Virtual
walk
Sep 5 – 27, 2024
Curator: Małgorzata Paszylka-Glaza
“The Kalisz region is truly beautiful…” Painting the world by Zygmunt Miszczyk.
Zygmunt Miszczyk was a modest artist who simply loved painting the world around him. He drew inspiration for his paintings from the beauty and sincerity of nature, which delight the eye with their wide color and sincere admiration for the beauty of nature. He was open to various artistic experiences and boldly faced the concept of the non-obviousness of what we call art.
There are two dominant trends in his painting work. The first is a kind of continuation of the color movement, which was one of the most important phenomena of the interwar period. This was probably influenced by his acquaintance with Zygmunt Karolak and Leon Michalski. The first was born in Kalisz, who after the war became associated with Sopot and Gdańsk, where he ran the Drawing Studio at the State Higher School of Fine Arts. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, whose teachers included: Wojciech Weiss, Stanisław Kamocki, Władysław Jarocki and Jan Wojnarowski. Karolak was a modest artist who valued good painting skills (including drawing) and, above all, nature. But if you have grown up artistically under the supervision of masters of landscape painting, it could not have been otherwise. Meeting Zygmunt Karolak was a lesson in great landscape painting for Zygmunt Miszczyk, which he later continued in his work. This is probably why his love of nature was sincere, true and simple. Miszczyk painted what he knew, what delighted him every day, what was “at his fingertips.” These are landscapes full of color, shine and genuine joy of creation. He liked wide and juicy patches of colour, he liked strong and visible brushstrokes and he liked the simplicity of artistic message characteristic of him. His experience of landscape painting was deeply rooted in the Young Poland tradition of painting nature. It was the same experience of a “simple” and native landscape of a small homeland. And he was just as hard-working as Zygmunt Karolak and just like Zygmunt Karolak, he valued the meaning and purity of line and thus drawing.
Leon Michalski, in turn, was a graduate of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, in the studio of Mieczysław Kotarbiński. Michalski’s domain was also drawing and workshop graphics. The portraits painted by Zygmunt Miszczyk have an elegance of color characteristic of Mieczysław Kotarbiński’s palette, which he got to know through the work of Leon Michalski. Both artists were a source of artistic certainty for Miszczyk that the colors and light carried in his soul, the delight in the simplicity and obviousness of nature should find their translation in art, including paintings. The great value of the artist’s landscapes was that he painted them in the open air. This is probably why there is so much light, atmosphere and air in them. The artist intuitively “transferred” to the canvas the delight over what for him was tangible, everyday life. These paintings constantly have a specific nostalgia characteristic of painting landscapes that were present in the artist’s life.
Zygmunt Miszczyk’s painting legacy also includes interesting relief paintings painted in shades of grey, which oscillate on the border between abstraction and grotesque. The artist brings out in them the power of drawing, shows its power, almost emphasizing the architectural role of the line in the painting. It is in these paintings that he comes closest to the experience of the work of the brilliant Jan Lebenstein, whose universal language of art stopped on the border of abstraction, while at the same time extremely “simplifying” the message of the grotesque. In these grey paintings, Miszczyk synthesizes real and true forms, simplifies them and at the same time extracts them from the face of the canvas. Such relief quality of these paintings is the best example of the fact that the artist’s painting art evolves and searches, and He himself is simply curious about new artistic experiences.
Zygmunt Miszczyk was an artist who was able to “look and see,” who drew inspiration from the experience of the moment, literally from feeling a minute of delight at the here and now.
Małgorzata Paszylka-Glaza – art historian, curator of the National Museum in Gdańsk, curator of exhibitions (including international ones), author of publications on modern art, academic lecturer.
Bibliography:
Zygmunt Miszczyk (1910-1988), exhibition catalogue, Bureau of Artistic Exhibitions in Kalisz, 2003, ISBN 83-918495-1-1
calisia.pl/nie-posikalem-sie-z-radosci-sprawa-miszczyka,19958
kalisz.pl/dla-mieszkanca/aktualnosci/rewitalizacja/spacerowniki-kaliskie–sladami-miszczyka,52925
kaliszczasemmalowany.pl/index.php/2023/zygmunt-miszczyk-artysta-sztuki-uzytkowej/
kalisz.liszewski.info/zygmunt-miszczyk-1910-1988-artysta-sztuki-uzytkowej/#more-5364
kalisz.naszemiasto.pl/logo-not-zniklo-ale-wroci-w-postaci-repliki/ar/c13-2118492
muzeawielkopolski.pl/tag/miszczyk-zygmunt
zyciekalisza.pl/artykul/brzydkie-piekne/619712
zyciekalisza.pl/artykul/po-niebieskich-sladach/621935
zyciekalisza.pl/artykul/miszczyk-i-mimozy/1494176
“Citizen of Kalisz by choice” – artist Zygmunt Miszczyk (1910-1988)
A friend and advocate of Zygmunt Miszczyk’s work – Andrzej Niekrasz very often began the story of his life and work in this way.
Zygmunt Miszczyk was born on April 5, 1910 in Jędrzejów. He graduated from high school in Miechów and his teacher Ludwik Żelichowski was the first to notice the artistic talent of young Zygmunt.
He continued his education at the Infantry Cadet School in Vilnius. In 1939, he was the commander of a company of the 4th Infantry Regiment, and participated in the battles in 1939 near Rembertów and Mińsk Mazowiecki. For his attitude, he was awarded the medals: “For Warsaw” and “For Victory and Peace”. He spent the years of World War II in German POW camps (Nimburg, Itzehoe, Standbostel, Grossborn, and Lübeck).
After this difficult period, his artistic abilities were activated, especially since he met two artists there: Zygmunt Karolak and Leon Michalski. This was the time when his search was also directed towards graphic design and typography, which resulted in projects of this type completed in the future.
In 1947, he began his studies at the Academy at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Katowice, which he interrupted after a year and in 1948 he settled permanently in Kalisz.
Professionally, he worked at the Kalisz Construction Company and the Kalisz Embroidery and Lace Factory.
He divided his artistic activity between graphics, painting and interior design. He designed: the elevation of the Kalisz Tannery, the wall and fence in “Runotex,” the mosaic elevation of the “Oaza” cinema, the sgraffito elevation of the Technician’s House, the interior of the “Kosmos” cinema (of course all in Kalisz) and the “Winiary” trademark.
Since 1965, he has participated in art competitions and national painting exhibitions, such as: “Opole Spring,” “25th Anniversary of the Polish People’s Army,” “Man and Work” or the Contemporary Painting Festival in Szczecin and the International Graphic Biennale in Kraków.
Since 1959, he was a member of the Association of Polish Visual Artists and since 1976 he has served as the president of the Kalisz branch of this association. He willingly participated in open-air painting events. His works are in the collections of the National Museum in Poznań, the National Museum in Szczecin, the District Museum of the Kalisz Region and also in private collections.
He died in Kalisz in 1988.
Exhibition duration Sep 5– 27 2024
Opening Sep 5, 7 P.M.
Free admission
CULTURE INSTITUTION OF KALISZ
pl. św. Józefa 5
62-800 Kalisz Poland
Gallery Partners:
Mo GRUPA, AR NEON, SCHIMMEL Pianos, POLIFARB KALISZ S.A., M&P Alkohole Wina Cygara
Media patronage:
RADIO POZNAŃ, CALISIA.PL, RADIO CENTRUM, ZIEMIA KALISKA.