Józef Hałas

Józef Hałas (born January 7, 1927 in Nowy Sącz, died January 1, 2015 in Wrocław) - Polish painter and teacher, a classic of Polish contemporary art. He studied painting in Wrocław under the supervision of prof. Eugeniusz Geppert.

Since his first individual exhibition in 1955, he has participated in over three hundred exhibitions in the country and abroad. In 2005, a show of the artist's works was organized by the Zachęta National Gallery of Art. In the catalog published on this occasion, director Agnieszka Morawińska stated: "Jozef Hałas, with his disciplined and consistent painting, is one of the classics of the 20th century, next to Stanisław Fijałkowski, Jerzy Nowosielski and Stefan Gierowski, recently shown at Zachęta.

Belonging to the Arsenal generation - participant of this exhibition - from his studies until today, loyal to one artistic environment, Wrocław.

In parallel with oil paintings in the series: Figures, Mountains, Interiors, Oppositions, Verticals - Slants, he created gouaches and drawings. His Pocket Gouaches, Compositions based on the cross, and Interiors are considered an outstanding painting in Polish art, as important as easel painting. Drawings from the Oppositions series were included in the school art textbook by Stanisław Stopczyk in the 1960s.

Hałas's important work was Painting in the Snow from 1971. The author's seven-minute video recording of the creation of the blue and red painting outdoors in Wrocław was included in the collection of Zachęta Lower Silesia. A frame from this film announced the representative, collective exhibition "Artificial Full Moon", carried out by the Wrocław Contemporary Museum (2012).

Hałas's works are visible in the urban space of Wrocław, e.g. his mosaics created in the 1960s on buildings at ul. Podwale (residential buildings at 45-56 Podwale Street) and stained glass windows in the Church of the Holy Family in Sępolno.

In 2011, he participated in the Galeria 2 floor Foundation's project: "Lubiąż. From Willmann to Hałas", painting the largest painting in his career from the Large Figures series (20 square meters). In 2012, he had two anniversary exhibitions (85th anniversary of his birth) at the National Museum in Wrocław and a large retrospective at BWA Sokół in Nowy Sącz.

He devoted the last two years of his life to painting large formats (2 × 2 m), these canvases are a continuation of the artist's groundbreaking painting ideas - including: cycles: Verticals – Slopes or Oppositions. They were shown at the last exhibition of the artist's life, "Hałas'14 Młodość", at Mia Art Gallery in Wrocław, in December 2014.

Buried at the Osobowicki Cemetery in Wrocław, on the Avenue of Merit.