Władysława Iwańska, painter of the most beautiful dreams and a world that does not exist

Iwańska was born and lived all her life in Nowy Sącz. Certainly, many residents of Nowy Sącz knew Władysława Iwańska at least by sight, not realizing that they were dealing with a respected painter and an extraordinary artistic personality. The lack of closer knowledge of Iwańska's work in her hometown, and even in her close neighborhood, resulted partly from the barrier of distrust with which the painter separated herself from people, reserving the world of her painting for herself, making it her own refuge, difficult to access for an outsider. This, in a sense, elite work by Iwańska, has long been known and highly appreciated by the artistic community of Nowy Sącz, as well as by lovers and professional art experts in many European countries. The artist's life, from an early age, was in difficult financial conditions. She lived with her parents in a very modest house in the Helena district, on the Dunajec River, in a place constantly at risk of flooding. As she confessed, drawing and painting was her most joyful activity from an early age. Her real contact with the world of art began in the early 1950s, when, at the suggestion of a distinguished teacher from Nowy Sącz, prof. Henryk Stamirski, who appreciated her work, took part in the exhibition for the first time. It was a collective exhibition of works by Nowy Sącz artists, organized by the then director of the Nowy Sącz museum, the famous sculptor Zbigniew Borowski. Shortly afterwards, in 1957, he brought a young painter to work in the museum, where Władysława Iwańska worked for eleven years. In those years, only a few people were employed in the museum, and the employees shared the responsibilities. Władysława Iwańska primarily performed various administrative works, but she also helped with substantive work.

While working at the museum, she came into contact with the creative environment of Nowy Sącz, including: she met Ewa Harsdorf, an excellent painter and teacher, who quickly recognized Iwańska's great innate talent and confirmed her choice of artistic path. Władysława Iwańska achieved the style and artistic maturity of her painting completely independently. She was undoubtedly helped by her innate painting intuition, but systematic practice of art was also important. The collection of the Nowy Sącz museum includes approximately 300 works by Wł. Iwańska, the oldest of them were made in the early 1960s. Their comparison with later works allows us to see the enormous artistic development that took place in her work in the period from the 1960s to the beginning of the 1980s, when her work reached undoubtedly the highest artistic level, which the painter was able to maintain until the end of her life, because it must be emphasized that she was creatively active until the last days of her life. The painter was a member of the Society of Friends of Fine Arts in Nowy Sącz for many years, participated in several dozen exhibitions of the Society, received, among others, several first prizes at the annual reviews of TPSP works, as well as a special, honorable mention in 1998.

He has had a number of individual exhibitions, the most important of which are those prepared by the District Museum in Nowy Sącz: in 1983 in the Gothic House, in 1997 in the Nikifor Museum in Krynica and in 2004 again in the Gothic House on the occasion of the anniversary 50 years of artistic work. It is worth mentioning the Krakow exhibitions: a large Polish-German exhibition entitled "Lonely Islands of Imagination" in 1994, and an individual exhibition at the Austrian consulate in 2001. Władysława Iwańska's paintings were also selected by the outstanding art expert Aleksander Jackowski for a retrospective art brut exhibition entitled "Talent, passion, intuition", which took place in 1985 at the District Museum in Radom, was also shown at the second edition of this exhibition presented in 2005/6 at the District Museums in Radom and Nowy Sącz /in the Dawna Synagoga Gallery/ and at the State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw. In 2010, the painter received, although posthumously, the greatest artistic distinction - her paintings were qualified by an international jury and represented Polish art at the 9th International Triennial of Native Art INSITA at the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava, the most important event of this type in the world, taking place from 1960s in the capital of Slovakia.

Among the individual exhibitions organized after the painter's death, the most important should be noted: the second exhibition at the Nikifor Museum in Krynica-Zdrój in 2010, and two exhibitions in Slovakia: at the Castle Museum in Stará Ľubovňa in 2015 and at the Šarišska Gallery in Prešov in 2016 , as well as an exhibition at the District Museum in Tarnów in 2022.

Iwańska's artistic achievements are organized in series ranging from a few to over 200 works. Each series is a painted story, the pictures are arranged in a specific order. The author herself compares them to a "book-album". The most interesting series of paintings include: Desert Breath, Paradise, Artistic Towns, Orphan of the Earth, Living Waves, Living Clouds, Living Sky, Forefathers' Eve, Dew Drops, Earthly Paradise - Valley of Tears, Wind in Bows, Death, as well as religious series: Three Kings, Saint Martin, Saint Kinga, Father Kolbe and others. The sense of fear and the threat of the elements that left such a strong mark on her life were also clearly reflected in her works, especially in series such as Smutna and Flood.

She liked painting to music the most and recalled with regret that she had to stop learning the violin in her youth due to lack of funds. She often replaced music with her own singing or poetic stanzas, which, as she said, spoke to her while painting, although she did not consider these expressions to be poems, e.g.

A cold wind is blowing, carrying white hail
It has already flown through the clearings, showering hail like pearls

Nature, with the changing colors of the surroundings resulting from the cycle of seasons, was an important inspiration for Władysława Iwańska's work. This found beautiful expression in the Autumn Breath series, consisting of approximately 130 paintings arranged in shorter cycles, such as Autumn Wind, Autumn Breeze, Autumn Spider Thread. The autumn breeze turns without a clear boundary into a large winter series called Snowflakes. Władysława Iwańska loved winter very much, although given the difficult financial conditions of her everyday life, this time of year was a particularly difficult time for her. The elements that attack human homes are depicted in a special way. They sometimes even take on the physical characteristics of living beings. "Living clouds" with animal faces attack lonely houses associated with boys' heads. The "Dancing Scares" in the field, whose dances are observed by the painter, become a similarly animated part of nature.

Architecture is a common motif in Iwańska's work, especially in paintings painted after 1980. At that time, a series of excellent works were created, in the composition of which the most important place is occupied by fantastic, multi-story buildings with soaring towers. These are primarily "Artistic Towns", but the extraordinary buildings of Iwańska, closely associated with the architectural works of Antonio Gaudi, appear in many other series, including: in such as Living Waves, Św. Martin, the Three Kings, Jesienny Powiew and others. The painter looked for inspiration for these paintings by looking at available albums with the architecture of historical cities, but she was most happy when she could visit such cities herself.

Towards the end of her life, she painted a beautiful series of paintings dedicated to the Holy Father John Paul II. She was a very religious person and today, after many years, trying to understand her inspirations at that time, we have the right to believe that with her paintings about John Paul II, the painter was saying goodbye to the real world, even though she felt separated from it by an invisible wall. She was leaving for the world she had created with her painting and which was closer to her. A common feature of most of Władysława Iwańska's paintings is the mood of a certain nostalgia, longing, sometimes sadness, a certain gentleness and tranquility. Maybe that's why so many people like to have a painting by the Nowy Sącz painter at home, indicating that its proximity has a calming effect. In the psychological dimension, the world of Władysława Iwańska's painting was her better world, her "asylum" and a "reality" better than the one in which she had to live. For her, a real "microcosm" was her poor house on the Dunajec River, the inside of which she decorated with fairy-tale paintings. They were never photographed or filmed during her lifetime. The painter did not agree to this. She defended access to her world and was reluctant to let anyone into her house. These paintings were her treasure and what she had exclusively for herself, something no one could take away from her.

Despite the painter's distancing herself from people, her work is well known and highly appreciated by the artistic community of Nowy Sącz, but not only by professional art experts, her paintings are in the collections of several Polish museums and private collections in many countries. After the death of Władysława Iwańska, a group of people fascinated by her work attempted to save the artist's house, where they want to organize a museum dedicated to her. Władysława Iwańska died in 2005. She left her very poor legacy to the city, but it included the life story of an extraordinary artist - a unique house and a rich collection of paintings. Due to both the artistic level of her works and the international fame she gained during her lifetime, she deserved to be permanently commemorated in her hometown.

Zbigniew Wolanin, curator of the exhibition