Daniel Porada, Mater messis, 2020. Oil / acrylic on wood, 100 x 75 cm.
Polish art, while maintaining its own peculiarities of genre and style, has often reflected the figurative trends expressed by the movements of neighboring countries and continents, such as Russia and Europe. This is due to the fact that, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Poland did not yet exist as a state, as it was divided between Austria, Russia and Prussia, countries from which it drew obvious artistic influences. Nevertheless, Polish fine arts, along with literature, have always represented key means of expressing and affirming the national spirit. It was mainly through the avant-garde movements of the 20th century that Polish art was able to form its own identity and tradition, in particular, from 1917, when the first exhibition of Polish expressionists was inaugurated in Krakow. It was precisely this flourishing artistic environment, which took hold in the period between the two world wars, that was marked by many movements, such as: the group of Polish Expressionists, the Bunt group; the Art Formists; the Futurists; the Cubists; the Suprematists; the Constructivists (Praesans) and the A.R. group. ("Revolutionary Artists). In addition to these currents there were also prominent personalities, who left their mark on the history of Polish art, such as Witkacy, creator of the Pure Form artistic approach, characterized by the creation of paintings aimed at conveying the mystery of existence. In addition, the latter was also one of the few avant-garde painters who painted portraits on commission, characterized by deformed images, made under the effect of drugs.
Witkacy, Portrait of Nena Stachurska, 1929.
Andrzej Wróblewski, Two Married Women, 1949.
Later, with the arrival of the Second World War, this rich avant-garde wave was interrupted, giving rise to an art divided between the attempt to cope with the traumas of war and the creation of new values. After 1947, with the birth of the new People's Republic of Poland, a strong censorship proliferated in the country, aimed at favoring only the development of a pro-communist propaganda art. In fact, during the fifties, socialist realism prevailed, aimed at spreading a worldview in accordance with the ideals of Marxism and Leninism. In this context, however, there were also some "rebel" masters, just like Andrzej Wróblewski, who focused on a personal artistic research, halfway between abstraction and figuration. Moreover, another tendency of these "dissident" artists was to return to the path started by the historical avant-garde, just like Tadeusz Kantor did. Later, with the democratization phase of domestic politics brought about by the Khrushchev thaw, the mid-1950s was marked by two prevailing artistic trends: expressive realism, or social expressionism, and post-thaw modernism.
Maria Pinińska-Bereś, Sztandar-Gorset, 1967. Katowice: Muzeum Śląskie w Katowicach during the exhibition "Beyond Eden"
Zofia Kulik, The Splendor of Myself III, 1997.
During the 1960s and 1970s, on the other hand, Polish art, unlike European art movements, showed a evident lack of explicit criticism of power. Indeed, the feminist interventions of artists such as Maria Pinińska-Bereś, Natalia LL and Ewa Partum functioned outside the actual sphere of women's issues, without making a strong impact until much later. Subsequently, it was the year 1989 that marked an important turning point in the art of Poland, since, during this period, it responded sharply to the political and cultural changes triggered by the collapse of communist rule. At the end of the 1990s, however, Polish figurative art began to explore the intertwining of corporality and power structures. Some of the key artists of this mode of research were: Grzegor Klaman, Katarzyna Kozyra and Zofia Kulik. Finally, with regard to contemporary art, it is worth highlighting the fact that many Polish artists have focused on the analysis of the human body in order to express unattainable ideals, just like Zofia Kulik, whose artistic investigation is often linked to feminist ideas.
Hiperblackart, 0005, 2021. Charcoal / graphite / pencil on paper, 70 x 50 cm.
Janusz Orzechowski, Three hundred twenty years later, 2020. Oil on canvas, 70 x 115 cm.
Polish artists of Artmajeur
The figurative research of contemporary art has not been limited to the above, since it continues, addressing different topics, techniques and themes, in the rich production of the Polish artists of Artmajeur, within which the work of the abstract figurative sculptor Konrad Ziolkowski, the paintings exalting the symbiosis between man and animals by Małgorzata Łodygowska and the surreal paintings by Ewe Klimik stand out strongly.
Konrad Ziolkowski, Asyn V, 2022. Bronze / stone, 39 x 16 x 16 cm / 10.00 kg.
Konrad Ziolkowski: Asyn V
Konrad Ziolkowski is a multifaceted Polish artist who, in addition to devoting himself to contemporary and classical sculpture, also enjoys multimedia art, through the creation of works of computer graphics and animation. Undisputed center of this versatile artistic production is the man, main subject investigated. In fact, the artist is predominantly inspired by the human body, often accompanied by the concepts of metamorphosis and synthesis, expressed through compositions by contrasting colors. The intent of this artistic research is certainly to capture concrete expressions of human emotions and gestures, as demonstrated by the sculpture Asyn V, which is designed to immortalize, on a solid rectangle of stone, the bronze face, asymmetrical and almost abstract, of a man caught in his silent reflection.
Małgorzata Łodygowska, Mata Charti, 2022. Acrylic on canvas, 90 x 90 cm.
Małgorzata Łodygowska: Mata Charti
The artistic production of Małgorzata Łodygowska, contemporary Polish painter, captures, from different points of view, always colorful and surreal, the relationship of symbiosis, affinity and unconditional love that can be established between man and his pet. In fact, many of his acrylics depict nice close-ups of dogs, or cats, that overlap, gently and ironically, the figure of their owner, as in a sort of romantic fusion of kindred and interchangeable souls. From this surrealist dream, well exemplified by the acrylic Mata Charti, also transpires a strong humanization of animals, which, assuming attitudes and movements complementary to those of their masters, become magically expressive almost as much as human beings. Therefore, Małgorzata Łodygowska's paintings create a colorful, sympathetic and surreal parallel reality, dominated by the perfect relationship, or that one between animal and owner.
Ewe Klimik, Fuso, 2021. Digital painting on paper, 70x50 cm.
Ewe Klimik: Fuso
Ewe Klimik's digital art, which mixes classicism and reality, surrealism and contemporaneity, and abstractionism and computer graphics, pursues a single poetic intent: to invite the viewer to establish a connection with the subjects, or atmospheres, portrayed. This purpose is achieved by involving the viewer in a parallel reality, where he is able to perceive a strong sense of peace, tranquility and security, which envelop his soul in an ecstasy of eternal contemplation. What has been said can be exemplified by the digital painting on paper Fuso, where a realistic hand holds a surreal fragment of a face, perhaps in a phase of progressive "melting". It is in this context that the viewer can enjoy the calm of an existence that slowly and serenely fades away, within a timeless background, aimed at concealing the destructive passing of time.
Olimpia Gaia Martinelli
