Jerzy Nowosielski’s Greek Catholic church in Biały Bór. On painting that has become architecture

Abstract

Jerzy Nowosielski can undoubtedly be called one of the most important figures in Polish contemporary art. Building a church designed by himself was the artist’s greatest dream, which he managed to implement in Biały Bór in 1997. When creating the Greek Catholic church of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the artist drew inspiration mainly from his own works, which resulted in the creation of the painter’s material testament, enclosed in a single solid. In this paper, I attempt to show that the church reveals references to certain themes in Nowosielski’s painting, such as sacred representations, abstraction, landscape, as well as painting measures, architectural solutions or motifs that can be found in the artist’s other implemented projects. Moreover, the church is not only a synthesis of the painter’s artistic output but also a reflection of his views on sacred art and the Christian faith. In my paper, I use both iconographic and phenomenological analysis of the church space. I do not apply a division into architecture and polychrome as in the work in question they are inextricably linked; and only their treatment as a whole makes it possible to experience this work as a synthesis of the artist’s oeuvre.