BWA Contemporary Art Gallery in Katowice

‘I can sometimes see Wieczorek clad in a loose russet coat belted with a rope, baggy trousers tied with a rusty buckle just below his knees, a leather hat with a wide brim, as he is walking along a field path, his clumpy boots stirring up dust into mist that lightly swirls around his feet. He is lugging a box with painting instruments in one arm, and a webbing sack containing a change of shirt, a blanket for the night, a handkerchief and a tobacco box in the other. His problem is whether to paint a mural in a Paduan church or a portrait of a rich merchant’s wife from a nearby town. The merchant’s wife would like to be beautiful but she is not, and Karol is a little scared of this work. He would like to paint her bathing in a wooden tub, as the body would divert the attention away from the face. But what about the jealous husband? Will he not chase him away with a stick when he realises Karol wants to strip her naked? Maybe he should go for a church then… Holy Joe is cunning and the painting much duller, but he could have a good feed up at the presbytery. And he might be able to paint some scenes from “The Divine Comedy”… Karol has been profoundly impressed by this book ever since it was published a dozen or so years earlier. His mind keeps reliving Dante’s and Virgil’s travels through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. He has put it down like this: “It is tempting to refer to such a precise, beautiful and clear construction…” But will this Holy Joe allow him to spread the wings of his imagination? I watch him disappearing in the distance, surrounded by clouds of dust. The 15th century is coming to a close’.
Tadeusz Nyczek (fragment)

• Book fragment
• Organizers