on the reverse l.g. affixed sticker of the Central Bureau of Artistic Exhibitions Branch in Lodz filled in by the artist [print/atrament]: No _ | Author JERZY NOWOSIELSKI | Address ŁÓDŹ Zachodnia 27 | Title Pejzaż | Technique oil Dimension _ | Price 10,000 Łódź 16.XI.1959.
Authenticity of the painting consulted with Andrzej Szczepaniak - art historian, curator of exhibitions, executive director of Starmach Gallery, editor, among others, of albums published by Skira Henryk Stażewski (2018), Jerzy Nowosielski (2019).
Provenance:
The painting was purchased by the current owners directly from the artist's studio.
A sticker of the Lodz CBWA and a note in the calendar in the Jerzy Nowosielski catalog (Starmach Gallery, Cracow 2003, p. 587) testify that the painting was exhibited - as one of two landscapes by Nowosielski - at the 14th Annual District Exhibition of Works by Members of the Association of Polish Artists in Lodz from December 6, 1959 to January 6, 1960 (cat. no. 74-75, two Landscapes 60 x 72 cm).
In landscapes Nowosielski likes shots from above, seen from a bird's eye (or is it God's eye?). Very often these are: "vast landscapes emphasized by the play of lines, equally reduced to conventional signs, as if stripped bare. Nowosielski juxtaposes different shots and points of view, builds space seemingly illogically, according to the principles of conventional, "inverted" perspective. The typical concave line of the horizon, the curved houses, the streets and rocks piled high - give the impression that the painting is a polychrome, or a curtain hung on the walls of a gigantic, cosmic temple.
Krystyna Czerni, Jerzy Nowosielski. Great Painters. Their Life, Inspirations and Work, No. 105, p. 14
Jerzy Nowosielski (Krakow 1923 - Krakow 2011) began his studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Krakow in 1940. In 1942 he stayed for less than a year in the St. John the Baptist Lavra near Lviv. There he studied the art of painting and the history of icons. After returning to Cracow in 1943, he re-established contacts with the circle of the future Cracow Group. After the war, he continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow under Prof. Eugeniusz Eibisch (1945-1947). At the First Exhibition of Modern Art in Cracow in 1948/49, he showed paintings maintained in the trend of geometric abstraction. During the years of Socialist Realism, he did not exhibit, dealing at the time with stage design and painting churches and orthodox churches. In 1955 in Lodz he presented his first solo exhibition, in 1956 he participated in the XXVIII Venice Biennale. From 1957 to 1962 he was a teacher at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Lodz, then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, where he taught at the Faculty of Painting until his retirement in 1993. In the second half of the 1950s he achieved a distinctive style of nudes, landscapes and figural scenes in interiors, which he owed to his fascination with icons and his experience with sacred painting. In 1976, he took up monumental works anew, producing mural paintings, Stations of the Cross and designs for stained glass windows in the Church of Divine Providence in Wesola near Warsaw (1976-1979). The artist was widely recognized as an authority on art rooted in spiritual values.
Jerzy Nowosielski died on February 21, 2011 in Krakow, Poland.