5. About the artist
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Andrzej Krystyn Wróblewski was born on June 15 1927 in Vilnius, as the second son of Bronisław Wróblewski, professor of law and rector of the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius and Krystyna Wróblewska, an artist. The Wróblewskis’ house at 4 Aleja Róż was an important meeting place for the Vilnius intelligentsia and leading professors of the University, lecturers as well as artists. It was a house pulsating with the creative energy of a happy, fulfilled and remarkable life. Vilnius, which from the geopolitical point of view was in the heart of the land described by American historian Timothy Snyder as “bloodied lands,” underwent many dramatic changes. In the years 1939 - 1945, the city was successively part of the Republic of Lithuania, the USSR, German occupation and the Soviet occupation again as the capital of one of the republics. Each of these changes brought violence and fear. During the German occupation, a ghetto was established in the city and the surrounding forests became places of mass executions. In August 1941, during a perquisition of the Wróblewski apartment by Gestapo, his father died of a heart attack in front of the fourteen year old Andrzej’s eyes. The shock, the violent and painful loss resulted in an unbearable indelible wound.
After the war, the family was subject to repatriation and forced to leave Vilnius. Krystyna and her sons arrived in Krakow on April 26, 1945 after months of hardship of travelling in cattle cars. Krakow, which was not destroyed during the war, appeared as a city with the readiest potential for intellectual and cultural revival. For the Wróblewski family it embodied the vision of a sister academic center to Vilnius - a place that offered the opportunity for restarting and development. The uneasy wanderings left a deep imprint on young Andrzej. The inhumane conditions of the journey, uncertainty about the future and anxiety about the new place changed the boy in an irreversible way. From an innocent child he turned into a mature young man branded by suffering.
In Krakow, Andrzej continued his education interrupted by the war. After obtaining the high school diploma he began parallel studies at the faculties of Painting and Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts and at Art History department of the Jagiellonian University.
Self-Portrait on the Yellow Background belongs to the masterpieces in which Andrzej Wróblewski settles accounts with the wartime trauma. The painting combines realism with a hidden symbolism. The jacket demands particular attention - too large, wrinkled and washed out, it dresses the artist's frail body. Later, the garment returns as a recurring motif. In the execution scenes painted by Wróblewski, men wearing similar jackets are killed by the occupiers. In Self-Portrait the item of clothing becomes an ambiguous symbol. The artist seems to suggest that he might have found himself in their place and shared their tragic fate. It appears in Executions also as an empty form - a case devoid of a body. This is a metaphorical symbolism and analysis of the void after death, an attempt to capture absence. The most famous scene in the series, Surrealist Execution from the National Museum in Warsaw presents a shocking image of dismembered and deformed bodies in similarly wrinkled, stiff suits.
Self-Portrait on the Yellow Background was probably based on a selfie; self-photography was a common practice of the artist. The severed hand, which may have originally held the camera's plunger, is the evidence of his fascination with photography as a preparatory medium, as the first record. It is worth mentioning that shortly before his death Wróblewski was working on his first film, which proves his lively interest in the movement and the visual narrative of cinema.
Andrzej Wróblewski died at the age of 29, walking along the Oswald Balzer path in the Tatra Mountains on March 23, 1957. It’s more than likely that he fainted and fell, dying of hypothermia as a result. His death is surrounded by mystery.
On that day, Wróblewski set off alone for the mountains - a place he loved and knew well. The mountains fascinated him with their majesty, immutability and power. They represented an eternal space, more durable and stronger than man. Hiking in the mountains is not a mere physical effort, it is also a spiritual act. In the case of Wróblewski, this symbolism acquires a special meaning. The artist who explored the themes of existence, suffering and passing in his work faced the harsh reality of nature on his last day - a force he not only admired but which became the ultimate witness to his life. Death in the mountains, the beautiful and untamed site, seems almost metaphorical. Perhaps, that’s where Wróblewski searched for solitude, peace or inspiration - as many artists had done before him, and as he did many times himself. Yet the mountains, while offering a sense of freedom and transcendence, sometimes demand the highest price.
