Expressionist religious carving
Elongated forms and faces in open pain — not conventional church statues.
User:Piotrus — CC BY-SA 4.0 · User:Piotrus — CC BY-SA 4.0 · User:Piotrus — CC BY-SA 4.0
A gallery in the house of the Polish sculptor Antoni Rząsa in Zakopane, created by his family after his death and still run by them. Rząsa carved in wood all his life, and most of his work is religious figures — crucifixions, madonnas, saints — but they are not conventional church statues: the forms are elongated with broken lines and the faces express open pain, closer to expressionism than to official religious art. His background explains that: he grew up in a poor village, lived through the war, and worked as a carpenter before becoming a sculptor. Wood was his material from the start because it was what there was. What distinguishes the visit is that the place is a house rather than an institution: the work is shown in rooms the artist lived in, and a member of the family usually receives you and explains. That makes it a personal experience rather than a museum tour. It is small and an hour covers it, with limited hours that may require calling ahead out of season. It is one of few places in Zakopane showing serious art away from the town's tourist character.
Elongated forms and faces in open pain — not conventional church statues.
A carpenter from a poor village who became a sculptor; circumstance chose the material.
The work is shown in his house rather than in neutral galleries.
Zakopane, in the sculptor's house
Yes, because the work is visual and direct and needs no background: the elongated wooden forms and expressive faces affect you regardless of what you know of his life. And Zakopane is a largely commercial tourist town, making this one of few places offering something serious.
The Villa Koliba and its Zakopane Style museum, the old wooden Pęksowy Brzyzek cemetery with its carved markers — among the most beautiful and quietest things in the town — and the Jaszczurówka chapel to the east. Together these give you cultural Zakopane away from the Krupówki stalls.
Sign in to write your review of this place.
No reviews yet — be the first.