„Four colors” Jacek Waltoś
27 March - 9 May 2026
Contemporary Art Gallery BWA SOKÓŁ
vernissage:
27 March 2026, hour 18:00
Starting March 27, we invite you to the BWA SOKÓŁ Gallery for an exhibition by Jacek Waltoś. This is a unique opportunity to explore the work of the outstanding co-founder of the WPROST group through the lens of his signature method—a radical reduction of colors to the four elements—which is an attempt to capture the “primordial principle” of the world and find a lasting order in an ephemeral reality.
JACEK WALTOŚ
Painter, draftsman, sculptor, printmaker, and author of essays and articles about art. He published many of them under the pseudonym Jacek Buszyński. He was born in 1938 in Chorzów. He studied at the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków in the studio of Prof. Emil Krcha, and received his diploma in 1963. Co-founder, along with Maciej Bieniasz, Zbylut Grzywacz, Barbara Skąpska, and Leszek Sobocki, of the WPROST group, which was active from 1966 to 1986. He participated in all of the group’s exhibitions. In 1967, the group’s members received the C.K. Norwid Art Critics’ Award, and in 1984, the Warsaw Archdiocese Award. Individually, Jacek Waltoś is the recipient of, among others, the Alba Romer-Taylor Award (1994), the Independent Culture Award (1986), and the Jan Cybis Award (2002). Co-organizer of the exhibition “Romanticism and Romanticism in 19th- and 20th-Century Polish Art” (1975). In the 1980s, he participated in exhibitions of “independent art.” He is the co-author of the book “100 Most Famous Paintings.” He worked at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań and Kraków. In 2011, he retired after many years of teaching.
Jacek Waltoś’s works are included, among others, in the collections of all the National Museums in Poland: the Museum of Art in Łódź, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Radom, the Upper Silesian Museum in Bytom, and the Silesian Museum in Katowice, as well as in many other public and private collections.
The most important series of works, presented in solo exhibitions since 1963, include: “Transformations – Androgyne”; “Circles”; “Phaedra, after Jean Racine”; “Pieta in Three Parts”; “Between Us – The End”; “Eros – Agape”; “The Cloak of the Good Samaritan”; “Dr. Freud Examines the Human Soul”; “Chekhov’s People”; “Offering I. by A.”; “Samuel and the Voice/The Call”; “Centaur”; “Compassion”; “Empedocles at the Crater of Etna”; “M∞rze.”
In 2022, a retrospective exhibition of Jacek Waltoś’s work titled “Collective Forgetfulness” took place in Kraków. The exhibition was organized by the Nowa Huta Cultural Center and was presented at three venues: the NCK Center Gallery, the Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, and the University of Economics in Kraków.
Painter, draftsman, sculptor, printmaker, and author of essays and articles about art. He published many of them under the pseudonym Jacek Buszyński. He was born in 1938 in Chorzów. He studied at the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków in the studio of Prof. Emil Krcha, and received his diploma in 1963. Co-founder, along with Maciej Bieniasz, Zbylut Grzywacz, Barbara Skąpska, and Leszek Sobocki, of the WPROST group, which was active from 1966 to 1986. He participated in all of the group’s exhibitions. In 1967, the group’s members received the C.K. Norwid Art Critics’ Award, and in 1984, the Warsaw Archdiocese Award. Individually, Jacek Waltoś is the recipient of, among others, the Alba Romer-Taylor Award (1994), the Independent Culture Award (1986), and the Jan Cybis Award (2002). Co-organizer of the exhibition “Romanticism and Romanticism in 19th- and 20th-Century Polish Art” (1975). In the 1980s, he participated in exhibitions of “independent art.” He is the co-author of the book “100 Most Famous Paintings.” He worked at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań and Kraków. In 2011, he retired after many years of teaching.
Jacek Waltoś’s works are included, among others, in the collections of all the National Museums in Poland: the Museum of Art in Łódź, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Radom, the Upper Silesian Museum in Bytom, and the Silesian Museum in Katowice, as well as in many other public and private collections.
The most important series of works, presented in solo exhibitions since 1963, include: “Transformations – Androgyne”; “Circles”; “Phaedra, after Jean Racine”; “Pieta in Three Parts”; “Between Us – The End”; “Eros – Agape”; “The Cloak of the Good Samaritan”; “Dr. Freud Examines the Human Soul”; “Chekhov’s People”; “Offering I. by A.”; “Samuel and the Voice/The Call”; “Centaur”; “Compassion”; “Empedocles at the Crater of Etna”; “M∞rze.”
In 2022, a retrospective exhibition of Jacek Waltoś’s work titled “Collective Forgetfulness” took place in Kraków. The exhibition was organized by the Nowa Huta Cultural Center and was presented at three venues: the NCK Center Gallery, the Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, and the University of Economics in Kraków.
