Czesław Wiącek and Jacek Wiącek/ Meaning Is Meaningless

Czesław Wiącek and Jacek Wiącek/ Meaning Is Meaningless / 12.09.2024 - 10.10.2024

From 12 September, the City Gallery will be filled with the graphic, painting and sculptural works of Czesław Wiącek (1939-2019) and Jacek Wiącek (1963-2022). In the context of a father-son art exhibition, blood ties become an opportunity to reflect on the power of mutual artistic influence on the one hand, and the need for total creative autonomy on the other.

Although the artists occasionally worked together, for example on multi-size sculptural projects, their creative individuality was always very much in evidence in their art. Each of them developed an individual and highly distinctive visual language which, despite the natural process of evolution, remained consistent in all areas of their creative activity, be it graphic art, painting or sculpture.

Despite their extensive practice in various media, the artists held painting in the highest esteem and considered it the pinnacle of art. Filled with lyricism and fairytale atmosphere, Czeslaw’s paintings reflect the Wroclaw colourism. The animals that populate them are expressively rendered, while the human figures have characteristic elongated silhouettes. The dynamic composition of the forms is further enhanced by textural interventions. Jacek’s painterly language was also characterised by expression, movement and spontaneity. The passing of time and increasingly acute and deep schizophrenic episodes gradually made these qualities more and more important in the artist’s work. Jacek fills his compositions with colour and formal tension, bringing to the fore flowing lines and planes of colour.

Another important point that united the two artists was their belief that art critics were aimlessly trying to develop theories about their art – art that was simply created out of a pure need to create. Both vehemently rejected any interpretation and hypothesis, unanimously asserting that meaning is meaningless, as the title of the exhibition at the City Gallery suggests.

The exhibition will be on view until 10 October 2024.
Curator: Katarzyna Zahorska