Collection

On the one hand, Jacek Sempoliński’s pictures from the “Wisła” (‘Vistula’) series betray a typical colourist-tradition need to “sort out the image”. On the other hand, they also contain extreme emotional tension, manifested in attempts to destroy the canvas. An existentialist tradition rooted in philosophical studies comes through in the artist’s ruminations on the essence of faith, sources of culture, death, and the point of existence. In the Museum collection, these pieces acquire special significance owing to Sempoliński’s influence on one of contemporary Polish art’s most vital trends: critical art.

This incredible relation was especially noticeable at an exhibition organised by Professor Grzegorz Kowalski, one of the initiators of that trend. Its theme was suggested by Jacek Sempoliński (inspired by Juliusz Słowacki’s “King-Spirit”)—“What a corpse’s glazed eye beholds”—and the exhibition was first held in 2001 at the Academia Theatre, then later repeated elsewhere, including at the Zachęta National Gallery of Art.