Mieczyslaw Wisniewski (1929-2018), UKLL LV/118, 2007

acrylic/canvas, wood, 77.5 x 77 x 6 cm
signed and described on the back, on the stretcher bar: Mieczyslaw Wisniewski "UKŁAD LV/118"
/ 77.5 x 76.5
EXHIBITED:
- Mieczyslaw Wisniewski's games with (sub)painting(s), September-October 2022, Antiqua et Moderna, Warsaw 2022.
LITERATURE:
- Mieczyslaw Wisniewski gry z (pod)obraz(i)em, September-October 2022, Antiqua et Moderna [exhibition catalog], Warsaw 2022, p. nlb. [repr.].

Studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń from 1949 to 1954, and was associated with his alma mater as a teacher throughout his professional life. After graduation, he practiced representational painting, striving for a synthesis of form. Around 1960 he began to create abstract compositions that were part of the matter art trend. These works, made of canvas, often of tarpaulin, were sparing in color and betrayed the artist's tendencies toward geometrization and relief effects. In the 1960s, Wisniewski deepened, as he himself recalled, "his studies of space, the overlapping and interpenetration of forms and structures." Monochromatic collage and assemblage were created at the time. In the mid-1970s he began working on series - "Arrangements" and "Spherical Arrangements." He continued them over the following decades, creating paintings-objects. His work is an example of an outstandingly individualized redaction of abstract art of Constructivist provenance. Author of more than 50 solo exhibitions at home and abroad. Participant in national and international exhibitions of contemporary art, including plein-airs and symposia of Polish avant-gardists (including Exhibitions and Symposia of the Golden Grape in Zielona Gora, International Plein-airs in Osieki). Member of the Association of Polish Artists and Designers and Creative Association "Torun Group" and participant in reviews of the work of these circles. Participant of the famous 1st Biennial of Spatial Forms in Elblag in 1965. In 1984, the artist presented his works at the Warsaw Zachęta Gallery at the group exhibition Language of Geometry, curated by Bożena Kowalska. Over the following years, he regularly participated in the Plein-Air for Artists Using the Language of Geometry and post-plein-air exhibitions organized by Kowalska. Recent important exhibitions include an exhibition at the Center for Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu in Toruń in 2010 (the catalog compiled by Elżbieta Wiśniewska includes a selection of critical texts, a full calendar and an extensive bibliography), an exhibition at the Walbrzych Art Gallery BWA in 2021, and an exhibition at Warsaw's Antiqua et Moderna gallery in 2022.