drogi artysto

Andrzej Szeles
He was born in Garwolin, Poland, in 1936. He studied art in Toruń. He spent almost his entire
adult life surrounded by the mine shafts and chimney stacks of Wałbrzych, a city that
functioned perfectly well in the post-WWII socialist reality but was led to the brink of
bankruptcy by the political transformation.
Most of Andrzej Szeles’s works date back to the 1960s and 1970s. In those times, he was
looking for his own place in a world that was not too friendly to artistic creativity. It was not
without a reason that his works from that period were dominated by motifs of nature and
architecture. Those are not the only topics that the author explored; the conflict between
artistic sensitivity and the socialist reality is expressed, among others, by such works as
“Urzędnik” [The Official] or the mysterious “N30P11”. He did not allow many people access to
his thoughts; his works spoke for him.
Andrzej Szeles managed to combine his passion with paid work, first as the manager of the
Wałbrzych branch of the Biuro Wystaw Artystycznych [Office of Art Exhibitions], and then as
the town’s chief visual artist. Many Wałbrzych natives still remember his weekly satirical
commentaries published in the “Trybuna Wałbrzyska” newspaper.
Andrzej Szeles’s story includes both success and great talent, and dramatic situations and
inner quandaries. A tragic accident divorced him from art. After many years, he attempted to
return to creative work, but he never really succeeded. He turned to commercial graphic
design, and created art only sporadically.
Almost a year after his unexpected death, his works were rediscovered. Many of them
remained hidden for more than 40 years, and no-one could admire them. We were
enraptured by them, and they let us go back in time; we could not take our eyes off them for
a long time. We think that their place is in the private collections of people who will
appreciate them, accompanied by other outstanding works of art. We have succeeded in
accessing the identified works, and in securing exclusive rights to the entire body of work of
this unusual, mysterious artist.
Zdobył nagrody i wyróżnienia:

1962 – Wyróżnienie w Ogólnopolskim Konkursie na Plakat Ochrony Zabytków
w Bydgoszczy;

1966 – III nagroda w Ogólnopolskim Konkursie na Plakat „Czwartki Lubuskie”
w Zielonej Górze;

1967
–
Wyróżnienie
w
Ogólnopolskim
Konkursie
na
Plakat
„Kultura
Pracy”
w Warszawie;

1965, 1967 – Medale na Międzynarodowym Biennale Ekslibrisu Współczesnego
w Malborku;

1972 – Nagroda Miasta Wałbrzycha;1972 – Brązowa Lampka Górnicza;

1973 – Srebrna Lampka Górnicza w Turnieju Poezji i Plastyki o Lampkę Górniczą
w Wałbrzychu;

1973 – II i III nagroda (pierwszej nie przyznano) we konkursie na Plakat „Ziemia
Wałbrzyska” w Wałbrzychu;

1975 – I i II nagroda w Konkursie na Plakat „Dni Ziemi Wałbrzyskiej”;

1978 – I nagroda w Ogólnopolskim Konkursie na Ekslibris w Rawiczu;

1979 – Odznaka „Zasłużony Działacz Kultury”