Papers by Urszula Szulakowska
The heroic modernist image of the artist as a messianic figure was invalidated in the 1960s and 1... more The heroic modernist image of the artist as a messianic figure was invalidated in the 1960s and 1970s by leftist and feminist critics. The image of Christ-Messiah had been central to the creation of this male artistic myth in the 19 th century. The image of Christ reappeared in the work of artists in the 1980s and 1990s, but in an abject form as Christ-Crucified, or as Christ lying dead in the tomb. These images expressed the dejected condition of painting and of the role of the male artist after the antagonistic critiques of radical theorists. However, the same icon of the Dead Christ also appeared in a revolutionary leftist context, but with a different connotation, as in the films of Pasolini, for example, as well as in the press photograph of the dead Che Guevara taking the form of Mantegna's Christ. The same image has also re-emerged, only half consciously, in the performance work and photography of Polish artist Krzysztof Gliszczyński, where it has triggered an important discourse concerning the generation of meaning in art and the interrelation of artist and audience.
This paper was read at a CIS conference at Rijeka University, June 2015. It is published in IKON, 3, Collected papers of conference “Christian Iconography in Modern/ Contemporary Art,” Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka, Croatia, 2015
This paper has been published in the journalof esoteric studies "Hermaion" (Poland), No. 3, March... more This paper has been published in the journalof esoteric studies "Hermaion" (Poland), No. 3, March 2016. The study is an examination of Jan Svankmajer's film "Alice" in the context of post-war Czech and Slovak Surrealism. An account is given of the origins of Czech Surrealism in relation to French developments and in the political leftist context. Surrealism as a form of political resistance in the Communist era is examined. The interest in alchemy on the part of Svankmajer is related to his fixation on the trope of the mouth and a psycho-analytic analysis is provided of this, as also of his interest in Mannerist art-forms. His work is compared with that of Mira Haberernová.
Extract from Urszula Szulakowska, The Alchemy of Light: Geometry and Optics in Late Renaissance A... more Extract from Urszula Szulakowska, The Alchemy of Light: Geometry and Optics in Late Renaissance Alchemical Illustration (Leiden: Brill, 2000)
An examination of Dee's text "Monas Hieroglyphica" in the context of his interest in magic mirrors and cabbalism
John Dee's concept of "archemastrie" as a magical drawing practice involving the use of single-po... more John Dee's concept of "archemastrie" as a magical drawing practice involving the use of single-point perspective and Italian Renaissance art theories.
Extract from published monograph: Urszula Szulakowska, "The Alchemy of Light: Geometry and Optics... more Extract from published monograph: Urszula Szulakowska, "The Alchemy of Light: Geometry and Optics in Late Renaissance Alchemical Illustration" (Leiden: Brill, 2000)
An analysis of the influence of medieval optics on the magic of John Dee.
A biography of Robert Fludd including an examination of Roman Catholic influences on his alchemy ... more A biography of Robert Fludd including an examination of Roman Catholic influences on his alchemy with comparisons drawn from other alchemists
The painterly series À Retour Autoportrait was a reflection concerning the process of creation in... more The painterly series À Retour Autoportrait was a reflection concerning the process of creation in the context of the artist’s own personal quest. The exhibition consisted of a series of paintings – self-portraits, whose field was filled with the purposefully prepared painterly matter, transmitted onto subsequent canvases in the process of artistic recycling. The goal of the project was to create a portrait which would involve the elements of what remains hidden in the collective subconsciousness.
Text by Urszula Szulakowska
An examination of the main alchemical treatise of the Austrian doctor Stefan Michelspacher who fl... more An examination of the main alchemical treatise of the Austrian doctor Stefan Michelspacher who fled the Tyrol to settle in Augsburg to avoid Jesuit persecution. Alchemy is inter-related with religious history and Renaissance artistic developments.
Review written for ISIS, journal of the history of medicine and published recently
Discourse in the Protestant Reformation, Brill: Leiden The focus of the present argument will con... more Discourse in the Protestant Reformation, Brill: Leiden The focus of the present argument will concern the conceptual inter-relation between the Silesian nobleman Abraham von Franckenberg (1593-1652), the chief disciple and biographer of Jacob Boehme, and the English medical practitioner and alchemist Robert Fludd (1574-1637). Fludd seems to have been influenced by Boehme and, in turn, to have influenced the ideas of Franckenberg, an influence which has not been examined by scholars to date. Franckenberg has been largely neglected by scholarship, with only one or two recent studies in German and nothing at all in English.
An examination of the manner in which alchemy has been used as a metaphor for radical political d... more An examination of the manner in which alchemy has been used as a metaphor for radical political discourse in recent Australian installation, digital art and performance photography. Artists discussed include Brett Whiteley, Robert Owen, Luke Roberts, Tom Arthur, Janet Lawrence, David Moses. The main issue concerns land ownership in post colonial Australia.
Books by Urszula Szulakowska
Art and Architecture in the Eastern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1697-1863), 2022
This book explores the history of art and architecture in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from... more This book explores the history of art and architecture in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the 18th century to the uprising against the Russian occupation in 1863-64. It serves to introduce the English-language reader to
research produced by East European scholars. The geographical area under discussion consists of the modern nation states of Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine, which from 1772 were incorporated into the empires of Russia, Austria, and Prussia. One of the major questions raised is, what became of the old Commonwealth’s artistic and
cultural traditions under the rule of these alien powers? The book strives to do justice to the history of all the national groups involved, even though the region was heavily Polonised from the 16th century onwards. The art, architecture, and culture introduced from western Europe are analysed in their effects not only on Polish culture, but also on that of the Orthodox and Uniate Ruthenians and Belarusians, on the Jewish settlement and on those of the Karaite and Islamic Tatars. An additional concern is the history, art and architecture of the Baltic Germans in the Latvian region. The book
suggests a critical approach involving alternative models to those of nationalistic schools of art. It is geography that dictates the writing of history, rather than national identity.
Husbands Bosworth Polish Resettlement Camp (1948-1958), 2020
A study of post-war Polish settlement in Britain with a discussion of the establishment of Polish... more A study of post-war Polish settlement in Britain with a discussion of the establishment of Polish identity in the conditions of the UK. An extensive photographic record is provided. The history of the Polish camps is analysed, with detailed accounts of the conditions of daily life and work, especially in relation to the British community. The Polish Resettlement Act (1947) concerned some 200, 000 Poles stranded in the country after the war. There are very few studies available in English concerning this migration to the UK and a limited number of Polish ones. The focus of this study is the Husbands Bosworth camp in Northamptonshire which was located on a decommissioned RAF aerodrome at Sulby Hall, between Welford and Naseby. The author relies both on eye-witness testimony, including her own experiences as a child in the camp, as well as on rare documentation located in private archives. In particular, the nationalistic culture of the Poles within the British Isles is examined critically as an indigenous development. The Polish society that emerged out of the hundreds of rural Polish camps, urban Polish clubs, churches, schools, newspapers, libraries, museums and art-galleries was a nationalistic culture of its own kind which both continued that of pre-war Poland and yet also grew along quite different lines. It was a culture created in reaction and in antagonism to the political authorities of the host country. This study is of interest to anyone concerned with the history of multicultural Britain. However, for its own sake the story of the Polish settlement in post-war Britain is worth recording, since it was a complicated political and cultural phenomenon that has been almost forgotten.
Published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Introduction and Historiography, 2018
This monograph serves as an introduction to the art, architecture and literary culture of the Eas... more This monograph serves as an introduction to the art, architecture and literary culture of the Eastern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16 th and 17 th centuries. The geographical area under discussion comprises the regions of contemporary Lithuania, western Belarus and western Ukraine. The introduction of the Renaissance and Baroque classical revival into these lands is discussed within the political context of nationalistic and religious loyalties, as well as of economic status and class. The central discussion focuses on the issue of national identity and religious loyalty in the interrelation between the Byzantine inheritance of the Lithuanian and Ruthenian populace and the Polonizing Catholic influences entering from the west. A close study is made of the royal, noble and urban patronage of the richly-diverse visual and literary modes developed in these two centuries, as well as examining the cultural achievements of the many national groups in the Eastern Commonwealth,
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Papers by Urszula Szulakowska
This paper was read at a CIS conference at Rijeka University, June 2015. It is published in IKON, 3, Collected papers of conference “Christian Iconography in Modern/ Contemporary Art,” Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka, Croatia, 2015
An examination of Dee's text "Monas Hieroglyphica" in the context of his interest in magic mirrors and cabbalism
An analysis of the influence of medieval optics on the magic of John Dee.
Text by Urszula Szulakowska
Books by Urszula Szulakowska
research produced by East European scholars. The geographical area under discussion consists of the modern nation states of Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine, which from 1772 were incorporated into the empires of Russia, Austria, and Prussia. One of the major questions raised is, what became of the old Commonwealth’s artistic and
cultural traditions under the rule of these alien powers? The book strives to do justice to the history of all the national groups involved, even though the region was heavily Polonised from the 16th century onwards. The art, architecture, and culture introduced from western Europe are analysed in their effects not only on Polish culture, but also on that of the Orthodox and Uniate Ruthenians and Belarusians, on the Jewish settlement and on those of the Karaite and Islamic Tatars. An additional concern is the history, art and architecture of the Baltic Germans in the Latvian region. The book
suggests a critical approach involving alternative models to those of nationalistic schools of art. It is geography that dictates the writing of history, rather than national identity.
Published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing
This paper was read at a CIS conference at Rijeka University, June 2015. It is published in IKON, 3, Collected papers of conference “Christian Iconography in Modern/ Contemporary Art,” Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka, Croatia, 2015
An examination of Dee's text "Monas Hieroglyphica" in the context of his interest in magic mirrors and cabbalism
An analysis of the influence of medieval optics on the magic of John Dee.
Text by Urszula Szulakowska
research produced by East European scholars. The geographical area under discussion consists of the modern nation states of Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine, which from 1772 were incorporated into the empires of Russia, Austria, and Prussia. One of the major questions raised is, what became of the old Commonwealth’s artistic and
cultural traditions under the rule of these alien powers? The book strives to do justice to the history of all the national groups involved, even though the region was heavily Polonised from the 16th century onwards. The art, architecture, and culture introduced from western Europe are analysed in their effects not only on Polish culture, but also on that of the Orthodox and Uniate Ruthenians and Belarusians, on the Jewish settlement and on those of the Karaite and Islamic Tatars. An additional concern is the history, art and architecture of the Baltic Germans in the Latvian region. The book
suggests a critical approach involving alternative models to those of nationalistic schools of art. It is geography that dictates the writing of history, rather than national identity.
Published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing