Roman Śledź

Roman Śledź (born May 12, 1948 in Malinówka , Cyców municipality ) is a Polish wood sculptor .

Life

Śledź comes from a farming family. He graduated from elementary school and after the death of his father supported his mother in the household and in looking after the younger siblings.

From 1968 to 1970 he worked on farms in Cyców and Lublin .

In 1968, at the age of 20, he made his first attempt to carve. He first found inspiration in the magazine "Gazeta Lubelska" when he read an article about the sculptors from Wola Korybutowa. For the artwork he sent in for the first competition, he received a diploma from the Lublin Museum (1969). More prizes and commendations followed.

The first collector who came into contact with Roman Śledź was Ludwig Zimmerer, a German journalist and correspondent for West German media in Poland. Shortly afterwards, thanks to the reference of Prof. Aleksander Jackowski from the PAN Institute, in 1978 the association “Cepelia” organized an individual exhibition for the artist in Warsaw. Other exhibitions by Roman Śledź were as follows

Poland: Budlewo (Poland) (2005), Warsaw (2006/2018), Białystok (2007), Chełm (2013/2018)

Switzerland: Bern (1980)

Germany: Frankfurt am Main (1981 and 1987), Sande - Cäcilliengroden (1991/1994/2018), Oldenburg (2014), Bad Pyrmont (2015), Wilhelmshaven (2016), Telgte (2018), Osnabrück (2019), Nordenham (2018 ), Friedersdorf / Görlitz (2018)

His artwork has also been featured in numerous group exhibitions in the United States, the Netherlands, and Italy.

In the USA Santa Fe in the Galerie Gereg there has been an extensive exhibition since 1994.

The interest of foreign art lovers in the 1980s was the cause of Roman Śledź's problems. The frequent contact with foreigners led the Public Order Office to pay close attention to Roman Śledź and his artistic activities. The officials did not understand the artist's popularity; so Roman Śledź often had to appear in the public order office. During many interrogations, the artist declared that his participation in the foreign exhibitions or carvings did not pose a threat to public safety for German art collectors.

The Catholic Saint Boniface Church in Gelsenkirchen (Pastor Heribert Warncke) and the Protestant Christ Church in Sande-Cäcilliengroden (Pastor Frank Klimmeck) were furnished with numerous sculptures on the biblical story of Roman Sledz from 1982 to 1994.

Other Protestant churches in the Oldenburg area received cribs and church patrons.

A larger collection of various private collectors was brought together in the Westphalian Museum for Religious Culture (RELiGIO) in Telgte .

Curator of these collections: Frank Klimmeck Rev. i. R. Culture & Art Moderation.

For the artist's 70th birthday, a retrospective in 2018 and 2019 honored the 50 years of work for Germany in a traveling exhibition in Germany and Poland.

At the same time, a mosaic in words and pictures with the title "ecce homo" appeared, in two languages ​​with essays, meditations and biblical texts on the sculptures under the motto:

"Passion in melancholy and joy".

In 1980 Roman Śledź was accepted into the People's Artists 'Association, and in 1983 he was entered into the People's Artists' List in the 'Cepelia' Association.

The main commendations that Roman Śledź received were the Brother Albert Prize for religious work (1979) and the Oskar Kolberg Prize, which was awarded to him for outstanding services to popular culture (2002).

The artist continues to live in Malinówka. He mainly carves biblical scenes.

cinematography

• "Zapraszenie do wnętrza" Andrzej Wajda (1976)
• "Sztuka spod strzechy" Andrzej Różycki (1998)

literature

• “Sztuka zwana naiwną” Aleksander Jackowski, page: 201
• "Lubię smutne twarze ..." Ilona Sawicka, catalog of the exhibition by Ziemia Chełmska in the Wiktor Ambrowicz Museum in Chełm (2013)
• "Roman Śledź z Malinówki" Aleksander Jackowski, exhibition catalog from the Folk Art Association Gallery in Warsaw (1978)
• "See what a man", Peter Helbich, exhibition catalog from the Hans-Jürgen-Rau collections, Frankfurt, Germany (1986)
• Master's thesis "Czy Roman Śledź jest artystą ludowym?" Mirosława Latoszek, supervisor: Anna Kunczyńska-Iracka , PAN Institute, Warsaw (1990)
• "Ból, cierpienie, nadzieja" Aleksander Jackowski, exhibition catalog from Podlasie Museum in Białystoku (2007)
• "See what a man", Frank Klimmeck, exhibition catalog, Rodenkirchen, Germany (2015)
• "ecce Homo" Look what a person! Oto Czlowiek , Retrospective Roman Sledz / Retrospektywa prac Romana Sledzia , sculptures and sculptural groups on the story of Jesus and his passion / Historia zycia Jezusa i Jego meczenskiej smerci opowiedziana rzezba Editor: Frank Klimmeck 2019 Publisher: KomRegis ISBN 978-3-938501-42-42 .