Józef Hałas, New Structures, 1995, oil on canvas, 114 x 129 cm

From the 1990s onwards, Józef Hałas developed the NS painting series. This abbreviated title stood for both “Nowe Structury [New Structures]” and “Nowy Sącz,” the artist’s home town. Monochromatic backgrounds, which the artist divided with single lines are a characteristic feature of his works. As he stated in 2010, “I once had an exhibition in the late 1960s in Zakopane—Hasior did it for me in his gallery. I put a notebook next to the paintings and young people were writing to me: Why are you painting these bacteria? Everyone has different associations. But that’s the point.”

Józef Hałas (1927–2015), was a painter and pedagogue, connected all his artistic life with Wrocław, where he studied at the State Higher School of Fine Arts (now the Academy of Fine Arts). He received his diploma in 1954 and then worked at the academy as a teacher from 1957. He was a co-founder of Grupa X, established in 1956, which also included Małgorzata Grabowska, Krzesława Maliszewska and Alfons Mazurkiewicz. From 1961, he was a member of the Wrocław School, known after 1967 as the Wrocław Group. In 2006 he was awarded the Gold Medal “Gloria Artis for Merit to Culture” for lifetime achievement.

Also in the Galeria Studio Collection is Jozef Halas’s composition Division R-1 from 1975.

Paulina Olszewska