by Anna Szyjkowska-Piotrowska, Fine Arts Academy Warsaw

The lecture presents the artistic career of Georges van Haardt, an abstract painter once
known for his black silhouettes. During his lifetime, he enjoyed great success (with
exhibitions in Jerusalem, Beirut, Munich, London, Lausanne, New York, Paris, Brussels,
Tokyo… and many more). Nevertheless, after his death in 1980, he disappeared from the art
discourse.

Georges van Haardt was born in Poznań in 1907 under the name Jerzy Brodnicki. He lived in
Poland, Germany, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Palestine, Lebanon, and finally chose France –
Paris – as his permanent home until the end of his life. He took part in numerous Salons des
Réalités Nouvelles, organized in Paris at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
He abandoned figuration after the death of his wife, Egga van Haardt, who had in fact signed
all the works produced in their home until her passing. Only after Egga’s death did Jerzy
Brodnicki acknowledge that he had been the true creator of these works throughout their life
together. Since Georges van Haardt produced around a thousand works after his wife’s
death, it appears that he was indeed the principal artist. At the same time, this does not
exclude the possibility that Egga may also have contributed. This situation thus raises the
broader question of the notion of the “absolute artist” in Catherine Soussloff’s terms.

Anna Szyjkowska-Piotrowska is a philosopher, cultural critic, and writer whose work takes an interdisciplinary perspective, weaving together philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, and art theory. She is Associate Professor of Art Theory at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and at the Chopin University of Music, and also lectures at Collegium Civitas. She is the author of Po-twarz. (After-face: Transgressing Visibility in Art and Philosophy, Słowo/obraz terytoria, 2016) and Dyrygując falom (Conducting the Waves: Thinking in Musical and Visual Avant-gardes, Słowo/obraz terytoria, 2019). In 2018, she held the Chair in Humanities at the University of Rennes 2, France, and in 2024 she co-edited Politics of Face: Aesthetic Seduction and the Ethical Gaze (Presses Universitaires de Rennes). Since 2022, she has been an Associate Researcher at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, working within the ACTE Institute (Aesthetics and Critical Theories of Culture) on questions of contemporary metamorphosis in art and philosophy.

Monday 22nd September 2025, from 14.00 pm until 16.00 pm

Salle de réception
ULB - Bâtiment DE1 - Niveau 3 - Salle R.3.105
Avenue Antoine Depage 1
1000 Bruxelles

Free entrance

Contact : petra.james@ulb.be