Grzegorz Pabel
Exhibition of the Winner of the Jan Cybis Award for the year 2023
House of the Visual Artist OW ZPAP at 11A Mazowiecka Street in Warsaw
Exhibition from September 27 to October 20, 2024
Opening at 18:00 on Friday, September 27, 2024
Curator: Bożenna Leszczyńska
Honorary Patronage: Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Hanna Wróblewska
Sponsor: WIT Academy
Grzegorz Pabel was born in 1940 in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski. He graduated in painting from Jan Cybis's studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where he worked since 1967. He led a painting studio at the Faculty of Interior Architecture, and later at the Faculty of Graphic Arts. He served twice as the Vice-Rector of the ASP – for student affairs in the term 1990-1993 and for artistic, research, and international relations in the term 2002-2005. Since 1992, he has been a professor. From 1996 to 2007, he ran the Studio Gallery in Warsaw. He is currently associated with the WIT Academy (formerly the Higher School of Applied Computer Science and Management in Warsaw). He has presented his works at around 40 solo exhibitions and over 100 group exhibitions.
Grzegorz Pabel, a student of Jan Cybis and one of his last graduates, considers working with energy, colors, and mood to be the most important part of his painting. He has remained faithful to the Warsaw school of colorism, but he has translated its ideas into his own language, and the essence of his art has become finding an original formula for the transposition of reality. His paintings – large, expressive painting surfaces – are subordinated to emotions and the energetic gesture of the hand, which is why his work can also be viewed in the context of baroque heritage. He has combined this element with influences from Far Eastern art. Pabel engages in non-representational painting, which, despite the lack of specific traces, clearly refers to the observation of landscape and nature. He shows its variability and the power of the elements, conveying his feelings about nature in a spontaneous, almost instinctive way of composing his works. However, the 'nature' of art interests him much more than nature in the natural sense. The latter appears in his painting in the broadest sense as life, encompassing everything that creates his processes.
- Agnieszka Maria Wasieczko - from the introduction to the accompanying catalog of the exhibition
About the Jan Cybis Award
The Jan Cybis Award is the oldest and most prestigious award given in the field of painting in Poland. It was established in 1973 by the Warsaw District of the Association of Polish Visual Artists on the anniversary of Jan Cybis's death, the initiator of the establishment of the Warsaw District shortly after World War II.
Jan Cybis was an extremely important figure in Polish art after 1945. He marked history as a teacher and mentor to several generations of Polish artists, a painter and draftsman, educator, and publicist, a leading representative of the coloristic trend in painting of the 1930s and post-war art.
Naturally, after Jan Cybis's death, the OW ZPAP began to award the prize in his name. In the early years, the first laureates were his students or artists whose work was close to colorism, such as Tadeusz Dominik, Jacek Sempoliński, Jan Berdyszak, or Jan Dziędziora. A turning point in the history of the award was its granting for the year 1995 to Ryszard Winiarski, whose art contained elements of conceptualism and was a clear opening to other styles.
Currently, the names of the laureates of the Jan Cybis Award form a pantheon of contemporary Polish art, illustrating a cross-section of the most important trends and influences in Polish painting over the last 50 years. Among them are Jerzy Nowosielski, Stefan Gierowski, Jan Tarasin, Stanisław Fijałkowski, Erna Rosenstein, Leon Tarasiewicz, Teresa Pągowska, Jerzy Kałucki, Wojciech Fangor, Koji Kamoji, Magdalena Moskwa, Janusz Lewandowski, and Andrzej Podkański.
About the organizer
The Association of Polish Visual Artists is the largest association of visual artists in Poland, existing since 1911. The Warsaw District, which is part of it, brings together over 1200 visual artists. The OW ZPAP headquarters at 11A Mazowiecka Street in Warsaw has been a meeting place for artistic communities and cultural and educational events for many years. The Warsaw District of ZPAP is the founder of the oldest award in Poland, granted since 1973, named after Jan Cybis, intended to honor painters for the entirety of their work.