This Thursday, i.e. 25th March 2021 at At 1:00 p.m. in the hall of the UMCS Museum (ul. I. Radziszewskiego 11, Lublin), the exhibition "Zbigniew Jóźwik. Drawings and linocuts ”, which is an overview of nearly 60 years of achievements of a visual artist and man of the pen. The artist marks in his work the harmony of graphics and words. According to the adopted assumption, at the exhibition, "word" will appear only marginally, and graphic art will dominate.
As Roman Nowoszewski describes, in Zbigniew Jóźwik's creative world, the knowledge of a scientist (biologist and chemist) supports the artist's imagination, drawing inspiration from his own experiences. Personal transitions related to the loss of the family home resulted in a series of linocuts, "Human Settlements", and participation in polar expeditions resulted in the series "Spitsbergen" and "Becoming". In the land of ice, fog and winds, Jóźwik - participant of scientific expeditions, matured as a researcher and creator. Years later, he confessed that it was in Spitsbergen, on this "land, not land but still land", that his Franciscan spirit was strengthened. This resulted in subsequent linocuts and drawings created by - as he says about himself - "a man of faith". In his later "Portraits of Writers and Poets" and "Herbarium", the artist's sensitivity to nature leads to attempts to define people's characters and attitudes through physiology, the nature of selected plants.
The artist also has significant achievements as an illustrator and author of graphic designs for books, which for many years he has been decorating with linocuts or pen drawings. Expressive examples are the illustrations of epigrams' collections by Sergiusz Riabinin "Koloratka" or Izabela Szajer "Zoofigliki". Jóźwik's bookplate works, covering over eight hundred characters, also received numerous reviews - his works fulfil a useful function, in line with the primary role. On the other hand, Christmas cards were featured at the graphic exhibition for the first time, although they have been a significant chapter in the artist's output for years. The exhibition will also feature other occasional graphics, such as invitations, acknowledgements, bibliophile and congratulatory prints. In today's times dominated by digital printing and computer printers, such a form of creative artistic accessories is sporadic.
* Zbigniew Jóźwik - born in 1937 in Opole Lubelskie. Doctor of natural sciences, long-term assistant professor at the Department of Plant Physiology at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. He investigated the reaction of biologically active substances to mycobacteria and the properties of propolis, poplar bud extracts, and antibiotics produced by bacteria of the Bacillus genus. He also dealt with the contamination of plants and soils with heavy metals in Poland and Spitsbergen (he participated in six polar expeditions).
Naturalist, traveller, graphic artist, bibliophile, vice-president of the Lublin Society of Book Lovers, Knight of the Order of the White Raven with a Sunflower and the seal of the Chapter of this Order. Initiator of the Biennale of Contemporary Lublin Exlibris, member of many creative unions and associations, numerous awards - 2nd prize for a bookplate in the international bookplate competition "Book brings the nations" in Bled (Slovenia, 1974), 2nd award for graphics in the International Competition on "The Bee" (1979), Meritorious for the Lublin Province (1984), Blessed Brother Albert Chmielowski for achievements in sacred graphics (1985), Meritorious for the City of Lublin (1987), Award of the Province of St. Anthony and Bl. Jakub Strzemię of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual (Franciscans) in Kraków, with an entry in the Book of Benefactors and Friends (2007), Honoris Gratia badge awarded by the President of Kraków (2010), award of the Society of Polish Bibliophiles in Warsaw (of which he is an honorary member) awarded at the 23rd International Biennial of Contemporary Ekslibris in Malbork (2013), Angelus Lubelski award for lifetime achievement (2016). His works have been exhibited at nearly one hundred individual and over two hundred collective exhibitions in Poland and abroad.
