Witold Urbanowicz’s Two Popes in Paris

Abstract

This article is just a marginal part in discovering Witold Urbanowicz’s works. Discovering it once again, but from a different perspective. Urbanowicz was a Polish artist – painter, sculptor and graphic designer living in Paris. The works of the 75-year old Pallottine are a part of a large contribution of Polish artists creating abroad in the XXth and XXIst century which, over the years, have been vastly underappreciated. This analysis is focused on a large-scale representation (created in 2014 with a fresco technique) of two Popes – Pope John Paul II and John XXIII, heading towards the Upper Room. The main motivation behind creating this piece of art in the Pallottines’ bulding in Paris was the fact that both Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (later to become John XXIII) and Karol Wojtyła visited the place at one point in their lives. The former paid a visit to the bulding in the early 50s of the XXth century while he was still an apostolic nuncio. Meanwhile, the Pole visited the place in 1978, in which he consumed his meals with the nuns at the refectory – the same refectory in which today we can enjoy the work of Urbanowicz. This scene not only represents a significant moment in the Parisian Pallottines’ history, but also brings with itself a number of interpretations that can provoke deep conteplation about the Church’s history.