A DIALOGUE IN GLASS

A DIALOGUE IN GLASS. WORKS BY HENRYK ALBIN TOMASZEWSKI, TASIOS KIRIAZOPOULOS AND JERZY OLSZEWSKI IN THE COLLECTIONS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM IN KIELCE

The spatial and sculptural forms in glass, presented at the Museum of Dialogue of Cultures, constitute a modest but interesting representation of contemporary artistic glass, originating from the collection of the National Museum in Kielce.

The dominant element of the exhibition involves works by Henryk Albin Tomaszewski, who had a significant impact on setting new trends of the development of Polish glass art. His works are juxtaposed with those by Tasios Kiriazopoulos and Jerzy Olszewski.

The title of the exhibition – A Dialogue in Glass – refers not only to the place of presentation and material of the exhibits, but above all to the nature of the art of these three personalities: despite the generation gap, they shared a similar approach to the difficult material of glass. The methods they used referred to the old manner of glass shaping, but also broke the rules, thus engaging in a dialogue with traditional glasswork. There's another aspect of dialogue in presenting works by Tomaszewski and Kiriazopoulos together, and reference to master-disciple communication in the exhibition of glasswork by Tomaszewski and Olszewski.

Henryk Albin Tomaszewski - born in 1906, died in 1993. An outstanding creator of artistic glass. Between 1926 and 1930 he studied at the Municipal School of Decorative Arts in Warsaw, and then, from 1930 to 1936 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Until the war, he specialised in drawing, painting and sculpture. After WWII he worked as a utility glassware designer, involved with the Józefina Ironworks Plant (Crystal Glassworks Julia) in Szklarska Poręba. In the early 1950s he was a lecturer at the Glass Design Workshop of the State Academy of Visual Arts (ASP), and then he focused on independent artistic work, developing cycles of glass forms inspired by nature and music.

Tasios Kiriazopoulos - born in 1937. He came to Poland with the Greek emigration wave after the civil war. He was among the graduates of the State Academy of Visual Art in Wrocław (ASP), having completed his studies in 1964. All of his professional life prior to his leaving Poland in the mid-1980s was devoted to glass: at first, he was an assistant at the academy for a short time and then he worked as an independent artist. Initially, he developed cycles of products for practical use, but later he shifted to sculpture.

Jerzy Krystyn Olszewski - born in 1956. He graduated from a secondary school in Singapore, where he also learned the art of Japanese sumie graphics. He studied at the Faculty of Geology at the University of Warsaw. Until 1981, he worked at his alma mater at the Hydrology Department. He began to pursue his artistic passions during the martial law, creating objects which combined wood and Japanese rice paper. He developed his creative ambitions inspired by a meeting with Henryk Albin Tomaszewski. He produced artistic glass works, but utility glass products, too. He designed lamps. He runs his own ARTIVITY studio - Design Inspired by Passion.

11^th February - 11^th March 2020, The Museum For Intercultural Dialogue

Curator: Anna Pietrzak
Coordinator: Wojciech Cedro

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