Agata Nowosielska

The 2016 work entitled Ksiądz [The Priest] was inspired by the artist’s childhood memories. The viewer’s attention is drawn to the disappearing figure of a priest who passes by the sketched architecture of modernist blocks. The scene is set against the background of nature, marked with floral motifs and intense colours. Nature and spirituality play an important role in Nowosielska’s painting. Perhaps the artist captured only the moment of doubt and the resulting need for contemplation and silence. This painting can also be understood as a symptom of growing social changes and a critical look at the activities of the Catholic Church, which inevitably become a matter of public discussion, emphasizing the need for a new quality of religious life focused on the spiritual layer. The motif of the retreating priest and the end of a beautiful summer saturated with colours is a clear emphasis on the passing of time and change. Although rather symbolic, it is a clear voice speaking to today’s social changes and struggles for a new quality of public life.

• Object type:
  oil on canvas
• Year:
  2016
• Dimensions:
  170 × 130 cm
• inv. no.:
  MNG/NOMUS/41/D
• Własność:
  Gdańsk Collection of Contemporary Art, a deposit of the Gdańsk City Municipality in the collections of NOMUS - the New Museum of Art, a Department of the National Museum in Gdańsk