Urszula Broll was one of the leading mystics of Polish art. Her metaphysical work revolutionized thinking about the fundamental issues of artistic identity, philosophy, and spirituality. Before she was recognized as the creator of the so-called Katowice underground, Broll had to face the difficult reality of the socialist realist doctrine. From the beginning of her artistic career, she consistently opposed communist ideology, actively participating in the formation of the post-war avant-garde.

In the years 1949-55 she studied at the Katowice branch of the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, in the meantime transformed into a branch of the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts (and many years later into the independent Academy of Fine...