Spheres. Fangor – Heweliusz

The knowledge of astronomy—the arrangement of stars and planets—has always been not only a path to discovery of our world, but also a field that investigates the mystery and order of the cosmos and of ourselves. Exploring these realms is the province of astronomers and artists alike. Here, the meeting point is Jan Heweliusz, the astronomer, mathematician, and instrument maker who in 1664 became the first foreign member in history of London’s Royal Society, and Wojciech Fangor, an artist whose lifelong passion was observing the sky and constructing tools for doing so. Both were fascinated throughout their lives by the discovery of new spaces. Wojciech Fangor’s oeuvre is a constant journey beyond the surface of the canvas in search of experiences that are elusive and undefinable.

Wojciech Fangor’s paintings from the “Heweliusz” cycle mark the culmination of his artistic journey. This exhibition presents these secretive works, created beyond conventional time and space, alongside pieces by professors of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk—Maciej Gorczyński, Aleksandra Jadczuk, Katarzyna Józefowicz, Robert Kaja, Jacek Staniszewski, Arkadiusz Sylwestrowicz, Maria Targońska, and Marek Wrzesiński.

The exhibition takes place in Gdańsk, the birthplace of Heweliusz and the city that, in 2015, awarded Wojciech Fangor an honorary doctorate (Honoris Causa) from the Academy of Fine Arts there.

On display will be works that reveal Fangor’s interest in astronomy, including the “Heweliusz” cycle, created by the artist in 2014 and shown for the first time a year later at the PGS in Sopot during the ceremony conferring his honorary doctorate. Each painting in this series was made on reproductions of constellation engravings by Jan Heweliusz from his “Atlas of Celestial Bodies.” In his compositions, Fangor offers his own interpretation of the constellations depicted by the scientist, which Heweliusz had personified through mythological figures or symbolized with animals. In Fangor’s painterly interventions, color takes center stage.

This artistic dialogue is the axis of the Gdańsk presentation. Heweliusz’s work was published posthumously in 1690, while Fangor’s cycle dates to 2014. On one level, it can be read as an expression of Fangor’s fascination with astronomy; on another, as a commentary on Heweliusz’s interpretations of the starry sky. A decade later, for this exhibition, faculty members of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk were invited to join the conversation. This artistic dialogue is built around themes suggested by Wojciech Fangor’s cycle.

As Stefan Szydłowski notes in his essay accompanying the Sopot exhibition, the “Heweliusz” series “falls within the European cultural tradition of acquainting us with the world of stellar constellations.” The cosmos—the starry heavens, the unknown—stirs the imagination, invites exploration, and lends meaning to mystery. Myth, worldview, color, archive, and drawing became the starting points for inviting Gdańsk artists to participate. The Sopot exhibition was the meeting place of Jan Heweliusz, the astronomer, mathematician, and instrument maker who in 1664 became the first foreign member of the Royal Society, and Wojciech Fangor, the artist whose passion was always to observe the sky and build observational instruments. The Gdańsk presentation opens this artistic dialogue further—it is also an invitation to discover new spaces and forge connections beyond the bounds of time.

This exhibition is part of the celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk.