August 84, 13/84

Stanisław Fijałkowski is, alongside Jerzy Nowosielski, one of the most interesting artists of the 20th century. Both artists, erudites, had the opportunity to meet in Łódź, to hold lively discussions and exchange views. They could also learn from and inspire one another. One such intellectual exchange was Jerzy Nowosielski's knowledge concerning the icon. In many of Stanisław Fijałkowski's paintings created from the 1960s there appears a characteristic framing in the form of a thin coloured line imitating the shape of the support. This outline can be interpreted as a border, as in an icon, separating the sphere of the sacred from the profane. Looking at Stanisław Fijałkowski's paintings, the viewer is admitted precisely to the sacred part of the artist's art. The complexity, but at the same time the openness to interpretation, of Stanisław Fijałkowski's work stems from the fact that the artist drew inspiration with equal commitment from the writings of philosophers and from theological treatises, valued the art theory of Władysław Strzemiński and Kazimir Malevich, learned and conducted experiments related to colour theory, and visualised in his works Masonic symbols and those drawn from Judaic books.