MACIEJ BIENIASZ, Box, 1973

oil, canvas, cardboard, 96.5 x 63 cm, author's description on the back. Exhibited: 10 IX 2016 - 8 i 2017 Kraków, Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology, group exhibition presenting the activities of the Wprost group /Kat./ "Wprost 1966-1986", ed. Anna Król, Jacek Waltoś, cat. no. 197 pp. 405 illustration no. 267. A later (1977) realization of Maciej Bieniasz's "Box" is in the collection of the National Museum in Cracow and is presented in the permanent exhibition "XX + XXI. Gallery of Polish Art". "A devastated letterbox hanging on a dirty, by-the-numbers painted wall of the stairwell of a residential block of flats might seem like a post-minimalist work that means nothing more than what it represents. However, the author of the work wanted to communicate his symbolic perception of reality to the viewer with this simple sign. He made the dilapidated letterbox a sign of the standard of living in a communist country, where one of the most characteristic phenomena was the lack of respect for common property as "nobody's" property. Such an attitude gave birth to numerous pathologies. These included vandalism, acts of mindless aggression by frustrated people, deprived of a decent life and better prospects. Cigarette butts and matches are additional signs of degeneration of behavior, contempt for the norms of social existence, resulting from rebellion against a reality that cannot be changed. Such traces of destruction usually persisted for a long time, turning into a permanent state, deepening depravity, arousing despondency and, eventually, indifference among helpless citizens. Bieniasz repeated this simple motif several times, seeing it as a dramatic symbol of the nation's moral degradation. The letterbox also became a symbol of the new times, in his painting after 1989." Source: Waclawa Milewska/ imnk.pl.

Cracovian painter, graphic artist, illustrator, educator and poet. Studied at the Painting Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow in the studio of Emil Krcha; he received his diploma in 1963. In 1974 he began teaching at the Katowice branch of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow (now the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice). He was a professor at this academy, teaching there for 35 years. Since 1996 he has been a pedagogue at the Institute of Art of the Cieszyn branch of the Silesian University. In 1966, together with Zbylut Grzywacz, Jacek Waltos, Leszek Sobocki, he founded the Wprost group. He participated in all exhibitions of the group. The artist lived and worked in Katowice from 1969-2012. In 1993 he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Rebirth of Poland. In 1998 the Upper Silesian Union honored him with the Wojciech Korfanty Award. In 2012 he received the Lux ex Silesia award (the laudation was delivered by Marian Oslislo, rector of the Academy of Fine Arts).