Wystawa stała
SFINKS. HOMMAGE AU CARRÉ NOIR
KRZYSZTOF M. BEDNARSKI
Sphinx – Hommage au Carré Noir Krzysztof M. Bednarski
Sphinx is a homage paid by Krzysztof M. Bednarski to the classics of the contemporary avant-garde, with Malewicz as their leading representative. The sculpture is the artist’s response to the mechanism of form reduction, coupled with a metaphysical turn towards new logic and subject-less reality.
The lion assumes the pose of a mythological sphinx here – an association enhanced by the pyramid-like shape of the sculpture’s openwork pedestal. The sphinx as known from iconography had a human face and was believed to ask passing travellers a philosophical riddle. If they failed to respond correctly, they promptly met their doom.
The face is replaced here by a black square, reinforcing the far-from-obvious symbolism of that hybrid creature. Since the sculpture has an openwork frame and is hollow inside, one can enter its interior and look at the world around through a small opening in the square, thus symbolically impersonating the Sphinx. This is an invitation to change our perspective and attempt to solve the riddles in which our infinitely surprising reality abounds.
Bednarski’s sculpture, half-lion and half-riddle, links the avant-garde and abstract art to classical figuration. It naturally complements the surroundings of the classicist Lentz Villa, forming a bridge between the historical and the modern concept of art, and constituting a proof of how refreshing the dialogue between tradition and modernity can be.
Sphinx – Hommage au carré noir, 1998, patinated bronze, 88 × 59 × 180 cm
Co-financed from ‘Sculpture in Public Space – for Niepodległa 2025’, a proprietary programme of the Orońsko Centre of Polish Sculpture funded from the budget of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.
Krzysztof M. Bednarski – one of Poland’s greatest contemporary sculptors, born in 1953 in Kraków, graduate of Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts (1973-1978, the studio of Profs Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz and Oskar Hansen). Active in many disciplines of art, he once closely collaborated with Jerzy Grotowski’s Laboratorium Theatre, designing posters for that stage in 1976-1981. Though residing since 1986 in Rome, he remains active in the Polish art scene.
His early works related to communist propaganda (Total Portrait of Karl Marx, 1978, The Museum of Independence in Warsaw; A Collective Portrait, 1980, The National Museum in Warsaw) and to Poland’s social and political situation under the martial law (Birthplace, 1982, Polish History Museum; Victoria – Victoria, 1983, The National Museum in Kraków). His best-known work is the sculpture-installation Moby Dick (1987, Art Museum in Łódź).
Bednarski has designed more than a dozen tombstones for such eminent personalities of Polish culture as Krzysztof Kieślowski, Wojciech Fangor, Tomasz Stańko, Ewa Demarczyk, the sarcophagi of Krzysztofa Penderecki and Adam Zagajewski, as well as the monuments Incontro con Federico Fellini (Rimini, 1994), Fryderyk Chopin – La note bleue (Vienna, 2010), and Hommage à Maria Jarema (Kraków 2022). His accolades include the Katarzyna Kobro Award (2004), the Franco Cuomo International Award (2017), and the ‘Gloria Artis’ Gold Medal for Merit to Culture (2011).
The lion assumes the pose of a mythological sphinx here – an association enhanced by the pyramid-like shape of the sculpture’s openwork pedestal. The sphinx as known from iconography had a human face and was believed to ask passing travellers a philosophical riddle. If they failed to respond correctly, they promptly met their doom.
The face is replaced here by a black square, reinforcing the far-from-obvious symbolism of that hybrid creature. Since the sculpture has an openwork frame and is hollow inside, one can enter its interior and look at the world around through a small opening in the square, thus symbolically impersonating the Sphinx. This is an invitation to change our perspective and attempt to solve the riddles in which our infinitely surprising reality abounds.
Bednarski’s sculpture, half-lion and half-riddle, links the avant-garde and abstract art to classical figuration. It naturally complements the surroundings of the classicist Lentz Villa, forming a bridge between the historical and the modern concept of art, and constituting a proof of how refreshing the dialogue between tradition and modernity can be.
Sphinx – Hommage au carré noir, 1998, patinated bronze, 88 × 59 × 180 cm
Co-financed from ‘Sculpture in Public Space – for Niepodległa 2025’, a proprietary programme of the Orońsko Centre of Polish Sculpture funded from the budget of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.
Krzysztof M. Bednarski – one of Poland’s greatest contemporary sculptors, born in 1953 in Kraków, graduate of Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts (1973-1978, the studio of Profs Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz and Oskar Hansen). Active in many disciplines of art, he once closely collaborated with Jerzy Grotowski’s Laboratorium Theatre, designing posters for that stage in 1976-1981. Though residing since 1986 in Rome, he remains active in the Polish art scene.
His early works related to communist propaganda (Total Portrait of Karl Marx, 1978, The Museum of Independence in Warsaw; A Collective Portrait, 1980, The National Museum in Warsaw) and to Poland’s social and political situation under the martial law (Birthplace, 1982, Polish History Museum; Victoria – Victoria, 1983, The National Museum in Kraków). His best-known work is the sculpture-installation Moby Dick (1987, Art Museum in Łódź).
Bednarski has designed more than a dozen tombstones for such eminent personalities of Polish culture as Krzysztof Kieślowski, Wojciech Fangor, Tomasz Stańko, Ewa Demarczyk, the sarcophagi of Krzysztofa Penderecki and Adam Zagajewski, as well as the monuments Incontro con Federico Fellini (Rimini, 1994), Fryderyk Chopin – La note bleue (Vienna, 2010), and Hommage à Maria Jarema (Kraków 2022). His accolades include the Katarzyna Kobro Award (2004), the Franco Cuomo International Award (2017), and the ‘Gloria Artis’ Gold Medal for Merit to Culture (2011).
Task title: Syntheses: the contemporary sculpture Sphinx – Hommage au Carré Noir by Krzysztof M. Bednarski in the historical context of the Lentz Villa in Szczecin
Amount of funding: PLN 222,000
Total investment cost: PLN 252,000
Agreement signed: in May 2025
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Sphinx - Hommage au Carré Noir Krzysztof M. Bednarski
