Title: Poland Remembered: Christmas Paintings by Helen Klisz Dudzinski (1910-2003)
Description: Four oil paintings from a series that originally spanned to 34 and eventually numbered 47.
Background: The Detroit City Council honored Helen Klisz Dudzinski with Testimonial Resolutions in 1979 and 1990, recognizing that "Helen's unique and imaginative style of painting, gives visual form and life to history, traditions, lore, legends, and memories that have survived countless generations."
In 1991, Dudzinski moved permanently from Detroit to Forester, Michigan, on the shores of Lake Huron in Michigan's Thumb. In the mid-1990s she lost her central vision due to macular degeneration. With limited, unfocused peripheral vision, she was unable to read, write, or paint, and redirected her artistic and creative energies to gardening.
Helen Klisz Dudzinski died on February 28, 2003, in Saginaw, Michigan.
Learn more about the artist and the series in the boxes to the lower left.
Curation and design: Administrative Assistant to the Dean of Libraries Amy Keyzer. Amy is the granddaughter of the artist, Helen Klisz Dudzinski.
Dates: Nov. 27, 2023 - Jan. 5, 2024
Christmas Paintings by Helen Klisz Dudzinski (1910-2003)
The Church Sexton delivers the Christmas wafers to each home after the "Roraty,"morning services during Advent. It is a time of prayer and fasting and preparation for the joyous Christmas.
Przygotowania do Wigilii
House and hearts are aglow as a family awaits the Christmas star.
While carolers blend their voices, as the first star glows in the winter heaven, the Wigilia, the traditional Christmas Eve meal, begins. The oplatek wafer is first shared by all present, with a prayer and best wishes for the future. Then on a table padded with straw as a reminder of the first Christmas, the many-coursed, meatless repast starts.
Boze Narodzenie, w Wyobrazni Dziecka
A child's vision of the adoration of the Infant Jesus.
To a child in the mountain regions of Poland, the first Christmas occurred in a stable in a snow-laden mountain valley. The three wise men from faraway lands resembled Kings in all their splendor, while the shepherds were not unlike the gorale of the region.
Trzech Kroli
The Christmas season ends with the Feast of the Three Kings. Father blesses the home and grounds with Holy Water. The children write K.M.B. (Kasper, Melchior, and Baltazar) on all the doorways. The family prays, sings "Medrey Swiata," and exchanges wishes for a blessed new year.