Sculpture

Stone has no clear-cut expressive direction, as line has, nor has it an equally obvious colour, as is present in paint. Stone is a formless or rather variform mass, leaving toan artist full freedom in the choisce of shape - but only seemingly. The fact is that stone has weight and texture. It has this hardly perceptible, as it were optimal gravity akin to the critical mass of fissionable element. It is exactly this massthat an artist working in this grateful but at the same time difficult material must strive to attain. Once he achieves it removing all unneeded fragments, stone is brought to life. If he fails to attain the desired mass, ideal in its gravitation and in the values of forces acting within a solid, the stone will remain just what it was: a soulles and shapelles mass.

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Firstly then, workshop: Wiesław Bielak is a universal sculptor which means he feels equally comfortable in bronze and in stone, realism and abstract forms, full sculptures and medals, miniatures and monumental works, and scale plays a special role in three-dimensional art.

Secondly - theoretical education. Bielak knows the history and the principles of sculpture since its very beginnings. Particularly the classical sculpture of Greece in 5th-3rd centuries B.C. that makes the insurpassable model that affects us even today. The classical sculpture then is a canon, a value, a rough calculation of gravity and proportion and of the forces acting in the sculpture. It is the interrelation of the mass and the texture of its surface, it is the respect of the model, the material and of oneself which, in the art, means the search of perfection. It is finally the power of timelessness, as classical sculptures are indifferent to the passing millenia. Thirdly - the approach to the model: Bielak puts nearly equal stress on the psychological as on physical resemblance of the model. And in this sequence, as he wants to show the personality of the model, his uniqueness and how he thinks of himself- probably a bit more than the features of his face. This offers his portraits the inner life, they are not an empty human shape, they are people. This goal is reached because of the already mentioned naturalness and spontaneity.

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I have been familiar with the creative and pedagogical work of Professor Wiesław Bielak for years, since the time when he was a successful teacher of sculpture in the state secondary School of Graphic Arts (Państwowe Liceum Sztuk Plastycznych) in Cracow. Since then his activity has gained dynamics and today Wiesław Bielak is a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts and sculptor who has a definite position among his peers as well as the circle of the Polish contemporary sculpture.

Bielak's sculptures, both the monuments and results of his continued creative work, are compact, tectonic works of art., characterised by dynamics and great power of expression. This monumental character is also present, which is especially valuable, in medals, badges and small sculpture.

Wiesław Bielak is not one of those artists who change their image depending on whether they work on special orders or for their own satisfaction. It is another valuable characteristic of his artistic activity.

He is an artist who works with great discipline, and the meaning in its literal sense is not, as it would seem, the basic layer of his works, their suggestive structure imposes on the audience the need to concentrate and contemplate. The dynamics of the created shapes make us aware that the good contact with the material is eternal right of the artist, the sense of his existence.

We need say that Wiesław Bielak belongs to this generation of artists, who have not been seduced by "the affair with the modernity". I will say more - his artists attitude has risen from the objection to paraconceptual theories. This restraint towards "novelties" and unabated creative activity lets him create works characterised by long-lasting, original form and strong expression.

Bielak's imagination moves in large space, which often includes a large number of smaller elements (for example, human silhouettes), joined by the common material in the directed motion. Biology and Cosmos seem to shake hands here.

The path Bielak's typical sculpting activity has always been characterised by its individual character and the personal form of artistic statement. The sculptures of the last stage seem to BE the sum of previous experiences, completed by NEW innovative motifs of artistic perfection.

His sculptures were the subject of numerous comments in the artistic circles, he also has many followers. His works were marked with the perfect ability of using the stone material, the freedom in the shaping of it, the specific softness, even biological roundness of shapes given to the mass of stone. These sculptures existed perfectly well in the landscape, just as their author did in the knowledge of a large circle of audience and the professional environment.

I have always appreciated his consistent actions, honesty and hard work, uncompromising attitude and responsibility, an inner imperative to stick to the strict rules which he has treated as the foundation of his world, the world of a human being and the world of an artist. It could be shortly defined according to the alternative that Konrad had: "Do good or die". His attitude is characterised by some kind of Spartan life, which is necessary for the artist to gain deeper concentration. Wiesław Bielak clearly defines his artistic philosophy. He treats his artistic output as a moral imperative, he defines the art seen as a sociological phenomenon in the national categories. The art creates the history and memory of a nation, it builds its identity and grandeur.