Mirosława Rochecka (1960–2024) – In Memoriam

Abstract

Several years ago, when as a young doctoral student I worked
in the editorial office of the journal “Litteraria Copernicana”
at the Faculty of Philology, Nicolaus Copernicus University in
Toruń, I received for review a collection of sketches by Mirosława
Rochecka from the years 1999–2007, entitled Tajemnice światła
i koloru. Abstrakcja i sacrum [‘The mysteries of light and colour.
Abstraction and the sacred’] (2007) – a fascinating publication
on the boundary between aesthetics and metaphysics; being at
the same time a philosophical study of abstraction and a form
of meditation on art, rooted in Christian spirituality.
Reading this book was an incredibly moving scientific and
aesthetic experience for me; it largely shaped my understanding
not only of abstraction but of art in general. On the anniversary
of Mirosława Rochecka’s death, it is worth revisiting this
particular publication, for in my opinion, the essays collected
in the volume Tajemnice światła i koloru most fully explain the
author’s output, her inspirations, her perspective on the meaning
of artistic work, as well as reveal the deepest, spiritual
foundations of Mirosława Rochecka’s abstract painting.