Own technique, oil, canvas, 20 x 20 cm, 41.5 x 41.5 cm framed
Signed on the reverse
The presented work by Małgorzata Dawidiuk - one of the most respected contemporary icon writers in Poland - is a unique combination of the Byzantine icon tradition with the author's modern painting interpretation.
The artist was born in 1967 in Wisznice, Podlasie. In 1994 she graduated from the I. E. Repin Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, at the Faculty of Painting and Conservation, with a specialization in icons - one of the most demanding and prestigious artistic paths. She is the founder and head of the conservation and art studio "IKOS".
Malgorzata Dawidiuk is the author of numerous sacred implementations: icons, iconostasis and polychromies, including those in Cholovice near Krasiczyn, Koszalin, Krynica, Olsztyn, Zamienice near Legnica and in Niagou, Slovakia. She is also the co-author of the wall paintings in the Chapel of the Divine Mercy Sanctuary in Krakow-Lagiewniki. Her works are in private and museum collections in Poland and abroad.
The artist's work grows out of two sources:
- many years of practice as a conservator of works of sacred art,
- deep roots in the canon of icons.
Initially, the artist created faithful copies and travesties of ancient icons, maintaining strict rules for "writing" sacred images - along with spiritual preparation and respect for theological tradition. Over time, the canon became a starting point for her, rather than a limitation - giving way to authorial invention and a contemporary form of expression.
A special place in her oeuvre is occupied by icon-shadows and later realizations on canvas, in which fragments of original old canvases - found during restoration work in Orthodox churches - are pasted onto a new stretcher. These are authentic relics of old churches, carrying the memory of place, prayer and history. From individual figures here emerge multithreaded figural scenes, building a narrative on the borderline between the sacred and contemporary sensibilities.
The artist combines technical mastery, conservation experience and academic background - after studying in St. Petersburg, she received a doctorate in art from the Radom University of Technology and Humanities, which confirms her high position as both an artist and a scholar of iconography.
