Presentation of Józef Szajna's Works Acquired with Funding from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage

Presentation of objects acquired for the collection of the Silesian Museum in Katowice with funds from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, sourced from the Culture Promotion Fund, as part of the project „Expansion of the Józef Szajna Collection at the Silesian Museum”

The Centre of Polish Scenography, operating within the Silesian Museum in Katowice, is the only one in Europe to present the achievements of outstanding theatre artists whose work crosses the traditional boundaries between theatre and the visual arts. Creators such as Tadeusz Kantor, Józef Szajna and Leszek Mądzik deserve particular recognition in the collection. The museum has assembled the largest collection of Szajna's works in Poland and in the world, numbering about 580 objects, gaining the opportunity to present the artist's legacy broadly and to preserve his heritage.

Józef Szajna (1922–2008) is one of the most outstanding artists of the world of theatre and art who, taking up the legacy of the avant-garde, created a total art that united visual art and literature in the theatre. This painter, stage designer, director, theatre theorist and creator of original productions left his successors a message that remains relevant, rooted in traumatic wartime experiences and his stay in the KL Auschwitz and Buchenwald camps. The warning contained in Szajna's works remains current and addresses universal problems of human existence. The selection of unique projects documenting his most important original productions and paintings allows the museum to develop its dialogue with young audiences. In this context, the following works are especially important among those acquired: „Drang nach Osten – Drang nach Westen” (1987); „Drang nach Osten – Drang nach Westen” (1989); „Ostatnia stacja” (1996); drawings from the cycle „Leżę tutaj ukrzyżowany” (1992); „Oświęcim I” (1985); „Apel”; „Kopiec. Akcja”.

Szajna's work represents the art of the second half of the 20th century. Starting from his experiences as a graphic artist and painter, the artist sought means to move action from the plane into space. The acquisition of the painting „Utrwalanie” and the assemblages „Widok” and „Za ścianą”, which broaden the thematic scope of the painting collection, enables a richer presentation of works that combine stage art with painting. Works made using collage and assemblage techniques, composed of damaged materials and objects, build a metaphorical image of a world after apocalypse, and also refer to Szajna's artistic gesture arising from the need to „glue the world together”.

Among the acquired objects, „Wariacje teatralne” and stage designs documenting Józef Szajna's original productions from the 1950s and 1960s stand out, staged among others in Opole, Warsaw and Kraków, as well as works related to his activity in the 1970s at his own Teatr Studio.

Among the works representing a significant breakthrough in Józef Szajna's art is a cycle of paintings featuring a visual sign, the silhouette, which became in a sense the signature of Józef Szajna's ideas and a spatial key to his theatre. The silhouette, understood as an emptiness left by a human being, a trace of what was and irretrievably passed, appears repeatedly in his work. Its repetition underlines the artist's deliberate use of visual motifs. This sign embodies the key idea of Józef Szajna's art, „Man as the highest value and source of form”, illustrated in works such as „Mrowisko”, „Mrowisko z sylwetą” and „Sylwety”.