Alfonse Borysewicz Explained

Birth Name:	Alfonse John Borysewicz
Birth Date:	27 April 1957
Birth Place:	Detroit, Michigan, U.S.

Alfonse Borysewicz (born April 27, 1957) is a Brooklyn-based painter. He received his B.A. from Sacred Heart Seminary and M.A. from St. John’s Provincial Seminary. He later attended the Studio School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (1982–1984). He is the recipient of two fellowships from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation (1987, 1992)^[1] and a Guggenheim Fellowship (1995).^[2] Gregory Wolfe, an editor at Image, calls Borysewicz "one of the most important religious artists since the French Catholic Georges Rouault.”^[3]

Works

Borysewicz describes the work of his seminary years (pre-1981) as “garish––sort of Otto Dix meets Marc Chagall.”^[4] After seminary, where he was taught and mentored by Edgar Yaeger, Borysewicz moved to Boston where he was, in his words, “exhibiting neo-expressionist, angst ridden paintings.”^[5] The works from this period are on un-stretched canvas and covered with a mixture of paint, mud, sand, leaves and in some cases crayon and gold leaf. More than one critic has noted the influence of Cy Twombly, and one reviewer in particular, parallels with Jean-Michel Basquiat.^[6] Many of these early works include animals, but the scenes are rarely pastoral. In fact, they have been described as “an imagined hell of grotesque beasts.”^[7] Significant works from this period include Cow (1983), Encyclical (1984) and The Passion (1984), all of which were included in the 1984 exhibition, "Emerging Massachusetts Painters," at The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.^[8]

According to Joseph Masheck, formerly Editor-in-chief of Artforum, "Borysewicz is essentially an abstract painter, but on behalf of a religious thematic his works have long been able to accommodate iconographic signs (Western sense). At the same time, as one who has executed an altarpiece and a processional cross for the Brooklyn Oratory (spiritual equipment, one could say), Borysewicz has always struck me as the contemporary painter best attuned to the Byzantine, and then Orthodox, icon as a highly abstract image capable of tendering a spiritual, even devotional, stance in virtue of its highly stylized semiotic."^[9]

Lectios

Describing these works, Robert Lue writes: "Often rough like the early banners, the Lectio works differed in that they appeared to be made from the remnants of some glorious icon.... Borysewicz literally strives to recreate meaning by bringing together splinters of sacred imagery with the basic wood and metal of our physical domain. Both tragic and gracefully matter-of-fact, they represent an honest coming to terms with the bankruptcy of the transcendent referent."^[10] This theme of retrieval is consistent with Borysewicz's paintings and works on paper that often feature collaged pieces of pages from icon books.

Collections

• Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, Trappist, KY
• Corpus Christi Church, New York, NY^[11]
• DeCordova Sculpture Park & Museum, Lincoln, MA
• General Electric
• Grand Rapids Theological Seminary of Cornerstone University, Grand Rapids, MI^[12]
• Iglesia de San Jose, Esmeralda, Cama guess, Cuba
• Manressa Retreat Center, Dublin, Ireland
• The Microsoft Art Collection, Redmond, WA
• The Oratory Church of St. Boniface, Brooklyn, NY
• Pontifical Council for Culture, Vatican
• Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
• St. Francis College, Brooklyn, NY

Reviews

• David Joselit, “Alfonse Borysewicz,” Currents, n.1 (September 1983), n.p.
• Thomas Frick, “Alfonse Borysewicz at Stavarides,” Art in America (March 1986), 154.
• Joseph Masheck, “Alfonse Borysewicz,” Tema Celeste (May–June 1991), n.p.
• Linda Yablonsky, “Alphonse [sic] Borysewicz: Yoshii Gallery,” (February 1994), 86.
• Pepe Karmel, "Art in Review", New York Times (February 10, 1995).
• Steve Mumford, “Alphonse [sic] Borysewicz: Richard Anderson Gallery through January 30,” Review: The Critical State of Visual Art in New York (December 15, 1998), 10–11.
• Sarah Schmerler, “Alfonse Borysewicz: Richard Anderson Fine Arts, through Jan 30 (see Chelsea),” Time Out: New York, n.174 (January 21–28, 1999), 55.
• Jonathan Goodman, “Alfonse Borysewicz at Richard Anderson,” Art in America (May 1999), 151.
• Joseph Masheck, "Mentors, Muses and Mystery: Alfonse Borysewicz at First Things Gallery," Art Critical (May 5, 2017).

Catalogues

• Alfonse Borysewicz. New York: Richard Anderson Fine Arts, 1992. Published in conjunction with the exhibition “Paintings-Strata,” shown at Richard Anderson Fine Arts, New York. Includes an essay by Robert Lue.
• Alfonse Borysewicz. New York: Richard Anderson Fine Arts, 1997. Published in conjunction with the exhibition “Paintings,” shown at Richard Anderson Fine Arts, New York.
• Alfonse Borysewicz. New York: Yoshii Gallery, 2003. Published in conjunction with the exhibition “New Paintings” shown at Yoshii Gallery, New York.
• Alfonse Borysewicz: Fragments. Orange City, IA: Northwestern College, 2004. Published in conjunction with the exhibition of the same name shown at Northwestern College, Orange City, IA. Includes an essay by George Prochnik.

External links

• Video: "Alfonse Borysewicz: The Beekeeper Paintings."
• David Stoesz, "Cross Wise: Surviving (barely) in the lefty, secular art world—a modern Catholic abstractionist," Seattle Weekly (October 9, 2006).
• Alfonse Borysewicz, "Afterword," in Art that Tells the Story, ed. Christopher R. Brewer, 96–101. Grand Rapids, MI: Gospel through Shared Experience, 2011.
• Christopher R. Brewer, "All is Grace: An Interview with Alfonse Borysewicz, pt. 1," Transpositions (July 29, 2011).
• Christopher R. Brewer, "All is Grace: An Interview with Alfonse Borysewicz, pt. 2," Transpositions (July 30, 2011).
• Alfonse Borysewicz, "Foreword," in Tikkun Olam To Mend the World: A Confluence of Theology and the Arts, xvii–xxi. Edited by Jason A. Goroncy. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2013.
• Alfonse Borysewicz, "Upper Room: Alfonse Borysewicz, Artist in Residence," Transpositions (November 20, 2013).
• Alfonse Borysewicz, "Codex – Artist in Residence Series: Alfonse Borysewicz," Transpositions (April 28, 2014).
• Alfonse Borysewicz, "Summer Garden: Alfonse Borysewicz, Artist in Residence," Transpositions (September 17, 2014).
• David Van Biema, "Alfonse Borysewicz’s lonely struggle gives Catholic art a modern face," Religion News Service, (June 16, 2016).

Notes and References

1. Web site: Alfonse Borysewicz.
2. Web site: John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Alfonse Borysewicz.
3. https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/644/article/ordinary-mystic Maurice Timothy Reidy, "'An Ordinary Mystic': The faith and art of Alfonse Borysewicz," America: The Jesuit Review (February 11, 2008).
4. Alfonse Borysewicz, "Naked Grace," Image Journal 32 (2001), 25.
5. Alfonse Borysewicz, "Naked Grace," Image Journal 32 (2001), 26.
6. David Joselit, Currents 1 (September 1983); Joseph Masheck, “Alfonse Borysewicz,” Tema Celeste (May–June 1991).
7. David Joselit, Currents 1 (September 1983).
8. Amy M. Lighthill and Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., ed. Boston Now: Sculpture; Emerging Massachusetts Painters (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1984), 66–7.
9. Joseph Masheck, "Mentors, Muses and Mystery: Alfonse Borysewicz at First Things Gallery," Art Critical May 5, 2017.
10. Robert Lue, in Alfonse Borysewicz. New York: Richard Anderson Fine Arts, 1992. Published in conjunction with the exhibition “Paintings-Strata,” shown at Richard Anderson Fine Arts, New York.
11. Web site: Joseph Masheck, "The Church of Corpus Christi and Its Art." . 2017-07-25 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170521040047/http://www.corpus-christi-nyc.org/masheck-article/ . 2017-05-21 . dead .
12. https://www.cornerstone.edu/news/grand-rapids-theological-seminary-installs-artwork-by-alfonse-borysewicz Meredith Sweet, "Grand Rapids Theological Seminary Installs Artwork by Alfonse Borysewicz," June 29, 2017.