Jerzy Nowosielski

Visiting the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art ,
I ran across 3 paintings
from the sixties and seventies by
Jerzy Nowosielski (b. 1924)
who is not Ukrainian
(he's a Pole from Krakow)
but I can see why he appealed
to the Ukrainian (Bohdan Kowalsky)
who collected them.











They feel like Orthodox saints
who have taken their clothes off,
and might have more
than just prayer
on their mind.






Something about the intense colors of
red and blue
seems to be so
contemporary Polish.





Are these the cooling towers
of a nuclear power plant?

This painting
is in the collection
of the Polish Museum
which unfortunately
can no longer afford
to show its art collection.







As explained here and here
Jerzy's mother was Roman Catholic,
his father was Ukrainian Catholic,
and Jerzy was enthralled with Orthodox art,
spending some months in a seminary
as a young man.












And he seems to have been
as interested in making icons
as modern-style paintings.







Wow, what a great one.











Here's a tour of a church
where he painted
Stations of the Cross






And he's also
something of a theologian,
having published a book
some of which is translated
here



























Here's how he explains his nudes:


"...a full synthesis of matters spiritual with the empirical reality occurs precisely in the figure of the woman. ... If a painter is interested in corporality, in some way of uniting the spiritual with the world of physical entities, it is utterly natural that he develops an interest in the appearance of the woman."







An explanation
that works for me!



1965







1999













1997





1959








1971




1975





1959










Here's a still life
from 1954



and then he does this
amazing Egyptian thing









1972

"The Kidnap of Europa"


O.K.



From what I can tell,
Nowosielski
is the most renowned
painter in Poland.


So why doesn't
he have anything in
the art museum
of the second largest Polish City
in the world ?