Friday,
03 May
The Holy Family, 1998/2000, 97 cm x 130 cm, egg tempera on canvas
This painting, added by the curator, considers the economy of the Holy Family* and is several years older than the others in the exhibition. It includes a division into two colours, attributed to the two persons of Jesus and their two worlds. The blue person – has the colour of the heaven and the earthly person, the pink one – the colour of the body**. Within the economy of the Holy Family, we can relate to the economy of this dual presence.
In the Family, roles are assigned, Joseph, a carpenter who fulfills the role of a Father, prepares the instrument of death for the Son. Meanwhile, the Son works with the sheep. In the heavenly part they are promised eternal life – they will graze there, and in the earthly part of the sheepfold they will be turned into skin and meat. Mother spins wool.
* The time Jesus appeared, was a time when roles within the community were economised.
The father who conceives is not always the one who ultimately fulfills the role of father.
Brothers are numerous, there are also cousins, they all share a common ancestor. In the event of a brother’s death, the brother takes his wife as his own. The owner, herself unable to give her husband any offspring, becomes a mother when the slave girl sat on her husband’s lap and became pregnant.
** Fleischfarbe
– You can see the boundaries very clearly. And that this Son is in between of all of this. He is the centre. He is like a child of divorcing parents. You don’t know which side he’s on because his parents keep fighting. He is such a victim in between.
– A dispute over roles, the man will become a victim on the cross prepared by the man. The woman in this economy will not become a victim. Is it possible that she, even in an unconscious way, doesn’t want her Son to be sacrificed?
– Exactly, she looks a bit as if she was sinister, as if she had such a mean smile.
– Women engaged in activities: spinning, weaving, winding some thread, this is, after all, the figure of Greek Moira. They spin the thread of life, guard it and cut it. There is a certain ominous note in this busyness and this spider’s activity…
– In fact, the sheep are already his children.
– He is also a Lamb of God, a victim, and at the same time a Patricide.
– He belongs to the Trinity, so these sheep, his children are divided, and everything above and everything below him is divided.
– For this the Trinity, so he wasn’t a Patricide at the moment when his covenant as new becomes more relevant under the condition that the old covenant is still valid.
Painting: The colour, its festivity, luminosity, the use of white and gold.
Metaphor: For the time being Jesus godmansacrificiallamb keeps himself busy with people – lambs who stay in two worlds, before his blood cleanses us from our sins at the moment of the Judgement (this must be recalled).
Marek Sobczyk
Born on 30 November 1955 in Warsaw. In the years 1975-1980 he studied at the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where he obtained a diploma in the studio of Prof. Stefan Gierowski. Since 1983, he has been associated with the Warsaw artistic formation Gruppa and has participated in all of its actions. From 1989, he has been involved in graphic design and typography (Zafryki studio with Piotr Młodożeniec till 2004), creating original typefaces. Since 1982, Marek Sobczyk and Jarosław Modzelewski have been several times engaged in painting together. Between 1990 and 1997, together with Jarosław Modzelewski, he ran the private Szkoła Sztuki / School of Art. He concerns himself with art theory and intellectual reflection on the fundamental problems of artistic creation. He has published: Course in Abstraction (1996) and after a year-long series of lectures at Zachęta – National Gallery of Art in Warsaw – Course in Sublimation (2006). He has been conducting a number of artistic projects: Research on the Brain in Poland (since 1979), Table What? Who? – With What? With Whom? (since 1998), Sexreligionpolitics (since 1999), Monuments of Discourse (since 2008), Around the Word “Atheism” (since 2009). Since 2003 he has been carrying out a multi-year project “Museum” in Quotation Marks. Together with Mateusz Falkowski he is the author of the concept and of the Manifesto of Gravity Cinema. In addition to painting, Sobczyk creates installations and spatial objects. In 1991 he made Simple Rainbow which stood in front of the Zachęta Gallery till 1993. Re-set in 2019, was removed in 2022 under a new director of the Gallery. In 2013 he became the laureate of the Jan Cybis Award.
Selected solo exhibitions (since 2011):
2011
Research on the Brain in Poland [Complex Paintings], Academy of Fine Arts Gallery, Cracow
Twice Too Many Pictures [Research on the Brain in Poland], aTak Gallery, Warsaw
2012
Jémni, Polish Intitute in Prague
Wateizmrszateizmwateizm (actions with letters), the artist’s studio, Warsaw
Marek Sobczyk – Research on the Brain in Poland 1979-2012, BWA Gallery, Legnica; BWA Gallery, Jelenia Góra
2013
Marek Sobczyk. Research on the Brain in Poland 1979-2012,Książ Castle, Wałbrzych
Research on the Brain in Poland 1979-2013 [Pinacotheca], Dap Gallery, Warsaw (exhibition after winning the Jan Cybis Award)
2014
Human and Civic Rights of Artistic Means [Politics] (with J. Modzelewski), Wizytująca Gallery, Warsaw
Bau hau hau, Milano Gallery, Warsaw
2015
“Museum” in Quotation Marks, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw
2016
Table What? – What With? [Politics] (with J. Modzelewski), Center for Contemporaty Art Łaźnia, Gdańsk
Around the Word “Atheism”, BWA Gallery, Gorzów Wielkopolski
Gravitation Cinema Exhibition and Workshop (with M. Falkowski), Gallery of the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts, Cracow
“Museum” in Quotation Marks [Works from Two Editions of the “Museum” from 2006 and 2015], Municipal Gallery Arsenał, Poznań
2017
The Weight Loss Collection, Piktogram Gallery, Warsaw
Zero Tolerance for the Church, Zero Tolerance in the Church, Otwarta Pracownia Gallery, Cracow
230×180, Contrast Gallery, Warsaw
Geography of Finnish Houses [Gravity Cinema Workshop] (with M. Falkowski), the Finnish houses in Jazdów, Warsaw
Wedding Called Off, Kronika Centre for Contemporary Art, Bytom
Eve of the Avant-Garde [Activities with Gravity Cinema] (with M. Falkowski), Institute for Polish Culture of the University of Warsaw, Warsaw
2018
“Museum” in Quotation Marks [Work in Kielce], XS Gallery, Kielce
2019
The Year of Sculpture, BWA Gallery, Zielona Góra
The Year of Sculpture [Work in Warsaw], Szydłowski Gallery, Warsaw
Simple Rainbow (1991-2019 Reconstruction), Małachowskiego Square, in front of the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw
Marek Sobczyk: 2015-2019 [The Longer Life of Every Picture] [Android], The City Gallery in WrocławCINEMA, Milano Gallery, Warsaw
2020
Kuda Gierman (with J. Modzelewski), the Stefan Gierowski Foundation, Warsaw
2021
Marek Sobczyk. Savvatokýriako [The Means of Art at the Weekend], Wizytująca Gallery, Warsaw (as a part of the Warsaw Gallery Weekend)
2022
A Trip on the Wire [Polentransport], Muzueum Sztuki in Łódź
Working Mode [Shock] (with J. Modzelewski), SZOKART Art Gallery, Poznań