CREATION OF LIGHT
EXHIBITION OF STAINED GLASS BY ADAM STALONY-DOBRZAŃSKI
AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM «SOPHIA OF KIEV»
IN KIEV (20 OCTOBER – 30 NOVEMBER 2011)
Polish art of stained glass since the second half of the 19th c. is an area that still awaits an in-depth analysis. Worth concerning is a igure of a Cracow Orthodox artist, Prof. Adam Stalony-Dobrzański (1904–1985). He was a true genius of sacral stained glass, though he also performed polychrome, mosaics and icons. The exposition of Stalony-Dobrzański’s stained glass at the National Museum ''Sophia of Kiev'' was held within the Polish Presidency in the European Union. In the rooms of the Museum there were shown his executions chosen from ca. two hundred stained glass windows. Twenty-eight large size prints on foil, which were performed on the basis of photos of the executed stained glass, two original pieces of stained glass and designs on paper were presented. Within the exhibition there were shown stained glass windows designed for Basilica Minor of St. Apostles Peter and Paul in Zawiercie (1950–1964), Orthodox Church of the Birth of Holy Mother of God in Gródek Białostocki (1953–1955), St. Jacob and St. Agnes Cathedral in Nysa (1958–1967), Saints Cyril and Methodius Orthodox Church in Wrocław (1976), Bernardine Church in Radom, Mother of God of the Scapular in Rozwadów-Stalowa Wola (1953–1961), St. Adalbert and Immaculate Conception of Lady Mary Church in Trzebownisko (1950–1956), St. Joachim and St. Anna Church in Annopol among others. Stalony-Dobrzański’s oeuvre is the art of a borderland, and therefore the art of conjunction – of tradition, culture and religion. It comes as an inspiration to study the painter’s perception of an icon, as he was an expert in Western European art, both in medieval stained glass and modern geometric abstraction, and at the same time he referred to patterns of icon tradition. Art of Stalony-Dobrzański appears to be a missing element in chronology of history of Polish art, which deserves wider recognition and more detailed analysis.
