Jerzy NOWOSIELSKI (1923-2011), Design of an iconostasis for the Greek Catholic Church in the crypt of the Holy Cross Church in Wroclaw, 1985

Pencil, watercolor, paper; 44 x 40 cm;
Signed p. d.: J. Nowosielski (in pencil).
Jerzy Nowosielski is undoubtedly one of the most famous painters of the 20th century, having left behind some two thousand paintings and countless drawings. The artist was associated with the Cracow artistic community, among others with the circle of the later Second Cracow Group. In addition to easel painting, he was also involved in monumental painting.
In his compositions, one can see how the static image of the world and man coincides with the philosophical considerations undertaken by Jerzy Nowosielski as a theoretician, a researcher of, among other things: history, the world, time, space, existence - being, religion, the relationship between the various issues. Despite the sources from which the artist drew, he was far from calling himself a mystic, preferring the term magician, distinguishing between the concepts of revealed religion and natural religion and magic, while emphasizing the fact that the latter is also sacrum: "And not for a moment does it occur to me that I am a mystic. Nothing of the sort. On the other hand, it often seems to me that I am a magician. That is, I cause spiritual effects by means of certain actions."
Bibliography: Mieczyslaw Porębski, "Metahistory. The Hijacking of Europe," in Jerzy Nowosielski, [Warsaw] 2003, pp. 9-15.