Henryk MUSIAŁOWICZ (1914-2015), Animalistic Landscape, 1980

Own technique, panel; 42 x 57 cm;
signed, dated and described on the back: "ANIMALISTIC LANDSCAPE / 1980
/ 42 x 57 / MUSIAŁOWICZ [in crayon].

Paintings from the "Animalistic Landscape" series have been present in Henryk
Musialowicz since the 1950s. In 1957, the artist took an important
trip to France, where he had the opportunity to get acquainted with collections of archaic and early medieval art
and early medieval art. The synthetic form of the objects he saw there
objects probably significantly influenced the painter's work, as the
one of the characteristics of his work was the use of a
synthetic representation of an animal or human figure simplified
to its outline. The sign thus defined, which Henryk
Musialowicz since 1964 also takes on colors, often gold and red,
and the whole composition of relief structures. So far, the painter has worked
in black and white, kept his works in chromatic color tones.
The sign chosen by the artist in this series associated with the figure of an animal,
was also a manifestation of the spiritual thought accompanying the artist - as written by
Bożena Kowalska: "He found his truth, faith and sacrum in nature,
in art and in man. In nature when in the 1980s
he created for himself in Cienszy, among the forest, a secluded shelter in a garden full of
trees and flowers. In art, because as he said: "Humanity without art would be
sad and impoverished," (...) In man, because despite the experience of war he never
never lost his conviction that, like evil, goodness and holiness are inherent
attributes of human nature."
(Text after: Bożena Kowalska, Of Henryk Musiałowicz's Art.
Dialogue and Universalism 2010.)