Contemporary artist and the sacrum. Metaphysical themes in the work of Tadeusz Boruta, Stanisław Białogłowicz and Tadeusz Wiktor

Abstract

In February 2009, to celebrate the opening of the Centre for the Documentation of Modern Sacred Art in Rzeszów, a small exhibition entitled Expressing the Inexpressible was organized. Its purpose was to give a succinct presentation of the ways in which metaphysical experience and reflection are expressed in contemporary art which takes its origins from JudeoChristian tradition. The exhibition displayed works by three artists affiliated with the local university. Each represented a different current in contemporary painting: Tadeusz Wiktor (born in 1946), an abstract painter, exhibited his An Icon for Stanisław. A prayer for Father (1993), Stanisław Białogłowicz (b. 1947), who draws inspiration from the classical icon, presented his A hidden record according to the icon “St Luke painting the Hodegetria” (2006), and Tadeusz Boruta (b. 1957), usually associated with the figurative trend, displayed a painting entitled Doubting Thomas (1999). The work of Tadeusz Boruta apparently rejects collective experience in the search for God, placing emphasis on its individual and subjective character. His art can be seen as expressing the first stage of the creative effort, which involves the processes of knowing, experiencing, and understanding. Stanisław Białogłowicz moves his focus to the second stage, the actual creation, and Tadeusz Wiktor emphasizes the communicative aspect, concentrating on the experience of the Absolute in relation to the fellow man, who is specifically defined as the addressee of the artist’s vision. Interestingly, none of the artists attempts to actually show the Inexpressible. This phenomenon is symptomatic of contemporary art in general and can be explained by the rise of individualism and subjectivism over the last two centuries, which also finds its specific manifestation in artistic attitudes and approaches to reality.