Ikona – Tradycja – Nowosielski. Weryfikacja pojęcia ikony w twórczości Jerzego Nowosielskiego

Abstract

ICON – TRADITION – NOWOSIELSKI. VERIFICATION OF THE TERM “ICON” IN THE WORKS OF JERZY NOWOSIELSKI

Jerzy Nowosielski (born in 1923 in Kraków) has designed several dozen interiors for both Orthodox and Catholic churches; at the same time, he is the author of hundreds of secular paintings: portraits, nudes, still lifes and abstract compositions. He has created his own, distinctive style (with numerous references to Byzantine painting); he has also developed his own concept of art according to which all of his works should be regarded in terms of being icons. The purpose of the present paper is to verify that term in the context of Nowosielski’s works. The reference point for the analysis is the classic sense of the term “icon” which is made more specific by historical context (the author expounds on that issue in the first section of the paper). The analysis is based on the confrontation of the artist’s statements with his paintings. The main conclusion of the analysis is that the foundation lying at the basis of Nowosielski’s entire artistic output is his desire to present the theandric (divine-human) nature of man. This idea – which is at the same time the leitmotif of pictures produced by the Eastern Christianity – is Nowosielski’s preliminary assumption in the context of his own art. The artist has tried to create an image of transformed matter in its eschatological aspect, and it is his desire to present the real form of that vision in his paintings. Considered in these terms, painting appears to be identified with the icon (as far as its objectives are concerned), even if its themes (e.g. nudes or landscapes) are unknown to the traditional icon. Nowosielski does not set any limits for the thematic range of an icon because he believes that theosis, being a universal phenomenon present in all creation, legitimizes his vision of painting. The icon is for Nowosielski a kind of art in which the content is transferred through the language of the form. Reflecting on the issues of form and its meaning in his painting, the artist creates his own language which, while being distinctive and original, can also become universal due to the fact that the level of communication of a given painting is brought to the level of its form, and, therefore, to the level of direct, intuitive communication which is free of any references to historical or symbolic contexts.