Oil, canvas; dimensions 135 x 110 cm; signed on the back J. Maziarska 1957.
Jadwiga Maziarska (1913-2003) is one of the most important figures of Polish modern art, a precursor of matter painting, author of collages, reliefs, applications, spatial forms and sculptures, an artist whose innovation was ahead of its time.
Mieczyslaw Porębski, the main theoretician of the 2nd Cracow Group, recalled: "Maziarska unexpectedly combines the experience of the interwar Krakow Group with what was to come much later - an unusual path"(Critics and Art, Krakow 2004, p. 148).
The artist was associated with the pre-war avant-garde and post-war Tadeusz Kantor's Second Krakow Group, and participated in all three Modern Art Exhibitions (Krakow 1948/49, Warsaw 1957 and 1959). She presented and sold her own paintings in Paris galleries, in which she was advised and recommended by the well-known critic, author of the terms informel and art autre - Michael Tapié. In retrospect, one can see the chronological and formal convergence of Maziarska's independent explorations, which began back in the 1940s, with the informel trend sprouting in Western Europe at that time, initiated by Jean Fautrier's Hostages series. On the other hand, her boldness in technological attempts did not find contemporary parallels.
In the artist's works we see a deeply processed reality, but Maziarska never really gave up references to the real world. Meticulously collected clippings from scientific journals and books since the 1930s, prints of microscopic photographs of the structures of various materials and tissues, as well as random postcards, illustrations and press photos - all these constituted her private archive of inspiration.
Inherent variability caused her work to evolve several times - both in terms of technique, style and expression. In the 1970s, the artist standardized the texture of her paintings and limited her palette to black and white, only to return to colorful variety and freedom of painting in the 1980s and 1990s.
In 2001, Jadwiga Maziarska was awarded the Jan Cybis Prize.
