Announcement

In the latest issue of Sacrum et Decorum (17, 2024) we write about, among other things:

- sacrum and values in the life and work of Witold Cęckiewicz

- Churches and chapels built in the Czech Republic between 1948 and 1989

- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's view of sacred images in the liturgy

- Hutsul-Pokuttyan folk icons on glass in contemporary icon painting

- walking sticks decorated with biblical motifs in the collection of the National Museum in Krakow

- Maurice Denis's avant-garde and religious art

- we will also publish notes from the artistic journey of the Spanish painter and sculptor Matilde Olivery.

We look forward to reading them today!

Introduction

The history of sacred art over the past two centuries has been characterised by a persistent need for renewal, which has been addressed most often by artists, on occasion also by clergymen, who have organised workshops and associations for this purpose. These have been established within the framework of which the theoretical foundations of their activities have been formulated and recorded in extant source texts. In the second half of the 20th century, the Council documents redefined the Church’s position on the importance of art in religion. This was subsequently complemented by numerous statements and actions by popes, which in turn inspired representatives of individual national episcopates. Despite the challenging circumstances of artistic production in the context of the communist state, a substantial body of valuable sacred art was created in Poland during that period, largely thanks to Primate Stefan Wyszyński, whose role in this regard has not yet been analysed or reliably assessed. The introduction of martial law and the takeover of state patronage by the Church paradoxically contributed to a lowering of the level of newly created works of art related to religious worship. In most of the realisations, the artist’s aim ceased to be the sacrum and only Christian decorum remained, sometimes also of not very high quality.

An exemplification of the current state of affairs can be found in the successive editions of the project ‘Painting Christianity anew’, initiated and carried out by a group of clerical and artistic friends on the subject of the image of the Merciful Jesus according to Sister Faustina, followed by the Annunciation. In the inaugural edition of the project, ‘Painting Christianity anew’, the focus was not on the essence of the message revealed to St Faustina, but on iconographic issues (conformity to the description) approached in a specific way. This approach was as though the phenomenon of Divine Mercy were to be regarded by its creators as an object of study in the sociology of religion, as if it were to be viewed from a perspective external to the subject itself. Consequently, the real message (and the sense and ideas it is supposed to embody) were ignored. Only two or three works attempt to reproduce the aura of holiness emanating from the figure of Jesus, employing the traditional means of expression through light (lumen divinis). The remaining works are inspired by the phenomenon of traditional folk piety, giving their representations forms similar to examples of naïve art placed in wayside shrines. One such image is even surrounded by flowers, painted in imitation of the floral wreaths that sometimes adorn processional altars. Considering this situation, hopefully the involvement of renowned artists associated with the project will encourage a broader range of artists to participate in the competition, which will result in a number of valuable outcomes that focus on the essence of St Faustina's revelation.

A more complex and more interesting message is presented by the works that are the result of the second edition of the aforementioned project and are an interpretation of the theme of the Annunciation. In anticipation of a broader discussion of this offer of Polish artists, we propose to compare their works with the output of the exhibition ‘Ella. La Virgen Maria en el Arte Sacro Contemporaneo’ organised in Toledo, Spain, at the turn of 2022 and 2023 . A statement by Matilde Olivera, one of the artists presenting her work there, on her personal formation as a creator of sacred art has been included in the Miscellanea section, which concludes the latest volume of “Sacrum et Decorum”. The Spanish painter and sculptor’s personal statement, which is both simple and sincere, provides a fitting complement to the text by Małgorzata Dąbrowska, which offers a synthetic discussion of the views on religion and creative activity expressed by Maurice Denis, who organised the famous Ateliers d'Art Sacré a century ago. Fr Janusz Królikowski's article, which presents the views on the importance of art in the Church expressed in the writings of Benedict XVI, the first Pope elected to the See of Peter in this century, also refers to this issue. It is our hope that these three texts will be acknowledged as a contribution to the ongoing debate surrounding the role of the creator in the context of sacred art.

It is also worth noting the presence of the fragile and labile boundary between the sacrum and the profanum, which appears in works belonging to the broad sphere encompassing religious inspirations present in art. These works are presented, among others, at exhibitions related to the Polish National Competition of Sacred Art (OKSSa), such as at the "Dom Praczki" in Kielce (e.g. the exhibitions What Is He Like, I Check. What Is Truth?). In the current volume of our yearbook, Oksana Triska presents the work of a group of Lviv artists who departed from traditional religious iconography. They transform art of the icon, present in folk art, into the language of a joyful, childish fairy tale, which is distinct from the anguish and existential dilemmas that are commonly associated with religious iconography.

Among the texts submitted to our editorial team and selected for publication in this volume is one by Monika Paś, which discusses the rich decoration of a mysterious 19th-century walking stick decorated with bas-relief biblical motifs. The author states that her objective was to “to introduce this interesting relic of craftsmanship to the academic world” and “make it possible in the future to discover its closer parallels and thus verify previous hypotheses and findings.”

The two texts that open the latest volume relate to sacred architecture, a subject matter that is not often covered in our annual. The first article, by Jakub Turbasa, is an analysis of the work of Witold Cęckiewicz, an eminent architect who recently passed away. Cęckiewicz was a member of the editorial board of “Sacrum et Decorum” for many years. In the second article, Šárka Belšíková presents examples of sacred architecture realised in Czechoslovakia in the second half of the 20th century, thereby challenging the prevailing stereotype that contemporary art related to religious worship did not exist south of the Polish border.

The content of the new volume of “Sacrum et Decorum”, presented above, demonstrates that, in response to suggestions from our readers, we are gradually broadening the scope of our journal to encompass contemporary sacred and religious-inspired art created outside Poland. This is leading to an increasing number of researchers from other countries being invited to contribute to the journal. To date, we have proposed texts by authors connected with the European cultural circle that is close to us. However, we would like to announce that in the next volume of the periodical, which is currently being prepared, we intend to present Christian inspirations present in the works of artists originating from different cultures and working on other continents. We hope that they will also be kindly received by our readers.

Editors

Translated by Monika Mazurek