50th Anniversary of Artistic
Vernissage: Monday, September 1st, 18.00

It has been 50 years since Zdzisław Nowak-Czarny is active in the field of art. It is a very long and turbulent period, a time of intensified artistic activities and a time of mustering strengths for further work. Nowak-Czarny, as a splendid poster-maker, using mental shortcuts and condensed form, has been winning numerous awards at national and regional contests. He felt fulfilled in many areas of art. As a painter and graphics artist, he was inclined towards synthetic forms and was interested in abstraction. Then came the time of realistic works he painted landscapes and horses for the customers rather than to express his artistic views.
Nowak-Czarny, regardless of his condition, never parted with brush or pencil, was never deprived of the urge to put his observations and thoughts to paper or canvas.
He was always felt comfortable with cartoons. With just a few lines, he was able to register images of human types, drawing out the most characteristic features, as well as those deeply hidden. His drawings are accurate, funny and true cartoons.
Nowak-Czarny has always wanted to create a portrait gallery. And now, after many years, he started realising his intentions. He paints a series of portraits of famous people, people close to him using pastels and gouache. He gives them a form taken from the colourist trend and from his fascination with portraits by Witkacy. The people portrayed are given attributes characteristic of a specific personality or of their profession, and places them among stylised flowers. In those portraits, he unveils all of his painting and drawing virtuosity.
At the same time, Nowak returns to abstraction and metaphor. He creates sketches in pencil, brush and paint. Encloses his experiences and dreams. Then he analyses them, tries to understand them and transfer onto bigger canvases. Onto uniform backgrounds of blue, red or green, he puts patches of colours the direction of thoughts, artistic tension. These patches disturb the peace of a uniform space.
The desire to find fulfilment in so many different art forms is searching for himself, it’s a challenge for the time that was partially lost by the artist.
I wrote this text, apart from the first sentence, in 1994. That year, Zdzisław Nowak-Czerny experiences cerebral infarction. After a long rehabilitation, he keeps painting and drawing.
In 1999, he experiences a stroke. He wants to create, but his body grows weaker, fails him. Now, he only looks at his paintings.
Elżbieta Kantorek, 2008

Zdzisław Nowak-Czarny
Born in 1931 in Jeżewo (former District of Bydgoszcz), studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, in 1958 graduated under the tuition of Professor Michał Bylina. He makes paintings, graphics art, posters, drawings, cartoons. Author of 17 individual exhibitions. Participated in several group exhibitions in Poland and abroad. Winner of many regional and national contests for posters and graphics. His works can be found in the collections of museums in Bydgoszcz, Grudziądz, Olsztyn, Frombork, Katowice, in the Wilanów Poster Museum and many private collections.
In 1980s, he made a series of drawings for the cultural weekly “Fakty”. He is the author of cartoons for „GŁOWY, GŁÓWKI czyli panoptikum bydgoskie piórkiem Zdzisława Nowaka, piórem Zdzisława Prussa”, KPTK Bydgoszcz, 2001.
Cofounder, together with Roman Kobierski, Zenon Kubiak and Andrzej Nowacki, of “Grupa Czterech” (Group of Four) their exhibition took place at the BWA in Bydgoszcz in 1965.