Over fifty years have passed from the first publication of Edmund Monsiel’s drawings in Przekrój magazine, and almost as many since his first exhibition in the Art Historians’ Association in Krakow, first articles, diagnoses, and reviews. Still, the modest sugar refinery worker from Wożuczyn remains a great enigma.

What we know for sure is some biographical background – Monsiel was born on 12 November 1897 in Wożuczyn, and died on 8 April 1962 in Tomaszów Lubelski. He finished three grades of a teachers’ seminary in Chełm and for many years worked in a sugar refinery. We also know that he left behind over five hundred drawings, which are currently scattered around the word and a rare treat in museum and private collections.

However, the sources and motives behind his art still remain a matter of conjecture. We have some hypotheses and diagnoses made by psychiatrists, however, all of them were created after the artist’s death and by people who had never met him in person. How can we say, then, with any certainty that they are true?

Sonia Wilk

Edmund Monsiel. An Eternal Enigma

18 May – 11 August 2019

Muzeum Śląskie in Katowice

Dobrowolskiego St. / The Gallery of Non-Professional Art

Curator: Sonia Wilk

Cooperation: Magdalena Łuków vel Broniszewska, Katarzyna Kościelny

The exhibits come from the collections of:

• National Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw
• Jacek Malczewski Museum in Radom,
• Janusz Peter Regional Museum in Tomaszów Lubelski
• Muzeum Śląskie in Katowice