Peintres de l’âme
Peintres de l’âme

Summary/Abstract: Marian Grużewski (next to Adam Dobrzański, Nina Filipowska, Arnold Radwan Radziszewski and many others) is regarded as a trance, medium painter. True, he studied painting but was always affected by the fact that he first became known as a medium, in contrast to Kazimierz Stabrowski, who was first recognised as an artist and subsequently revealed his supernatural talents. Both, however, found themselves in a trap of ambivalent assessments caused by mediums prior to the Second World War. The situation was additionally complicated by the fact that such artists were, as a rule, also interested in spirituality, theosophy, anthropology, and other currents regarded as part of the occult current and were actively opposed by the Church. In this fashion, despite the fact that the oeuvre of both painters was regarded as “firmly embedded in Christian doctrine”, they were considered suspicious. Gruzewski hoped to capture the invisible in the visible world, and thus to discover truth inaccessible for the senses. Moreover, he tried to create “arythmosophy”, a mathematical science proving the correctness of the premises of the occult. In turn, Stabrowski strove towards depicting inner reality, accessible only for the soul, experienced by the latter and heard and seen with its sight, hearing, and, predominantly, emotion. He regarded it to be just as real as outer, material reality. These attempts cast a shadow on the careers of both men: Stabrowski was forced to resign as director of the School of Fine Arts, which he founded, and Grużewski was compelled to face a campaign of slander and libel. Their art, once the object of interest, now became criticised. The categories of good and evil were actually located beyond it - in stereotypes governing the intellect- and images played merely the role of a sensitive barometer of a cruel social game.

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