Wojciech CIEŚNIEWSKI (b. 1958), Scent of a Woman, 2023

oil, canvas; 180 x 101.5 cm;
Signed, dated and described on the back: Author: WOJCIECH CIEŚNIEWSKI / Title: O PIĘKNIE - ZAPACH KOBIETY / Cycle: / Techn. Dimension: OL. PL. MAR. 180 x 101.5 cm / Date dissolved: 17.01.2023 / No./ Year: 7/2023.

Wojciech Cieśniewski - painter, professor of art. He was born in 1958 in Działdów. He was initially fascinated by theoretical mathematics, which he studied, earning a master's degree from the Higher School of Pedagogy in Olsztyn in 1984. During his studies, he discovered that the language of mathematical signs did not allow him to express emotions.
In 1983, he began studying at the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In 1988 he received a diploma with distinction in the studio of Prof. Rajmund Ziemski. He has been an employee of the academy since 1990. In 2005-2012, he served as vice-dean of the Faculty of Painting. He currently runs his own graduation studio.
Ciesniewski is one of the most important Polish contemporary painters with considerable artistic and intellectual achievements. For the first twenty years, the issue of abstraction was at the center of his work, and he explored the possibility of making the meaning and action of paintings independent. In the following years of his work, he returned to figurative painting. He engaged in a dialogue with the tradition of European modern painting, referring to the works of Caravaggio, Giotto, Michelangelo, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Vermeer, among others.
Over time, he increasingly began to touch on ethical problems, broad issues of good and evil in human life, while exploring the function of art as a vehicle of goodness and beauty. Between 2009 and 2015, among other things, he created a painting series entitled Stories of the indigenous. Since 2020, he has been creating the series And Yet Life. In his work he often draws on themes from the Bible, mythology, Christian iconography and history.
Wojciech Cieśniewski is the recipient of many awards and honors, including: Special Merit Award 2nd Malaysia International Art Biennale (2016); Honorary Award of the City of Działdowo (2012) and Medal "Meritorious to Culture Gloria Artis" (2011). His work has been presented in more than 130 solo and group exhibitions, both at home and abroad.