over Warsaw, an exploit that brought him public acclaim. After a period in France, he established in1788 a Warsaw publishing house, Drukamia Wolna (Free Press), and printed  pamphlets and newspapers advocating for social reforms. Potocki also established Warsaw’s first free reading room. 

Potocki’s most famous literary work, originally written in French, is the framed-tale “Manuscrit Trouvé à Saragosse (The Manuscript Found in Saragossa)”. A framed-tale is a literary technique that serves as a companion piece to a story within a story; the introductory or main narrative sets the stage for either a second narrative or a set of shorter stories. Potocki’s novel is a collection of intertwining stories of Romani, thieves, inquisitors, princesses and the brave but foolhardy hero, the infantry guard Alphonse van Worden. The stories cover the wide range of Potocki’s interests: the gothic, the erotic, the historical and the supernatural. 

The initial work of “Manuscrit Trouvé à Saragosse” were published in 1805 apart from the rest of the novel; the stories comprising the Gypsy chief’s tale were added later in 1810. Written incrementally, its final form was never exactly completed at the time of Potocki’s death.  Sections of the original French version were lost but have been back-translated into the French from a Polish translation by Edmund Chojecki in 1847. In 1965, director Wojciech Has adapted the novel into a Polish-language black and white film “The Saragossa Manuscript”, that was admired by many 1960s counterculture figures such as Jerry Garcia, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. 

Jan Potocki married twice and had five children; both marriages were the subjects of scandalous rumors, the first ended in divorce. In 1812, he retired, disillusioned and in poor health, to his estate in Uladivka in present-day Ukraine. Potocki worked on his novel during the last years of his life. Suffering from depression and clinical lycanthropy (believing he could transform into a werewolf), he committed suicide on the twenty-third of December in 1815 by shooting himself with a silver bullet blessed by his local Catholic priest. 

For his contributions to Poland, Jan Potocki was awarded the Order of the White Eagle, the highest award of merit for the Republic of Poland. He also awarded a knighthood in the Order of Saint Stanislaus, 1st Class, as well as the Imperial Order of Saint Prince Vladimir, 1st Class, the highest award for continuous civil and military service. 

Witold Ziomek

Witold Ziomek, “Waterfall”, 2017

Witold Ziomek ia a photogrpher from Kraków, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland. This photograph of a solitary figure dwarfed by a waterfall in Iceland was the wnner in the 2017 Chromatic Discovery of the Year category. The Chromatic Awards is a celebration of color photography annual contest. There were over 3000 entries across 20 categories from 75 countries in 2017.

Zdzislaw Beksinski

Zdzislaw Beksinski. Untitled, Oil on Canvas

Zdzislaw Beksinski was a Polish painter, photographer and sculptor, who specialized in the field of dystopian surrealism. Beksiński did his paintings and drawings in what he called either a ‘Baroque’ or a ‘Gothic’ manner. His creations were made mainly in two periods. The first period of work is generally considered to contain expressionistic color, with a strong style of “utopian realism” and surreal architecture, like a doomsday scenario. The second period contained more abstract style, with the main features of formalism.

In the latter part of the 1990s, he discovered computers, the Internet, digital photography and photomanipulation, a medium that he focused on until his death.

Jacek Yerka

Jacek Yerka, “Eruption”, 1990, Acrylic on Canvas, 65 x 73 cm, Private Collection

Born in Poland in 1952, Jacek Yerka studied fine art and graphics prior to becoming a full-time artist in 1980. While at university, Yerka resisted the constant pressures of his instructors to adopt the less detailed, less realistic techniques that characterize so much of contemporary art. Instead, he stubbornly continued to work in the classic, meticulous Flemish style he still favors to this day.

His paintings are acrylic on canvas and carefully rendered, using images from his childhood, including his grandmother’s kitchen. He also includes odd beasts and whimsical landscapes. He comments, “For me, the 1950s were a kind of Golden Age … If I were, for instance, to paint a computer, it would definitely have a pre-war aesthetic to it.”

Joseph Gielniak

Etchings by Joseph Gielniak

Joseph Gielniak was born in a family of Polish immigrants in France, where he finished high school and studied for a year at the famous Ecole des Beaux Arts in Vallenciennes. He went to Poland in 1950 with the intention of studying at the Department of Consular and Diplomatic in Warsaw. This plan was canceled due to a severe case of lung disease. At the age of 21 Joseph Gielniak was sent to a sanatorium in Bukowiec near Kowary in Lower Silesia, where he spent almost his entire adult life. The architectural elements and the environment of the sanatorium were frequent motifs in his art.

Stanislav Szukalski

Artwork of Stanislav Szukalski

Stanisłav Szukalski  was a Polish-born painter and sculptor who became a part of the Chicago Renaissance. He also developed the pseudoscientific-historical theory of Zermatism, positing that all human culture was derived from post-deluge Easter Island and that mankind was locked in an eternal struggle with the Sons of Yeti (“Yetinsyny”), the offspring of Yeti and humans.

In 1934 the government of Poland declared Stanislav Szukalski the country’s ‘Greatest Living Artist.’ It built the Szukalski National Museum in Warsaw to hold his massive sculptures and dramatic, mythological paintings.

When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, they destroyed the museum and all of Szukalski’s sculptures and paintings. He fled to the United States, where no one recognized him as a celebrated hero. He lived in a small apartment in Glendale, California and made a meager income drawing maps for the aerospace industry.

Szukalski would have remained in total obscurity if he hadn’t been discovered by a few popular underground cartoonists: Robert Williams, Rick Griffin, and Jim Woodring – who recognized Szukalski’s immense artistic talent, and befriended him. In 1971, Glenn Bray, a publisher who had previously specialized in the work of Mad Magazine artist Basil Wolverton, befriended him and later published one book of Szukalski’s art, Inner Portraits (1980), and another of his art and philosophy, A Trough Full of Pearls / Behold! The Protong (1982).

Pawel Klarecki

Photography by Polish Artist Pawel Klarecki

“I have always seen the world as pictures and frames I love landscapes and the natural world. Long walks along with photography give me a lot of satisfaction – this is my small world, seen with my very own eyes. Sometimes it may seem surreal and messed up, but these are in fact, pieces of my imagination mixed with breathtaking landscapes, the very miracle that is nature.

I was lucky enough to live on the spectacular coast of Northern Ireland. It is a true paradise for a landscape photographer, an amazing and perfect place to capture and show the beauty and the power of nature.

The important thing I need to mention is the constant search for the perfect light and atmosphere. In my case it all differs. Sometimes the pictures are colorful, other times they are grayish with a flash of light. It all depends on what’s going on in my head at this particular moment. But I am always striving for that perfect element of light and how it impacts on my photography.” _Pawel Klarecki

Michal Karcz

Digital Photography by Michal Karcz

Some artists get to the point when their usual medium or technique starts to limit their visions. This is exactly what happened to a Polish artist Michal Karcz who found that painting and the ordinary dark room photography techniques didn’t allow him to fully realize his potential.

Born in 1977 in Warsaw, the graduate of the High School of the Arts was first passionate about painting. However, in the early 90’s, he became drawn to photography only to realize that the dark-room techniques alone were almost as limiting as the paintbrush and canvas. Luckily, the developing technology allowed him to combine the two with the help of some digital tools.

“This digital photography and software gave me the opportunity to generate unique realities that are impossible to create with ordinary dark room techniques.” – Michal Karcz

Zdzislaw Beksinski

Illustrations by Zdzislaw Beksinski

Zdzislaw Beksiński  was a Polish painter, photographer and sculptor, specializing in the field of dystopian surrealism. Beksiński did his paintings and drawings in what he called either a ‘Baroque’ or a ‘Gothic’ manner. His creations were made mainly in two periods. The first period of work is generally considered to contain expressionistic color, with a strong style of “utopian realism” and surreal architecture, like a doomsday scenario. The second period contained more abstract style, with the main features of formalism.

Beksiński threw himself into painting with a passion, and worked constantly (always to the strains of classical music). He soon became the leading figure in contemporary Polish art. In the late 1960s, Beksiński entered what he himself called his “fantastic period”, which lasted up to the mid-1980s. This is his best-known period, during which he created very disturbing images, showing a surrealistic, post-apocalyptic environment with very detailed scenes of death, decay, landscapes filled with skeletons, deformed figures and deserts.

On 21 February 2005, Beksiński was found dead in his flat in Warsaw with 17 stab wounds on his body; two of the wounds were determined to have been fatal. Robert Kupiec (the teenage son of his longtime caretaker), who later pleaded guilty, and his accomplice, Lukas Kupiec, were arrested shortly after the crime. Before his death, Beksiński refused to loan Robert Kupiec a few hundred złotych (approximately $100).