Exhibitions & Events

12th December 2020 - 30th May 2021

curator: Ania Muszyńska 

By connecting the seemingly distant worlds of traditions of the East and the West, the value systems of different religions, the canonical aesthetics of the past ages with the modernity, Jerzy Nowosielski became part of the Polish history of art as an intriguing painter of the specific “borderland”. Aware of the significance of the language of abstraction and metaphor associated therewith, he decides to centre his oeuvre around figuration. Figuration full of, as he called them, “subtle beings”, rather phenomena than facts, rather own phantasies than irrefutable truths. 

The very centre of his own searches focusing on the reality of the sacred, which eludes the human experience and goes beyond the scope of human cognition, is where Jerzy Nowosielski places the figure of the woman. Apart from icons, landscapes, or still life, the works created by the Master over decades feature primarily female silhouettes in countless scenes and contexts. They are frozen during exercises or daily care, look at themselves in the mirrors, fill the streets, beaches, buses, ship decks, arenas.

It happens that while being the theme, the main thread of the narrative, they escape the field of view. Similarly to shadows or apparitions, they infiltrate into the canvas space almost unnoticed. Frequently they disappear in the dark, their presence marked merely by a glowing red contour. According to the Artist’s intention, we examine them from various perspectives: corporeal and spiritual, sacral and earthly, sensual and emotional ones. There is no end to the contrasts: they build moving, intimate, conventional and unconventional female images, and the exhibition at Spectra Art Space is dedicated entirely to them. 

For Jerzy Nowosielski, the woman is a great fascination, the materialisation and personification of the sacred, a reminiscence of the Paradise. Is a value in itself and for itself. A mystical, moving power, to which he, as a creator and as a man, feels defenceless. 

What I think about a woman I cannot tell; I can only paint it. And I have already done that. What I think or feel about a woman I have already painted and I have nothing more to add here.

Jerzy Nowosielski