Introduction from the catalogue of A. Ryszka's exhibition at ZPAP Gallery in Warsaw October 1995

When an outstanding artist dies, we are left with a sense of deprivation and sorrow. We cannot accept that we shell no longer witness his new achievements.

Adolf Ryszka has a place among the foremost figures in the history of Polish sculpture. Although his life was cut short, he had created many remarkable works, an exeptional phenomenon in Polish sculpture.

His voice is especially important now that there is so much trash, shallowness and jarring aggression in art. I believe that his art will be a reference point for other artists to fall back on at moments of crisis.

Ryszka was a remarkable artistic authority. Presented at two superb recent exhibitions (the Museum in Oronsko and the Zacheta Gallery in Warsaw), his art is quite well known, but it is good thing this exhibition has been mounted, for the reception of an artist is different when his recent death still hurts. We look at his art with much more insight, and our judgement is much fairer.

Personally, I have always found his art important and inspiring, and it has broadened my vision. Thank you, Adolf, for your sculptures. I believe they are a lasting value.

Adam Myjak
rektor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw

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Adolf Ryszka is certainly one of the foremost postwar Polish sculptors. His art is resistant to the corroding effect of time, witch is due to the artist's confidence in the values represented by his works and his independent artistic reasons. An outstanding individuality, he has had much influence on contemporary Polish sculpture.

The intense lyricisim of his works, wrought with extraordinary visual culture and by remarkably skilful means of expression, inspires utmost admiration. The symbolisim of his works results from his use of forms reminiscent of the human figure involved in a game with masses-objects with witch they seem to be organically linked by a decree of fate. In fact, this is just a pretext for the evocation of purely artistic moods. He was aware of the laws underlying the logic of his works. He devised a code, by which to link up tradition with the

present, though analyses on this plane are not essential to reception of his works. Ryszka had a poet's and philosopher's intuition, but primarily an extraordinary talent,of which, thanks God, he must have been aware and to which he gave vent with much assiduity.

In ART, desire and ability are two, different things. The world of art is full of those willing to do something, but there are just a few able to do what they will. Adolf Ryszka was one of them.

Jan Kucz
professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw