On Dignity and Critical Observation in Contemporary Polish Visual Art in the Context of John Paul II’s Encyclicals Veritatis splendor and Fides et ratio

Abstract

The article analyses the role of freedom, the choice of the true Good, rational cognition purified by faith, and trust in another person as foundations of human dignity in John Paul II’s encyclicals Veritatis splendor and Fides et ratio. It then outlines the distinction between critical art and socially engaged art, characteristic of contemporary art discourse, and asks whether papal thought can help to recognise the questions of human dignity present in this art – especially when it addresses religion.The text argues that critical works most often rely on an ostensibly objective observation of religious practices. Examples of video installations by Kobas Laksa, Artur
Żmijewski, and Grzegorz Sztwiertnia, however, primarily expose the imperfections of such practices, resulting from rational critique that lacks the perspective of faith. A different approach is represented by Wojciech Wilczyk’s photographic observation
of religious rituals, which – through an attitude of respect – enables a closer engagement with the experience of faith. This attitude is also present in photo ‑inspired paintings by Violetta Rzążewska and Arkadiusz Andrejkow, where dignity is revealed
through trust. An understanding of faith as a form of metaphysical cognition emerges in Marcin Kędzierski’s paintings of community and in Jarosław Modzelewski’s Caritas cycle. His Opere di Misericordia lead to a contemporary image of Jesus the Merciful, in which
the apprehended true Good discloses the meaning of human life and grounds human dignity.