Your striving to preserve Polishness, combined with a passion for the development of your own, original means of expression, became the basis for awarding the highest distinction of the Minister of Culture, National Heritage and Sport, the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis, emphasized Minister of Culture Piotr Gliński, handing the award.
Gliński said that Ursula Von Rydingsvard comes from Poland.
“During World War II, her family was deported to forced labor in Germany, and then emigrated to the USA,” he said.
“Although the United States of America has become your home and you are most successful there, you always emphasize your relationships with Poland,” he added. Gliński said that he would especially like to thank the artist for remembering Poland.
“Our meeting today is at a special moment, on the eve of the long-awaited exhibition of your works in Poland at the Center of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, and then at the Royal Łazienki Museum in Warsaw and the National Museum in Krakow,” he noted.
He recalled that “this will be the second, after the exhibition presented at the Center for Contemporary Art – Ujazdowski Castle, which took place almost thirty years ago, in 1992, to present the works of Ursula Von Rydingsvard in Poland”.