The spring of 2006, on Nowa Huta ground, brought an exceptionally rich crop of artistic events of every kind. One may say that it was not only a spring of the calendar - but a cultural one too. A most heartening development, though the inhabitants of Nowa Huta hope that this lively cultural current will go on developing.
The narrow field of possibilities on the website - for reasons of convention - allows only for accounts of the exhibitions of paintings by two authors: Carlotta Bologna and Jan Śliwiński.
The description of the opening of J.Śliwiński's exhibition and a brief mention of his painting - on the website - appeared earlier.
With unconcealed reluctance and enormous shyness I bring myself to reveal my reflections on the exhibition of Carlotta Bologna. The measure of my unease is all the greater as it (the exhibition) will have a somewhat wider context. The exhibition presented in the gallery of the Nowa Huta Cultural Centre, being - as a cross-section - a selected collection of the Artist's works, was undoubtedly a great, many-threaded artistic and historiosophical event.
practised a kind of painting whose full palette of elements, such as: motifs, form, composition, perspective, planes, colour and type of expression, is entirely individual and yields to no parallel criteria or changing trends.
The criteria for choosing the works exhibited were set by artistic mastery, original qualities of subject and perhaps the Author's especially subjective attitude to their merits. The opening, which gathered huge crowds of friends and art lovers, did not focus their attention only on the paintings - for it also had the character of a remembrance.
Carlotta Bologna, despite her very advanced age, almost to the last moment of her active and extraordinarily creative life, regularly, every year, gave art lovers - through her paintings - empathy, an emanation of sunny moods and aesthetic experiences. The occasion for that cycle of exhibitions at the NCK, lasting a dozen or so years, was invariably the Author's birthday. About this, about her incredibly rich creative life, and also about the Artist's fascinating biography, we can read in the pages of the book entitled "Błyski z życia".
This publication, and the possibility of buying it, was included as an additional element in the programme of the opening. Its crowning moment was the reminiscences - shared with reverence and verve - by the eminent poet Józef Baran, the legendary editor Władysław Cybulski and the extremely popular actor Wojciech Siemion.
The originator and main promoter of the last exhibition and of all those before it was the deputy director of the NCK, Jolanta Kwiecień-Wcisło, who also arranged the course of the openings and gave them a friendly tone. The same person, by presenting me with a copy of the book entitled "Błyski z życia", made it easier to read the painting of Carlotta Bologna.
The threads of the text correspond splendidly with the projection of the paintings. The association of the many arts practised by the Artist not only determined the content of the painted canvases; it was also an almost volcanic source of creative inspiration.
The means of expression which the Artist used in her paintings reflect her special love of film and theatre. And these are not the only factors which had an overwhelming influence on the character of her work.
From the earliest years of her youth Carlotta Bologna grew up in an atmosphere of the united arts. This fact inevitably, in the creative process - as in a mirror - resulted in the motifs created on the canvases of most of her paintings. And it is hard not to mention that Mrs Carlotta also practised singing, playing an instrument (the so nobly sounding harp) and classical dance at a ballet school. So we have further stimulating factors enriching the expressive layer of the paintings.
In a good number of the works there appear reminiscences from the earliest phase of the Author's life. They suggest that that period, devoted to preparing - by way of anticipation - for various professional roles, somewhat limited the enjoyment of her carefree childhood.
having many variants of professional specialisation to choose from, remained faithful to painting. And the acquisition of a number of other skills made up an extraordinarily rare set of personal qualities. A driving force in her artistic work and in shaping her own and her family's colourful everyday life. It is no accident that the Heroine presented here appears on the website devoted to the history of culture in Nowa Huta.
In the early period of the town being born, Carlotta Bologna taught Italian at the music school. Who could have done it better at the time than a genuine Italian?
So it is hardly surprising that the Professor found herself among the people who made an important contribution to the culture-creating status of the Nowa Huta community. All the more so because her son, Zbigniew Biegański (her married name), also rendered services to Nowa Huta: he was the originator and co-organiser of the National Contest for a Song about Nowa Huta, and also the presenter of Italian song under the name "Włoskie canto". These were always the greatest hits, drawn from the enormous collection of recordings that Zbyszek had, and they came from the San Remo festivals. In the form of programmes (a talk - recordings) he promoted them with enormous success in almost all the cultural institutions of Nowa Huta.
! - you wrote excellent lyrics, not without literary value, and in creating songs you had a sense of euphony. And that became, among other things, the impulse for us to write together a dozen or so songs about Nowa Huta. In the structure of your lyrics you set me - a priori - the musical form, such as rumba-rock, fox-moderato, bossa nova and the like.
Those songs were heard for a number of years on Polish Radio, on Polish Television and on many stages of Kraków and Nowa Huta. The leading credit for that is yours, and mine to you, for creative cooperation so understood, is unending gratitude.
May the little angels on muted trumpets of Jericho play them to you - for remembrance.
The impressive content of the programme, the attractive course of the opening, the uniqueness of the atmosphere that accompanied it, and above all the gallery of paintings original in their motifs, were recorded on film by the well-known film and theatre director - Jerzy Ridan. This Artist's chronicles are a separate, extremely valuable chapter of film documentary. They record important events in the field of culture, the changes taking place, both sociological and in civilisation, and also the changes in the standard of living experienced by the inhabitants of Nowa Huta.
Photographs: Adam Gryczyński
