Collection

In English translation, the title of this large-format work on paper is The Prayer of a German Priest or a Pencil Test. It is one of Modzelewski and Sobczyk’s first painting collaborations. The piece was created during the artists’ residence in Dusseldorf and refers to the awkward position of a visitor from Eastern Europe, who feels ‘disabled’, as it were, and excluded. The authors described: „The able-bodied one is a German; the disabled one in the wheelchair with a lily motif is a Pole – a victim of secret-police interrogations. It’s beyond the area on a white background. The priest kneels, adoring, the able-bodied man walks away, looking back, the disabled man understands little, he is in the bottom corner, looking in another direction." The very well known painting has been often reproduced and presented in exhibitions, including Gruppa’s 1992