At the exhibition we present the works of the artists for whom relief was the most complete form of expression. Relief is an extraordinary form of artistic expression, one that combines experiences in both painting and sculpture. The departure from flat painterly surface towards the one inhabited by the shapes of solids, enabled the artist to extend the sphere of personal experience not only as an Author but also to the one of the Viewer, the one that enters into an almost material contact with the object. The exhibition comprises key works from the leading artists active post 1945.
One of the most interesting works in this survey is monochromatic in colour “Relief Nr 32” by Henryk Stażewski from the year 1969. Like the other exponents of the geometrical abstraction, Stażewski held the view that art, just like science, should search for the fundamental principles governing reality, in particular its experience. The artist was reaching out for the painterly means of expression in order to experiment with the possibilities of the painterly surface. This gave him the opportunity to return to the early experiments in abstract art from the 1920s and 1930s.
The exhibition features great paper compositions of Ryszard Winiarski. “Pages” from 1974 were shown, among others, at the 4th Trienalle of the Drawing in Wrocław (4. Trienalle Rysunku we Wrocławiu). Spatial objects, including reliefs, are one of the most important areas of the artist’s uniform and formally consistent oeuvre.
The work of Andrzej Gieraga is an interesting point of the exhibition. The artist creates frugal, sometimes almost ascetic compositions, which reflect harmony and purity. Gieraga’s work is an art of great subtlety and simplicity, emanating optimism, as exemplified by “Progressive XXXII”.
The exhibition also includes Jan Berdyszak’s “Focusing Area”. The display is complemented by Jan Pamuła’s large-scale compositions and reliefs from the series “Equipollent tructures” by Kajetan Sosnowski.