site.btaExhibition of Paintings by Jerzy Nowosielski among Highlights of Polish Institute's January Programme

An exhibition of paintings by Polish artist Jerzy Nowosielski (1923-2011) is among the highlights on the January event calendar of the Polish Institute in Sofia. The works will be on display at the institute's art gallery until February 6, the organizers said.

Nowosielski's art uses a comprehensive aesthetic system which rests on the theology of icons and the spirituality of Orthodox Christianity, the Polish Institute said. Religious murals are an important part of his art. Nowosielski designed the decorations of houses of worship of various religions. He also incorporated the Byzantine heritage into secular painting.

His unique style crystallized at the meeting point of Western and Eastern tradition, avant-garde and Byzantine art. From surrealism he borrowed the atmosphere of ambiguity and mystery, and from icon painting he adopted the hieratic quality, the pronounced contour and flat forms along with the deep symbolism of light and colour.

Jerzy Nowosielski, a painter, an Orthodox Christian theologian and a thinker, was one of the foremost Polish artists of the 20th century. Born to a Ukrainian Carpathian father and a Polonized Austrian mother, he was raised in the borderland of Polish and Ukrainian culture. His art is a shared heritage and pride of Poland and Ukraine.