Józef Halas – „ Tylko niebo”
Józef Halas: Only the Sky

Summary/Abstract: Józef Halas is an artist whose style constantly evolutes. The pictures stored in his studio document his artistic evolution. He has completed such series as “A Mountain”, and currently, he is continuing a series entitled “Small Icons”. His geometric “Angels” can be associated with analogical esthetic formulas by Paul Klee. He is interested in “iconological metaphysics”. His angels painted in the 2005 are bright and fluorescent. They were painted in watercolors, and that techniques contributes to showing almost translucent forms. His angels are moving upward, and they seem to speak with gestures. Their dynamic bodies move across colorful space. They live in the reality of the iconostas. The artist likes Byzantine art. From 1961 to 1962, he was inspired by fresco paintings at the Boyan Orthodox Church in Sofia (Bulgaria). Also, he used photographs as the basis for landscape studies. He photographed the mountain landscape in Tatra Mountains and in the area of Nowy S¹cz, where he comes from. He taught his students how to use different motifs, such as corroded metal, wooden bars and other ‘useless objects’ as painterly material. Katarzyna Banaoe, one of his students, remembers that Professor advised students to go to the woods and paint, regardless of weather conditions. That way, he told them, they could really “submerge in the reality”. He likes to show rough texture, and unusual textures are his artistic “fingerprints”. The motif of a mountain has always been one of most important Halas’s motifs. Also, the artist used different geometric figures in order to reveal their phenomenological content. He was interested in different archetypes hidden in landscape. He documented his artistic experiences which led toward axiological balancing between different elements. Several series of his pictures can be considered as triptychs, which refer to the natural elements of water and air. The monographic exhibition of Ha³as’s work was organized by the Zachêta Gallery in Warsaw (July – August 2005).

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