The biography and works of the renowned painter, writer of icons, and man from the borderlands of culture
To the as yet unanswered question – Who was Jerzy Nowosielski? A writer or a painter? A philosopher or an artist? – Julita Deluga responds: a man of the borderlands. In the authorial narrative contained in the album Jerzy Nowosielski, Deluga sets off along a biographical path. As a result, the reader obtains a clear description of the various life decisions taken by Nowosielski (his novitiate in a religious order, his loss of faith, his marriage and his regaining of his faith), illustrated by his creative works. Quite evidently, three pillars of his multifaceted artistic activity emerge: the Icon, the Female Body and Architecture. The icon was continually present in the life and vocation of Nowosielski the painter, who transformed the canon of “writing” the icon in his own way. His artworks intended for liturgical space are very simplified – the figures shown on them are almost schematically conceived, and their attributes are reduced to a minimum. What catches one’s eye in the icons of Nowosielski is, above all, the absence of gold and the uncanny vitality of earth colours: blue, red, green. Also characteristic of his style are the countenances of his figures: they are dark complexioned, as if burnt by the sun. Nowosielski transferred the principles of icon writing to his extra-liturgical artworks, creating the original concept of the “lay icon”. On such paintings we observe the central portrait of a person, while around him or her “scenes” from everyday life are found: a passing car, a bus, flowers, shopping. Certainly, his iconic style of non-religious painting led him to discover the female body. He loves to dress, undress and dress again the female figures on his canvases, arranging them in thematic poses familiar to him. His peculiar manner of presenting female nudes with a lack of anatomical literalness, elongated faces and perfectly almond-shaped eyes, results in an impression of spiritualised erotica, a theology of the flesh, the mysticism of the sexual. In the end, we are given access to one of Nowosielski’s fondest dreams: his drawings of an ideal temple, which he desired to design from start to finish. This intriguing album presents the reader with the complete works of Jerzy Nowosielski, and it constitutes a great incentive to the reader to continue his or her study of the author’s works on his own.
Marcin Cielecki, translated by Charles S. Kraszewski
