{"id":2866,"date":"2024-09-20T13:25:33","date_gmt":"2024-09-20T11:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jaceksempolinski.pl\/biography-of-jacek-sempolinski\/"},"modified":"2025-02-27T07:40:48","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T06:40:48","slug":"biography-of-jacek-sempolinski","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jaceksempolinski.pl\/en\/biography-of-jacek-sempolinski\/","title":{"rendered":"Biography of Jacek Sempoli\u0144ski"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t

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1927 – 2012<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Jacek Sempoli\u0144ski<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPublications of Jacek Sempoli\u0144ski<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Jacek Sempolin\u0301ski, 1950s<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1990-2012<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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27 March 1927<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Jacek Kajetan Sempoli\u0144ski was born in Warsaw, son of Leonard Sempoli\u0144ski, photographer (1902\u20131988) and Eugenia n\u00e9e Koz\u0142owska.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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1935 - 1943<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Was enrolled in primary education in Legionowo in 1935. He completed it in 1940, graduating from Year Six at Primary School no. 161 at ul. O\u017carowska in Warsaw. Subsequently he attended Maria Berut\u2019s private secondary commercial school at ul. Wierzbowa. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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1943 - 1944<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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During the German occupation he attended the underground classes of the Konrad Krzy\u017canowski School of Painting and Drawing run by Adam Rychtarski in Warsaw. <\/p>\n
Formed by Konrad Krzy\u017canowski in 1900, the private School of Painting and Drawing was reactivated in 1918. Between 1919 and 1922 Adam Rychtarski was Krzy\u017canowski\u2019s assistant teacher. From 1922 until the Warsaw Uprising the school continued under Rychtarski\u2019s management as the Konrad Krzy\u017canowski School of Painting and Drawing, located on the top floor of the townhouse at ul. Pozna\u0144ska 23. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The picture of this excellent artist\u2019s oeuvre and activity should be pure and undisturbed by anything that is random, anything that is external to that oeuvre. We now have his works before us. If, however, we recall the inauspicious history of the reception of this painter\u2019s art, we do so because issues of a more general nature can be observed here. And then Rychtarski will be a phenomenon pertaining to a certain larger pattern. Namely, artists\u2019 lives have more than once run their courses unnoticed and more than once surfaced years later as an important contribution to culture.<\/em><\/p>
Rychtarski is not the only one here: he is firmly entrenched in the group of those many who took their calling so seriously that they deemed any effort at popularization irrelevant. They were too engrossed in art itself to take it to the people. And the people are very obedient in this respect: they are more than willing to reciprocate the lack of interest. […] <\/em><\/p>
Adam Rychtarski was part of a generation in which a painter was an artist. Now is not the time to explain what this means. Suffice it to recall the meaning of artistry. Everything he did bore a mark of inner necessity, of the greatness but also the impermanence of artistic work. Everything refers to hidden truths. […] Rychtarski had this characteristic of the artists of old: the study was the stuff of his everyday life. It was a lesson in humility, a bridge whereby, unawares, we are transported by a few apples on a plate into a generalized picture of existence. These studies were painted with pious concentration, and we\u2014the students\u2014sensed and remembered this sense of concentration pervading our Professor\u2019s studio. <\/em><\/p>
Jacek Sempoli\u0144ski, excerpt from the introduction to the catalogue Adam Rychtarski\u2026 <\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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$\"Eugenia$
Eugenia (n\u00e9e Kozlowska) and Leonard Sempoli\u0144ski, Jacek's parents, early 1930s<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
$\"With$
With mother, 1928<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
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In the Warsaw Zoo, 1934<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
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With grandmother and mother on a walk in the park, Warsaw, 1930s<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
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Family photo; Jacek's mother first from the left, father first from the right, Jacek sits in the middle, on either side of him his grandparents, 1930s<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
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With mother on a Warsaw street, 1930s<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
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A student at a economics middle school, early 1940s<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
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With mother in a park in Warsaw, Easter, 1943<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
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Vacation in \u015awider, July 1944<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
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With mother while on vacation in \u015awider, July 1944<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
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With parents in their Warsaw apartment, 1944<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Expelled, with other residents, from Warsaw during the Uprising, he stayed in Podkowa Le\u015bna till the end of the war.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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1945 - 1946<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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In 1945, he was admitted into the First Municipal Secondary Commercial School at ul. Brzeska in Warsaw, where he graduated the same year. A lengthy illness, however, prevented him from pursuing higher education directly after secondary school. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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1946 - 1951<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. During his first four years (until the academic year 1949\/50) Jan Seweryn Soko\u0142owski was his professor of painting and drawing. In 1950, the academy was reformed and, after being merged with the Higher School of Plastic Arts, was renamed the Academy of Plastic Arts. One of the consequences of the reform was the extension of the degree programme from four to five years. In his fifth year (1950\/51), he studied painting under Professor Eugeniusz Eibisch. In addition to painting and drawing, he took the following courses: history of art under Prof. Ksawery Piwocki (2nd\u20134th year), history of artistic doctrines under Prof. Juliusz Starzy\u0144ski (5th year), as well as painting technology, perspective, anatomy, and three- and two-dimensional composition. He spent the summer breaks in 1947 and 1948 in the academy\u2019s plein-air retreat in Sufczyn. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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– Professor, do you remember the exhibition \u2018The Young People Are Fighting for Peace\u2019 in 1950? <\/em>
– I do, of course; it was actually associated with a dramatic moment in my life\u2026 […] <\/em>
The socialist realist directives were already in place at the Academy but I didn\u2019t even try to envision myself following them. The general atmosphere, however, was like this: shouldn\u2019t we break through the cherished aestheticisms, formed after the Kapist pattern? People were wondering whether they were not a limitation on art, just like the brutal tenets of socialist realism; debates were underway on leading painting out of the postimpressionist garden onto a more austere and ideas-driven path. And then the idea of holding a nationwide exhibition of the young came up. […] The organizers were giving away paints and stretchers, and I thought \u2013 and this was right before the summer break \u2013 that I would let myself be tempted. […] I took it all to Kazimierz and began to come to terms with the whole idea. I chose a Spanish Civil War episode as my subject. At the time I was fascinated by Spain, the Spanish culture, my imagined Spanish landscape \u2013 so I thought that I would depict a scene in a landscape: perhaps Toledo somewhere in the background, some action in the foreground, someone getting killed… <\/em><\/p>
And I started painting it. A fellow student, a girl, had a camera with her, so I arranged other students in the required poses, and she photographed them several times. I proceeded to paint and\u2026 half the way through I abandoned the whole thing. Not even out of disgust, simply out of realization that it was not my subject matter, not my path, so there was no reason to force and delude myself. […] <\/em><\/p>
So that was a dramatic moment: I tried and I fell away. I fell away, being aware that that path was closed off to me, that I had to set a different course for my life. I just didn\u2019t know what the price of it would be. There was no predicting the future. Everyone was reckoning with the eventuality that they were going to spend their whole life in Poland painting socialist realist pictures. […] <\/em>
Soon after that I completed my studies without a diploma. That\u2019s because the diploma project consisted in painting a thematic composition. […] I had a complete set of credits entered in my student book \u2013 meaning that I had completed my studies. That was sufficient credentials for joining the Union of Polish Artists and Designers (ZPAP). <\/em><\/p>
The Polish socialist realist episode and my private episode within it made me think this way: perhaps I should take up stage design. I\u2019d had a flair for it even as a child, so I headed for the Faculty of Scenography, whose leading light at the time was Daszewski, a prominent stage designer, reputed to be an extremely strict professor, who cut down anyone who came close to him. […] What happened to me subsequently was \u2018the Arsenal Show\u2019; I became involved in painting and told Daszewski I was resigning as a scenography student. He raised hell with me […] <\/em><\/p>
Jacek Kr\u00f3lak, Arsena\u0142. Master\u2019s dissertation prepared under the supervision of Prof. Jacek Sienicki. Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Faculty of Painting, 1988, TS, AFA, Museum of Academy of Fine Art in Warsaw. <\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Collaborated with Jan Seweryn Soko\u0142owski on his monumental project: a plafond in the National Theatre (1949; destroyed by fire in March 1985), and an entry in the interior design competition for the proposed Warsaw metro (1952). Formally, his name is not included in the documentation of these works because, as a student, he was not entitled to such credit. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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1951 - 1953<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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After completing his fifth year of painting studies, he requested a certificate of completion of the programme (which he received on 6 November 1951), and at the same time enrolled in the Faculty of Scenography, where he studied in the academic years 1951\/1952 and 1952\/1953 under Prof. W\u0142adys\u0142aw Daszewski. From 1952 onwards, he both studied and worked (in the areas of stage design and mural painting; see 1952\u20131953 and 1953\u20131957). <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Received the First Prize in the national exhibition of scenography students\u2019 works, held at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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26 May - 23 July 1952<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Took part in the First National Exhibition of Interior Architecture and Decorative Art at CBWA Zach\u0119ta in Warsaw, showing a scale model of the stage set he had designed for Racine\u2019s Andromaque.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Worked as an assistant to the National Theatre\u2019s scenographer (and also his professor at the Academy of Fine Arts), W\u0142adys\u0142aw Daszewski, on set designs for several productions, among them Revenge by Fredro (for which the team including Bohdan Korzeniewski, W\u0142adys\u0142aw Daszewski, and Jan Kurnakowicz received the Second Degree State Award in 1953). <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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1953 - 1957<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Working in a team with Jan Seweryn Soko\u0142owski and Zofia Czarnocka-Kowalska, as well as on his own, he designed and executed decorations (sgraffito and polichromy) on the facades of reconstructed historic townhouses in Warsaw: nos. 8 and 22\/24 in the Old Town\u2019s Market Square (team project), and no. 4 in the New Town\u2019s Market Square, in addition to ul. Nowomiejska 17 (individually). <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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$\"The$
The first post-war open-air workshop for students of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in Suffczyn, 1946. Jacek Sempoli\u0144ski sits on the stairs wearing light-colored pants<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
$\"During$
During painting in Suffczyn, ca. 1946<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
$\"Duing$
Duing an open-air workshop in Suffczyn, ca. 1946<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
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In Kazimierz Dolny, early 1950s.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
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With Jolanta Bieguszewska in Kazimierz Dolny, 1950s<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
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With Zofia Czarnocka-Kowalska, 1950s<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
$\"On$
On the Vistula River in Kazimierz Dolny, 1950s<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
$\"In$
In the studio of Professor Eugeniusz Eibisch at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, 1951. Seated from left: Grzegorz Wdowicki, Jolanta Bieguszewska, Zofia Szczyd\u0142o. Standing from left: Bronis\u0142aw Kierzkowski, Maria S\u0142oniowska, W\u0142odzimierz Pana\u015b (with palette), Ludwika Kozdro\u0144-Tazbir, Jacek Sempoli\u0144ski. Above Jacek Sempoli\u0144ski is Maria Skalska. Other persons not recognized<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
$\"In$
In the studio of Professor Eugeniusz Eibisch at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, 1951. From left: Jacek Sempoli\u0144ski, W\u0142odzimierz Pana\u015b, Ludwika Kozdro\u0144-Tazbir, Jolanta Bieguszewska<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
$\"Jacek$
Jacek Sempoli\u0144ski, Zofia Czarnocka-Kowalska, Jan Seweryn Soko\u0142owski during work on the decoration of the Musicians' Tenement House in the Old Town Square in Warsaw, 1953<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
$\"Jacek$
Jacek Sempoli\u0144ski during work on the decoration of the Musicians' Tenement House in the Old Town Square in Warsaw, 1953<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
$\"During$
During work on the decoration of the Musicians' Tenement House in the Old Town Square in Warsaw, 1953<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
$\"With$
With Wies\u0142aw Juszczak in Sejny, 1959<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
$\"With$
With Wies\u0142aw Juszczak during the vacations in Chmielno, 1959<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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22 July 1953<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Received the Second Degree State Art Award (granted to the team) for creative contribution to the restoration of polychromes in the Old Town Market Square in Warsaw.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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1954<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Received the Gold Cross of Merit (for work on polychrome decorations of townhouses in Warsaw’s Old Town).<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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January - March 1955<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Military service in Warsaw.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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… just when I became enthusiastic about mural painting, the idea of holding an exhibition in the Arsenal came up. I could not take part in the intensified discussions and organizational works because I was taken into the military. I spent three months in the army; admittedly, it was in Warsaw, I did some office work at the WKR (Military District Committee) and I continued to live at home but nonetheless it was so depressing that I had no strength to go to various places and take part in the discussions. <\/em><\/p>\n
I was discharged on the 1st of April; by then the deadline for submitting entries in the competition had already been set. In the meantime, however, I had managed to practise painting, despite the theatre and other activities, of course not to the desirable extent, but still I painted quite a lot. After discharge, I was able to finish the picture that I had been painting on and off. I submitted that and two other paintings […]; one made it through, a still life, the one that mattered the most to me. <\/em><\/p>\n
And that moment was very important to me because it reconsolidated me with the painting milieu after all these adventures and spells of discouragement. It made me aware of the right path: that nothing else could exist in my life other than painting. <\/em><\/p>\n
Jacek Kr\u00f3lak, Arsena\u0142, op.cit.<\/em><\/p>\n
Irrespective of what stance young people took towards the Kapist formulas, they sensed the concord of idea and its realization, which they encountered in the studios and in their conversations with the professors. They understood that art was a way of manifesting one\u2019s worldview, was immanently bound to it and, even if the specific worldview and artistic doctrine per se did not always coalesce with the young people\u2019s premonitions, it was that integrity that they found attractive. Those youngsters themselves deeply believed in integrity; it fulfilled their dream of great art, of a humanist conception of life. <\/em><\/p>\n
Towards the end of the forties, the Academy began to be reached by news of a new widespread movement in art \u2013 realism. It was called socialist. The news filtered in from the press, from publications, from scholarly sessions, from conversations with colleagues initiated in the ways of political life. The period was crowned by the famous convention of art schools in Pozna\u0144, combined with a gigantic review exhibition of students\u2019 works. Subsequently, an equally gigantic exhibition of the young was assembled at Warsaw\u2019s National Museum, this time entirely devoted to the implementation of the new doctrine. It was also during that time that the first national realist exhibition of \u2018the adults\u2019 was held. The years 1949\u20131950 were a period of considerable confusion of concepts, major re-evaluations; a period of protest for some, of great hopes for others. Here they were facing the imminent rise of something that would be truly new, independent of the \u00c9cole de Paris, something that \u2013 in its universalism \u2013 would stand a chance to become a truly great period of art. All the gaps in the new doctrine, its primitivism, were given a kind of benefit of the doubt; at most, they were the subject matter of jokes or inconsequential irritations. Namely, mostly the young, but not only the young, were fascinated by the opportunity for change, curious of the new and unknown, curious of art which, after all, they were to make without any models to emulate. The Warsaw art milieu prepared very seriously for the national exhibition of the young artists. Stipends and painting materials were distributed, debates were organized. Discussions actually went on in private circles as well. The caf\u00e9s of the time which were located near the Academy, especially the famous \u2018Do\u0142ek\u2019 (\u2018pit-hole\u2019), were teeming with conversations, even arguments; new ideas and conceptions were being born. Even those sceptical about \u2018the new\u2019 were attracted by the intensity of that atmosphere. Finally, the exhibition was opened. It was a major surprise and\u2026 disappointment. Something that was supposed to be great became average, if not mediocre or downright bad. […] But it was not the appearance of the exhibition that disappointed the young painters so. There was also something deeper. Namely, many perceived the art of socialist realism as an opportunity for a great experiment, as an artistic path where one could not only paint new types of pictures but also \u2013 and above all \u2013 find a new kind of integration of worldview with artistic practice in painstaking labour. After all, as mentioned before, they all deeply believed in this integrity. To all of them art was a way of manifesting ideas and worldview. This is what they lived both before joining the Academy and as its students, in the studios of their masters. And while most had been tired of Kapism by then, no one wanted to part with the idea of integrity \u2013 that was something that no one was tired of. Those who had a very traumatic experience of the war, even if assuaged by the joy of renewed life after liberation, desired to find a mode of expression for that trauma and for the postwar reality. The young people had a need to activate the layers of consciousness in which historical experiences were deeply rooted, to translate into a language of art those of their views which that period of the most recent history had given rise to. That was accompanied by a hope that it would be possible, through artistic work in peaceful circumstances, to \u2018regroup\u2019 aesthetics, doctrines, their own habits, or temporary fascinations; that, by starting from scratch, as it were, via creations that were failed or only partly completed, they would finally manage to reach good results. These lofty ambitions were undermined by the practical reality of artistic life. There is no reason to discuss extensively the characteristics of that period; a reckoning with it has been long done. It is, however, worthwhile to stress the importance of the essential crisis \u2013 going beyond, as it were, the artistic sphere itself \u2013 which affected the more ambitious youth. Namely, it disturbed their belief in the possibility of integrating worldviews and attitudes with artistic praxis. Everything that served as motivation in art out of deep conviction \u2013 whether the old models or the aesthetics of colourism, or attempts at the aesthetics of realism \u2013 was undermined. This unity of the artist and his works, existing across views and movements as the main motivation for activity, was shattered. […] <\/em><\/p>\n
In this atmosphere, an idea arose to organize a new exhibition of the young art during the World Youth Festival to be held in Warsaw. As you know, the exhibition was opened in the rooms of Warsaw’s Arsenal. It became a his- toric artistic manifestation. A lot has been written about it, and continues to be written. So there’s no point in repeating here what can be read elsewhere. With one correction, however: publications on the Arsenal Show always stress what you might call the stylistic features of that exhibition. Its expressionistic character (of often foreign provenance), epigonism, traditionalism, and lack of proposals directed towards the avant-garde trends in world art. Irrespective of how correct these descriptions and critiques have been, how reliable and in-depth the diagnoses, it seems appropriate to point out one important feature. The Arsenal Show, commonly referred to as an exquisite exhibition of poor paintings, was a new attempt at creating a model of art which, after years of latency, would restore the artist’s integrity, that concord of praxis and attitude, idea and its solution. Taking this perspective into account, the Arsenal Show was not a revival of the spirit of nationwide exhibitions but rather a negation of those exhibitions. This is why it was so attractive, why other creative circles (writers, musicians) envied us. It was the very spirit of the Arsenal Show that exerted this pull rather than its expressionist aesthetics. The power of authenticity and artistic identity overcame many reluctances. Modern life in its multifacetedness, the nightmare of the war and totalitarianism were given a convincing voice. The exhibition did not lack works that were in-depth reflection on human existence per se, on man’s perennial needs. So it was a complex and com- plicated – ‘three-dimensional’ – manifestation of art, and through its concord of idea and artistry also one that offered hope for the future. <\/em><\/p>\n
Jacek Sempoli\u0144ski, Malarstwo w ASP w latach 1946-1955 [w:] Akademia Sztuk Pi\u0119knych w Warszawie. Zeszyty Naukowe, Zeszyt 1\/7\/1984, s. 26-30
Fragments of conference paper: \u2018Malarstwo w ASP w latach 1946-1955 szkolnictwa artystycznego w Warszawie. 75 lat Akademii Sztuk Pi\u0119knych, Akademia Sztuk Pi\u0119knych w Warszawie. Zeszyty Naukowe, vol.1\/7, 1984, pp. 26-30. <\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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July - September 1955<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Took part in the National Exhibition of Young Art ‘Against War Against Fascism, held as part of the 5th World Festival of Youth and Students in Warsaw. The show was ar- ranged in the Arsenal building at ul. D\u0142uga, which gave it its name.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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19 October 1955 - 11 January 1956<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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With a view to working at the Academy of Fine Arts, he initiated efforts to obtain a diploma.<\/p>\n
In his application for the issuance of a diploma dated 19 October 1955 ‘in connection with taking up the position of asystent in the Faculty of Architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts’ (cf. 1 January 1956) he wrote: ‘Submit- ting this application, I refer to works shown in exhibitions (1954 district exhibition and festival exhibition at the Arsenal, prize-winning), mural painting works in the Old Town (Second-Degree State Award and Gold Cross of Merit), and five works submitted to the Diploma Committee.<\/p>\n
‘ On the basis of these works and other achievements specified in the application, the diploma Committee conferred a diploma in painting on Jacek Sempoli\u0144ski by their decision dated 11 January 1956. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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1 January 1956<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Began to teach at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, which he did until his retirement on 30 September 2004. Until 1977, he taught at the Faculty of Interior Architecture (renamed Faculty of Plastic Design in the academic year 1971\/1972), where he held the following positions:<\/p>
from 1 Jan 1956 deputy asystent in the painting and drawing studio of Prof. Zofia Czarnocka-Kowalska<\/li>
from 1 Oct 1956 asystent in the same studio<\/li>
from 1 Oct 1961 adiunkt<\/li>
from 1 Oct 1964 lecturer<\/li>
from 1 Dec 1969 senior lecturer<\/li>
from 1 Jan 1973 docent<\/li>
from 1 Apr 1988 professor extraordinarius<\/li>
from 1 Dec 1991 full professor<\/li><\/ul>
\u00a0<\/p>
When the faculty where he was employed span off another one, the Faculty of Industrial Design, in 1977, he became a research fellow in it. From the academic year 1980\/1981 he headed the Chair of Painting and Drawing (except for the period between February 1983 and August 1985, when this unit, renamed Chair of General Artistic Education, was headed by Grzegorz Kowalski).<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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J. S.: […] To me an artist is a man who is supposed to tell the truth about something. And that’s it. There are only two kinds, those who tell the truth and those who tell un- truth. Now, how this truth is to be traced, well that is a very difficult matter. This is going to be specifically resolved in the Last Judgment. Not in our time.<\/em><\/p>\n
M. B.: How then, in relation to this, do you see the problem of evaluating works of art as a professor of the Warsaw AFA? Since it isn’t easy to trace the truth, how can paintings be evaluated honestly and objectively, and how can art be given an A or an F? Do you have some permanent criterion by which you grade students?<\/em><\/p>\n
J. S.: None of us invents criteria right away, from scratch. A certain set of criteria is taken over from generation to generation. If we refer to our academy then, they have been flowing this way since the beginning of its existence and have reached our time. I believe there are several ba- sic laws by which a work of plastic art can be evaluated (roughly, of course). A margin of freedom must, however, be allowed for.<\/em><\/p>\n
M. B.: What are these basic laws then?<\/em><\/p>\n
J. S.: There are a few but they are so banal that there is actually not much point in enumerating them, namely: the law of balance, the law of contrast of chromatic value, contrast of colour, concord of elements, purposefulness in the use of elements, depending on the goal for which the specific work aims. You need to be aware that the criteria derive from the work which the teacher encounters, meaning that if a student brings a painting, I look at it and determine, more or less, where this painting is going and what obstacles are in its way. When you drive on a road and there are bumps and pits, then you know that these bumps are obstacles. They need to be eliminated, then you will drive faster and get further. The elements that interfere with the direction of this work are what I need to point out during correction. And in grading, exactly these elements that I have just listed play a role.<\/em><\/p>\n
M. B.: Then all of it is ultimately very subjective…<\/em><\/p>\n
that cooperates internally. They are thus subjective, but only partly because they are partly objective. If someone draws a nude, model, with one hand short and the other long, then of course it’s my business to see it; that is my subjective contribution, but the laws of anatomy are objective, so this is balancing between the objective and the subjective. I have to have the scent of an investigating judge who will track down the culprit. There!<\/em><\/p>\n
Jacek Sempoli\u0144ski interviewed by Marcin Bugalski: Profesory powiedzieli. Po co malarstwo?, \u2018AaSPe\u2019 Gazeta student\u00f3w Akademii Sztuk Pi\u0119knych w Warszawie, no.1, Spring 1996, pp.6-7<\/em><\/p> \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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$\"Commemorative$
Commemorative photo of pedagogues and students of the Faculty of Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, in the school's courtyard under the Colleoni statue, 1974. Jacek Sempoli\u0144ski in a black suit on the left<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
$\"Jadwiga$
Jadwiga Jarnuszkiewicz, Grzegorz Kowalski, Jan Dzi\u0119dziora, Wiktor Gutt (in the background) and Jacek Sempoli\u0144ski, Faculty of Design, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, 1980s<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
$\"With$
With students and assistant W\u0142odzimierz Pawlak (seated first from left) in the painting studio at the Faculty of Design of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, 2000<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Summer 1956<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Travelled to the German Democratic Republic in connection with his participation in the exhibition ‘Junge Generation’.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Autumn 1957<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Went to Italy on scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and Art. From there, he travelled to Paris on his own. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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I also visited Paris in 1957. At the time, the Ministry grant- ed foreign scholarships to young artists and I chose Italy. I went there with Sienicki, Oberlander and Dzi\u0119dziora, but I also accepted the invitation from my aunt who lived in Paris, and from Italy I went to France. <\/em><\/p>
Once there, I encountered art informel, like everyone else. It horrified and repelled me. I roamed the Paris streets aimlessly, lonely, irate and completely lost. I considered myself an ‘objectivist, a painter of landscape and still life – and here I was surrounded by some shameful tomfoolery, even clich\u00e9s. […] Actually, I came back completely shattered. Italian painting – that was my homeland; but then you can’t be a contemporary painter and be fascinated by Cimabue, Giotto, or Titian. Because, what would you do with it?<\/em><\/p>
I fell into a vacuum. <\/em><\/p>
Jacek Kr\u00f3lak, Arsena\u0142, Master’s dissertation prepared under the supervision of Prof. Jacek Sienicki, Academy of Fine Arts in War- saw, Faculty of Painting, 1988, TS, AFA Museum of Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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1958<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Travelled to France and Italy again (sightseeing tour).<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Late 1950s.<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Met Wies\u0142aw Juszczak, an art historian with whom he will remain in a relationship for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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1958 - 1961<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Collaborated with the Zak\u0142ady Artystyczno-Badawcze (Artistic and Research Workshops) of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Was a member of Jerzy So\u0142tan’s team in the As- sociation of Polish Architects’ (SARP) competition for the urban design of the centre of Warsaw’s district of Wola, and a member of the team designing Bar Wenecja, a bistro in Warsaw. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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April 1959<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Made his debut as an art critic in Przegl\u0105d Kulturalny (1959- 1962), and also wrote for Wsp\u00f3\u0142czesno\u015b\u0107 (1959, 1961). He would go back to writing reviews years later, contributing several a year to Nowe Ksi\u0105\u017cki (1971, 1972, and 1974). <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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20 June - 10 August 1960<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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First individual exhibition – at the Zach\u0119ta Gallery in War- saw – complete with a catalogue, with an introduction by Artur Mi\u0119dzyrzecki. The exhibition was discussed by such critics as Janusz Bogucki, Joanna Guze, Andrzej Os\u0119ka, Jerzy Stajuda, Ignacy Witz, Danuta Wr\u00f3blewska, and others. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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$\"View$
View of Jacek Sempoli\u0144ski's first solo exhibition, Zach\u0119ta Gallery, Warsaw 1960<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
$\"View$
View of Jacek Sempoli\u0144ski's first solo exhibition, Zach\u0119ta Gallery, Warsaw 1960<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
$\"View$
View of Jacek Sempoli\u0144ski's first solo exhibition, Zach\u0119ta Gallery, Warsaw 1960<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
$\"Jacek$
Jacek Sempoli\u0144ski portrayed by his father Leonard Sempoli\u0144ski, 1959<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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29 September - 5 November 1961<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Represented Poland in the 2nd Biennale de Paris (in the painting category, together with Tadeusz Dominik, Zbigniew Jaskierski, Jacek Sienicki, Jan Szancenbach, and Jerzy Tch\u00f3rzewski).<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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25 November 1961 - 9 January 1962<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Took part in a major review of contemporary painting as part of the series of exhibitions ‘Polish Work in the Plastic Arts on the 15th Anniversary of the People’s Republic of Poland’ at the National Museum in Warsaw.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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7 May - 1 June 1962<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Showed 15 new oil paintings and 18 watercolours (made in 1961-1962) in a solo exhibition at the Galeria Sztuki MDM in Warsaw.<\/p>\n
In 1963, almost the whole exhibition was transferred to Vienna, where Sempoli\u0144ski had his first foreign solo show at the Galerie in der Biberstrasse.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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1962 - 1965<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Was secretary to the Board of the Painting Section of the War- saw Chapter of the Union of Polish Artists and Designers (ZPAP).<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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4-27 January 1966<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Big solo show at the MDM Gallery in Warsaw: 44 oils and 15 watercolours. The introduction to the catalogue was writ- ten by Mieczys\u0142aw Por\u0119bski (it was subsequently reprinted in his book Po\u017cegnanie z krytyk\u0105). Another exhibition held at the time at this gallery was of Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz’s work. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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July - September 1966<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Accolade from ZPAP – Medal of Honour during the 3rd Fes- tival of Polish Contemporary Painting in Szczecin.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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1966 - 1969<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Sent his work to cyclical art events: 1st and 2nd Festival of Fine Arts, Warsaw, 1966 and 1968; 2nd and 3rd ‘Compari- sons, Sopot, 1967 and 1969; and 4th Festival of Polish Con- temporary Painting, Szczecin, 1968.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Summer 1967<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Plein air retreat in Ameli\u00f3wka in the \u015awi\u0119tokrzyskie Mountains, in the company of the married couple of painters, Lucyna Krakowska and Jacek Antoni Zieli\u0144ski.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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… in 1967 Sempoli\u0144ski persuaded us to go to a new plein air location, which he had discovered himself the previous summer. It was Ameli\u00f3wka. <\/em><\/p>\n
In straight line terms, we moved just six kilometres away, beyond Radostowa and Ciekoty, but our impression was that we had found ourselves in a different world. I will never forget the view that spread before me from there, that of the Wilkowska Valley, closed off by the Mount \u0141ysica massif. A place hidden from people’s eyes among old trees and shrubs, though located on the slope of a lofty hill, over a bend of the Lubrzanka. The private guesthouse remembered the time of prewar splendour. As that time had been long gone, the conditions there were primitive to the extent that no vacationer would accept today. But to us it seemed like we were in heaven. I consider this plein air retreat one of the happiest events in my life. <\/em><\/p>\n
I am so glad we did not know the future! The following year entirely different moods prevailed there. Despite being hidden from the world we were reached by news of both the suicide of the sculptor Henryk Morel, hunted down by the security police, and the intervention of the Warsaw Pact forces in Czechoslovakia. We never went back to Ameli\u00f3wka again. […] <\/em><\/p>\n
In the summer of 1967 in Ameli\u00f3wka, I observed the work method followed by Sempoli\u0144ski, my senior by nine years. I soon understood that the method would be of no use to me while it was the only feasible one for him. Jacek acted like the most rigorous impressionist. Perhaps even a ‘superimpressionist’ because it is known after all that Claude Monet had returned to some of the motifs that he had painted before, while Jacek did not. He would take a canvas and head out to ‘look for a motif’ at a specific time of the day, with careful- ly selected light and he would paint the picture only until the light changed, whereupon he would stop working and never go back to work on that painting. He did not ponder whether or not it was finished. To him, a painting was finished practically at any time during his work on it because the only criterion that he recognized was the balancing of the elements appearing on the canvass at any given moment. The most bizarre thing was that the pictures that he brought back from his plein air retreat resembled neither the impressionists’ historic painting nor the painted motif in terms of the subject matter. It was usually a magma of lights, concentrating and dispersing on the canvas in sync with the rhythm of some la- tent energies. It was a world emerging from chaos. <\/em><\/p>\n
The most important thing for Jacek was that he drew this energy directly from nature. Everything else, including the similitude of the painting to the painted motif, was of no interest to him. And yet there was in those pictures the elevation of the hills, the descending of the meadows and the warmth of the earth, covered with furrows or gilded with swathes of rye. […] <\/em><\/p>\n
In 1967 Sempoli\u0144ski was already a mature painter. He turned forty that year. The following year marked the commonly known historical watershed. I would hate to trivialize this, but I think that these two facts can also be considered a water- shed point in this artist’s work, though of course the psycho- logical factors are more complex. In the first half of the seven- ties, Sempolinski’s painting began to change radically. It was not a change of style, but rather a change of meaning. […] <\/em><\/p>\n
Jacek Antoni Zieli\u0144ski, Raj utracony, http:\/\/www.arkusz.pl\/ pazdziernik2001\/05.htm (accessed: 4th January 2017). <\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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September 1967<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Went on a two-week trip to France and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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15 November - 15 December 1967<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Was the curator of the Polish section in the 3rd Grand Prix International d’Art Contemporain de la Principaut\u00e9 de Monaco, and also took part in the exhibition. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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3 May - 15 June 1969<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Was the curator of the Polish section in the 19th Biennale Internazionale d’Arte Premio del Fiorino in Florence, Italy. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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6 October - 5 November 1970<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Received one of two equal prizes in the exhibition held to accompany the 8th Chopin Piano Competition in the foyer of the National Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw, entitled ‘To- wards Romanticism’. He also wrote the introduction to the exhibition catalogue. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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December 1970 - February 1971<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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His 1960 diptych Composition with Organs was shown in the retrospective exhibition ‘Painting in People’s Poland’ at the National Museum in Warsaw (transferred to the National Museum in Pozna\u0144 in February 1971). It was the first time the artist had been included as a ‘contemporary classic’. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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4 - 24 February 1971<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Had a big solo exhibition in the Zach\u0119ta Gallery. The il- lustrated catalogue with an introduction by Wies\u0142aw Juszczak reproduced 75 paintings dating from 1968-1970. The exhibition was designed by Stanis\u0142aw Zamecznik.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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1971<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Trip to Spain.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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I went to Spain for specific values, i.e. for mystical art. And I was not disappointed; actually, the reality surpassed my expectations, although it’s difficult to dig one’s way through to the essential values. In Italy, they are present every step of the way; in Spain, you need to dig your way through to them. But what made things easier for me was that I stayed mostly in Andalusia, where everything is on the surface. Zurbar\u00e1n’s painting was the revelation of that trip, and even more so 16th and 17th-century church sculpture, which in Spain is taken to the extreme, to exhibitionism, where the macabre quality of disintegration, bloody martyrdom and physical torture is combined with extreme soulfulness. It is the kind of mysticism that combines extreme corporeality with extreme liberation from corporeality.<\/em><\/p>\n
I never went to Spain again. But this keeps nourishing me to this day. I just discovered myself there, which is why I don’t even need to go there anymore. What I saw there is in me, as it were – or maybe it’s an illusion? <\/em><\/p>\n
Interview given to Ewa Korulska as part of the survey ‘Arty\u015bci plastycy 1984-85’, ca. 1987, TS, AFA Museum in Warsaw. <\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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1971<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Received an Award of the Academy of Fine Arts in recognition of his achievement as a teacher.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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5 - 8 April 1972<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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During the 13th General Convention of the Delegates of the Union of Polish Artists and Designers (ZPAP) in Pozna\u0144, he was elected a member of the Presidium of the Central Board of the Painting Section.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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1972<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Completed the academic procedure for the conferment of the degree of docent. He assumed this function on 1 January 1973. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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19 - 21 April 1974<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Attended the 14th General Convention of the Delegates of ZPAP in Lublin. Spoke in the plenary session. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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27 August - 17 September 1975<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the People’s Republic of Poland included a survey in which each of the 20 invited critics, members of the Polish Section of AICA (Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art), shared their choice of the 30 most prominent and significant individualities or works of art. The survey culminated in a large exhibition at the Zach\u0119ta Gallery, entitled ‘Art Critics Propose’. Sempoli\u0144ski’s paintings were