From the series: Mountains

A synthetic landscape, simplified into irregular geometric figures and accentuated by structural, deliberately shaped layers of paint - these are the leading motifs in the work of Józef Hałas. The painter drew inspiration from nature, creating the cycles Mountains, Interiors, Oppositions, Verticals-Diagonals. The artist reduces the observed elements of nature to the maximum, in order to work them out also in terms of texture and colour. The tones resounding in Józef Hałas's paintings are extraordinarily refined. Józef Hałas came to Wrocław in 1949 and joined the ranks of art students at the State Higher School of Fine Arts. He received his diploma in Eugeniusz Geppert's studio. He was a teacher at his alma mater. A co-founder of Group X, to which Alfons Mazurkiewicz, among others, also belonged. He was a member of the Wrocław School group (from 1967 the Wrocław Group). In 2006 he was awarded the Gloria Artis Medal for Merit to Culture. EXHIBITED: - Józef Hałas - Spotkania, Polswiss Art Auction House, Warsaw, 24.08. - 07.09.2018 - Józef Hałas. Poszukiwania, Museum of Architecture in Wrocław, 24.03. - 28.05.2017 REPRODUCED: - Józef Hałas - Spotkania, Polswiss Art Auction House, Warsaw, 2018, exhibition catalogue, p. 44.