Jerzy Nowosielski, RED COMPOSITION, 1995

66.00 x 78.00 cm - silkscreen print, paper
72 x 85 cm (paper dimensions)
signed in lead below the image, left: 57/60; right: Jerzy Nowosielski 1995


Jerzy Nowosielski (Kraków 1923 – Kraków 2011) began his studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Kraków in 1940. In 1942, he spent just under a year at the Lavra of St. John the Baptist near Lviv. There, he studied painting and the history of icons. After returning to Kraków in 1943, he reestablished contact with the circle that would later become the Kraków Group. After the war, he continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków under the supervision of Prof. Eugeniusz Eibisch (1945–1947). At the First Exhibition of Modern Art in Kraków in 1948–49, he exhibited paintings in the style of geometric abstraction. During the era of Socialist Realism, he did not exhibit, instead devoting himself to set design and painting Orthodox and Catholic churches. In 1955, he presented his first solo exhibition in Łódź, and in 1956 he participated in the 28th Venice Biennale. From 1957 to 1962, he taught at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Łódź, and subsequently at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, where he lectured at the Department of Painting until his retirement in 1993. In the second half of the 1950s, he developed a distinctive style for his nudes, landscapes, and figurative interior scenes, which he owed to his fascination with icons and his experience with sacred art. In 1976, he resumed working on monumental projects, creating, among other things, murals, Stations of the Cross, and stained-glass designs for the Church of Divine Providence in Wesoła near Warsaw (1976–1979). The artist was widely recognized as an authority in the field of art rooted in spiritual values.

Jerzy Nowosielski died on February 21, 2011, in Kraków.