Beginnings

February 1946:
Jozef Pyrz is born in Gawlowek, Poland.
1950-1960: He spends his childhood lying
in a bed of a sanatorium.
1960-1965: He attends the School of Beaux-Arts
in Zachopane and in Kielce
1965-1968: He reads the bible and decides to
leave aside sculpture to deepen his newly
discovered faith.  He studies history of philosophy
at the academy of catholic theology - todays’univeristy
of Cardinal Wisinski in Warsaw.
1968: He comes back to sculpture but now he
has found a sense to his artistic vocation.
1967-1971: He initiates protest movements
in Socialist Poland.
1971: He is imprisoned for the first time
1972: He marries Miroslawa Maria Olczak
1973: His first son Beniamin Dawid is born
1974: He is imprisoned for the second time. 
His second son Sebastian Angelo is born.
1975: His work as a sculptor leads him to
cooperate with churches in Poland
1979: He leaves Poland with his family to France.

1980 untill 2008 = Under construction

Jozef Pyrz

I am searching for a synthesis in art
through tradition.  I try, with modern
language, to express unchanging values
in times of relativism.  I do not present
these values as a new system but as part
of a continuity.
Living in a world where all is relative,
I look for the truth enclosed in the
relationship with The Other. 
The relationship becomes a revelator
of these fundamental values.
I shape bodies that I see as a vibration
of the time that is given to us. 
I shape faces, signs of real presence. 
Hands and faces reveal the authentic
relationship with The Other, a relationship
freed from all things we use
to protect ourselves.
Sculpture is technically
space, shape and time, but emotionally
it carries within itself presence,
love, truth and eternity.

January 2007

Jozef Pyrz.