The Scenography of the Sacral: Jerzy Nowosielski & Architecture

tychy_droga_krzyzowa_nowosielski_forum_.jpg, default, Stations of the Cross by Jerzy Nowosielski, Church of the Immaculate Conception, Kraków, photo: Bogdan Krężel / Forum, center, #000000

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All the Orthodox, Eastern Catholic and Roman Catholic churches graced with the polychromes, stained-glass windows, paintings and icons authored by Jerzy Nowosielski are countless. However, the painter’s connections to architecture are much deeper and more significant than that, going beyond just complementing interior designs.

‘It’s possible that we’re living through a period when we need to realise that either art serves to communicate spiritual matters or it’s not art at all, meaning that it’s bad art,’ claimed Jerzy Nowosielski in the mid-1970s.

‘Architektura cerkiewna’ by Jerzy Nowosielski, oil on canvas, 1989, from ‘Nowosielski’ by Julita Deluga, BOSZ Publishers, 2019, rep.: Dagmara Smolna

The painter, whose work is valued equally by experts and the general public, devoted a significant part of his life to sacral art. He studied writing icons in his search for a contemporary language for them. He designed church polychromes and stained-glass windows, and he created sacred-themed paintings with church interiors in mind. His entire life he dreamed of designing a church building. The painter’s archives hold numerous pictures in which Nowosielski presented – in a characteristic, simplified, geometric manner – Orthodox churches, church towers with bulbous cupolas, light buildings topped with crosses. As early as the 1950s, the painter prepared drawings of church buildings resembling architectural projects, searching for forms that would best convey the notion of the sacred.

The painter as architect

Jerzy Nowosielski was one of those painters who sensed and understood the relation between the flat surface of a painting and the space of a building in which the artwork was to appear; in the case of sacred objects, the artist made no distinction between these two spheres. He didn’t perceive architecture as a ‘container’ for art. He treated them as a whole, believing that only their coherence and integrity can produce a truly spiritual effect. Describing Jerzy Nowosielski’s only implemented architectural project on the pages of the monthly Architektura-Murator, art theorist and historian Mieczysław Porębski compared him to Giotto, one of the few painters additionally endowed with spatial imagination, capable of designing three-dimensional objects. One example is the campanile of the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral in Florence, which serves as a testament to Giotto’s rare abilities.

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Orthodox Church of the Nativity of the Holy Mother of God, Biały Bór, photo: Sławomir Kamiński / AG

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In 1991, Jerzy Nowosielski designed a sacral building, an Orthodox church in Biały Bór near Szczecinek. Erected between 1992 and 1997, it was listed in the national register of historic places, and it remained Poland’s youngest historic site until December 2022. Although the painter would sketch buildings throughout almost his entire life, it was only when he was near 70 that he got the chance to create an architectural structure. He designed the small Orthodox church in cooperation with the architect Bogdan Kotarba; it likely constitutes the fullest materialisation of the way the artist understood sacral space and of how he perceived architecture’s role in this context. The small-scale temple, placed in an empty, flat landscape, is truly a ‘total work of art’, a Gesamtkunstwerk, in which the interior, its design and the form of the structure’s exterior constitute a unified whole.

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Orthodox Church of the Nativity of the Holy Mother of God, Biały Bór, interior, photo: Sławomir Kamiński / AG

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The form of the building, the colours of the interior and the artworks placed inside are the result of the same artistic vision and complement each other. Here’s how Mieczysław Porębski described the impression evoked by the Biały Bór Orthodox church in 1998:

A building has a door with a frame, a painting has a frame also. This isn’t important. What’s important is that, both when entering the inside of a building and when entering the inside of a painting, we cross a certain threshold, so that past this threshold, past these frames, past the doorway, we find ourselves in a 'different world'.

The white, flat façade of the building, which looks as if it were a drawing, is flanked by two towers. ‘Standing in front of the church’s façade, one has the overwhelming impression that one is looking, not at an Orthodox church, but at Nowosielski’s enlarged canvas painting’, observes the building’s monographer, Zofia Szot, from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Behind the façade, one finds a three-nave interior with a basilican layout (the side naves are higher than the main one), in which the chancel isn’t clearly designated; rather, its location is only vaguely marked by the iconostasis. The naves are separated by eight black pillars and by stairs enclosed in white side rails (the main nave is slightly lower in relation to the side naves) and crowned by a flat ceiling. Over the iconostasis, there’s a small cupola, whose inside is covered by a painterly depiction of Christ Pantocrator. The interior is dominated by a dark green colour, which covers the walls and the ceiling, complemented by the light colour of the flooring and the white window recesses. The iconostasis is framed by red arches, and the same hue appears in the icons themselves. The interior is simple and raw, just like the structure of the church itself. Both are devoid of superfluous elements, and the atmosphere is created not so much by a multiplicity of details as by the surfaces of colour in harmony with each other.

Directing the sacred

Krystyna Czerni, the monographer and researcher of Jerzy Nowosielski’s work, wrote numerous times that the painter had the ability to ‘direct sacral interiors’, assigning a role to painting while at the same time skilfully harmonising it with the architectural space. The Biały Bór Orthodox church is a perfect and the most complete proof of this, but it is not the only one. There was another prominent artist who happily cooperated with Nowosielski, one endowed with an extraordinary skill in creating sacred spaces – the architect Stanisław Niemczyk. The interior of the Church of the Holy Spirit, which he designed in the late 1970s in Tychy, is Nowosielski’s creation.

Church of the Holy Spirit, Tychy, photo: Wojciech Kryński / Forum

Covered by a vast, sloped roof that flows down almost to the ground, is a centrally planned space surrounded by slanted wooden walls covered with polychromes, well-lit thanks to a skylight, cut into the top of the roof, through which sunshine falls directly onto the centrally situated altar. Although here the artist created ‘only’ the wall paintings, one can’t help but feel that they resulted from an in-depth understanding of the architecture itself, of the spatial solutions proposed by Stanisław Niemczyk. The simplicity and uniformity of the forms employed by Nowosielski prevent his paintings from dominating over the architectural structure, causing them to harmoniously supplement it instead. The painter didn’t steer clear of vivid colours, and they are what provide an extraordinarily interesting complement to what are usually monochromatic sacral interiors.

Altar with images of saints by Jerzy Nowosielski, Church of Divine Providence, Warsaw, photo: Agata Grzybowska / Forum

In the neo-Romanesque Church of Divine Providence in the Wesoła district of Warsaw, paintings cover only the apse (the semicircular enclosing of the chancel) and the narthex (the vestibule under the choir) – the former are maintained in red tones, while the latter are dark blue; they’re complemented by multicoloured stained-glass windows and dark, almost monochromatic Stations of the Cross. Nowosielski created these artworks in the 1970s, almost half a century after the church was built. He was invited to do so by the parish priest, who decided that the artist’s uniform, raw paintings would give an appropriate finish to the almost minimalist structure of the 1930s church.

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Fragment of chancel with templon & images of saints by Jerzy Nowosielski, Church of Divine Providence, Warsaw, photo: Adrian Grycuk / (CC BY-SA 3.0 PL) / Wikimedia.org

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Occasionally, however, Jerzy Nowosielski’s unique painting style proved an obstacle when it came to designing for churches. The contemporary forms he would propose weren’t always met with appreciation, especially in the case of Orthodox churches. After all, Orthodoxy is governed by more strict and precise rules regarding sacral art; therefore, as far as places of worship are concerned, it’s rather difficult to introduce modern forms. Nowosielski was supposed to design an Orthodox church in Hajnówka, including everything from the architecture to interior design, but eventually his vision remained on paper only due to its overly ‘progressive’ nature. The coherent, elaborate design for the interior of the Orthodox church in Orzeszkowo near Hajnówka, which Nowosielski created in the mid-1960s, was not to the liking of the congregation, who deemed the paintings ‘too avant-garde’. The painter’s works were consequently moved to the Orthodox Church of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Kraków, where they remain to this day.

Overly modern icons

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‘Pantocrator’ by Jerzy Nowosielski, Orthodox Church of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Górowo Iławeckie, photo: Wojciech Kryński / Forum

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Simultaneously, as early as the 1950s, at a very early stage of his artistic path, Nowosielski, together with Adam Stalony-Dobrzański, created a series of polychromes for the Orthodox Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Gródek, in the Białystok area. The same duo of painters authored sets of frescoes for, among others, the Orthodox Church of St John Climacus in Wolska Street in Warsaw, the Orthodox Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Jelenia Góra, and the Orthodox Church of St Michael in Michałowo. Nowosielski wrote icons that can now be viewed in Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches in places such as Trzebiatów, Górowo Iławeckie, Węgorzewo and Wrocław. He made an iconostasis for the neo-Gothic chapel of the Metropolitan Theological Seminary in Lublin, and, in the same city, he designed polychromes for the academic church of John Paul II Catholic University. Those, however, stayed on paper only. Jerzy Nowosielski’s paintings are to be found in the Uniate Church of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary in Lourdes and in the headquarters of the Taizé Community.

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Iconostasis by Jerzy Nowosielski, Orthodox Church of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Górowo Iławeckie, photo: Wojciech Kryński / Forum

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In the Warsaw district of Służew, the construction of the Dominican St Dominic Church was underway between 1981 and 1994. The designer, Władysław Pieńkowski, died in 1991; he didn’t live to see the completion of his project.

fot. materiały prasowe organizatora — Icon, Cross of the Merciful Saviour by Jerzy Nowosielski, chancel, St Dominic Church, Warsaw, photo: ‘Sacrum – profanum – sacrum’ exhibition materials

Prior to his death, however, he expressed the wish for the only artistic element in the raw space of the church’s chancel to be an icon of the Holy Cross painted by Jerzy Nowosielski. The architect believed him to be the only painter capable of creating an element appropriately complementing the architecture of the church. Pieńkowski left behind a sketch of the view of the chancel with a crucifix hanging inside. In November 2003, his will was fulfilled: a ceremony took place during which the icon of the Cross of the Merciful Saviour was consecrated, an artwork created by Nowosielski specifically for the space of the church. (He first formed a polystyrene model of the icon, on the basis of which the most appropriate proportions for the piece were sought for this interior.) Devoid of ornamental elements, the simple and yet poignant crucifix perfectly matches the cold, raw architecture of Pieńkowski’s church, with its concrete interior and light seeping in through the skylight over the chancel.

Unimplemented avant-garde

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Design for church in Sochaczew, author: Jerzy Nowosielski, design: Jerzy Sołtan, architecture: Zbigniew Ihnatowicz, painting: Jerzy Nowosielski, in cooperation with Adolf Szczepiński & Andrzej Pinno, design made in ZAB (Zakłady Artystyczno-Badawcze), inventory number: MASP 1940, c. 1958, photo: Museum of the Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw

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Although the only church he designed was erected not too long ago and the majority of his works created for places of worship dates back to the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, we know that Jerzy Nowosielski had been interested in architecture from the very beginning of his artistic journey. In the 1950s, he cooperated with one of the most interesting experimental art groups at the time, Zakłady Artystyczno-Badawcze (ZAB, Art and Research Workshops) at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Together with Jerzy Sołtan and Zbigniew Ihnatowicz, the architects who formed the core of ZAB, he prepared two church designs.

Design for church in Sochaczew, eastern façade, author: Jerzy Nowosielski, design: Jerzy Sołtan, architecture: Zbigniew Ihnatowicz, painting: Jerzy Nowosielski, in cooperation with Adolf Szczepiński & Andrzej Pinno, design made in ZAB, 1958, photo: Museum of the Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw

Right after the thaw of 1956, it seemed that the change of the regime and of the general direction in politics would enable the construction of churches, previously essentially forbidden. In the first years after the thaw, several architectural competitions for the design of new places of worship took place, and, on the wave of the sense of freedom regained after the dark period of Stalin’s rule, the projects awarded in these competitions were avant-garde, modern and independent. That’s exactly what the vision for the parish church in Sochaczew was like. In 1957, Jerzy Sołtan, Zbigniew Ihnatowicz and Jerzy Nowosielski won the architectural competition with their design for a rigid, modernist structure whose geometric interior was to be ornamented only by Nowosielski’s frugal in form polychromes. The compact, two-storey structure was highly original in its restraint and in the harmony of its simple shapes, unusual for sacral architecture. The project, however, was never implemented.

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Design of church in Nowa Huta, Jerzy Sołtan, Jerzy Nowosielski, Zbigniew Ihnatowicz, 1957, photo: Museum of Architecture, Wrocław

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In that same year, 1957, Sołtan, Ihnatowicz and Nowosielski participated in a competition for the design of a church in Nowa Huta. This was an event of greater weight, since in the model socialist city that Nowa Huta was supposed to be, there had been no plans to build a church; it was the locals themselves who demanded one. For this competition, the ZAB team submitted a design for an elongated building with a flat roof, no less avant-garde than the Sochaczew one. The composition, comprised of cuboids in different sizes, was to be fronted by a façade with a curved cornice, next to which the architects planned to place a soaring, slender tower covered with Nowosielski’s artworks (which were also supposed to appear in the church’s interior). Very quickly afterwards, however, the authorities changed their minds with regard to the construction of a church in Nowa Huta. The building permit was withdrawn, and the construction of a school commenced on the same plot instead. Hence, this extraordinary vision never got a chance to be implemented.

Mateusz Środoń, a painter of icons, said in conversation with the Polish Press Agency on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Jerzy Nowosielski’s death:

Jerzy Nowosielski reintroduced the sacred and references to the absolute to the cultural scene from which the 20th century had tended to expel them or to ignore them completely.

Although Nowosielski had an individual, recognisable style, his oeuvre is rich and varied. However, it’s his sacral works, the fruits of spirituality, closely tied to religion, that seem particularly engaging and poignant. Perhaps one of the reasons is that in these pieces the artist went beyond the field of painting, searching for points of correspondence with architectural space. As a result, his vision of spirituality was made to stretch further, embracing more.

Translated by Anna Potoczny

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