Johannes Hevelius

Technique: granite sculpture

Dimensions: –

Object: Zbigniew Maleszewski’s sculpture of Johannes Hevelius forms part of the “Great Citizens of Gdańsk” section of the Gdańsk Open-Air Sculpture Gallery. It was created in 2008 during the Kashubian Granite Sculpture Plein-Air, which took place in the Kashubian Ethnographic Park in Wdzydze Kiszewskie. The open-air workshop was attended by 11 artists representing a generation of masters and a generation of students. All of them were asked to depict famous inhabitants of Gdańsk in granite. A total of 11 sculptures were produced and subsequently placed in Gdańsk’s Ronald Reagan Park. At present, the gallery is composed of ten works, one of them incomplete; Bente Kluge’s statue of Lech Wałęsa has disappeared.

Zbigniew Maleszewski chose to commemorate Johannes Hevelius, an astronomer, mathematician and constructor of scientific instruments from Gdańsk. This choice of a great resident of Gdańsk is not surprising for Maleszewski. The artist, fascinated with the cosmos, science and astrophysics, admitted that in his sculptural works, he tried to present abstract notions – a component of astronomical sciences – in a realistic way, in order to give them material shapes. The sculpture commemorating Hevelius was placed on a plinth. It is in the form of an unrolled scroll, as if pressed into a partially raw stone. On the dark-coloured scroll there is an image of Johannes Hevelius in a form resembling engraved epitaph portraits. Under the realistic portrait of the astronomer, there is a signature with his name and surname. On the right side there is a sphere protruding from the sculpture – a reference to Hevelius’s scientific interests. In the lower left corner there is another sphere with a leaf surrounding the form of a paper scroll. The rest of the stone was left unworked.

In his sculpting practice, Maleszewski tried to interfere as little as possible with the material used. The literary character of the sculpture is related to the artist’s oeuvre – Maleszewski was also a writer and liked to refer to the written word in his sculptures.

Place: The “Great Citizens of Gdańsk” Open-Air Sculpture Gallery is located in the park named after President Ronald Reagan, an honorary citizen of Gdańsk. The gallery may be found in the part of the park situated in the Przymorze Wielkie neighbourhood. The 85 ha park stretches along the coastal belt of Gdańsk, encompassing the districts of Przymorze Wielkie, the western part of Brzeźno and the eastern part of the Żabianka-Wejhera-Jelitkowo-Tysiąclecia quarter. This area used to be occupied by temporary allotment gardens and wasteland. The plan to develop the seaside area for recreational purposes was drawn up in 2001 and implemented in stages until 2014. In addition to areas where one can relax, engage in physical activity or make a bonfire, the park was diversified with outflow ponds with living shorelines and nesting islands for waterbirds. In 2008, the Ronald Reagan Park in Gdańsk received a distinction from the Society of Polish Town Planners (TUP), which recognized it as the best managed green space in Poland.

Information about the author: Zbigniew Maleszewski (b. 1924 in Łyszczyce, spent his youth in Vilnius, d. 2017 in Warsaw) was a sculptor and architect, soldier of the Home Army and participant of the Vilnius Uprising, during which he met his would-be friend Oskar Hansen. After the war, he graduated in architecture from the Warsaw University of Technology and in sculpture from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, studying in Prof. Franciszek Strynkiewicz’s studio. He trained at Le Corbusier’s studio in Paris. Maleszewski is regarded as the intellectual inspiration behind the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko. He only worked in stone, most often using marble, granite, basalt and serpentinite as his sculpture materials. His famous works include the memorial to General Kazimierz Pulaski in Denver, Colorado (USA), Memorial to Poles Who Died for the Freedom of Turkey in Dacta (Turkey) and sculptures presented in the artist’s open-air gallery at 15/17 Bugaj Street in Warsaw. Maleszewski was a member of the International Order of Freemasonry for Men and Women LE DROIT HUMAIN (Human Right) with its seat in Paris, France, and a Blue Lodge master.

Condition of the object: no remarks

Owner/guardian: Gdańsk Community Foundation

Author of the entry: Dorota Kucharczyk