Dimensions: 116 x 89 cm
signed and described on the stretcher: 'TERESA PĄGOWSKA COMPOSITION XII'
exhibition stickers of CBWA "Zachęta" in Warsaw and Gres Gallery Chicago on the stretcher
Origins
DESA Unicum, 2014
Gres Gallery collection, Washington
private collection, Berlin
Exhibited
Fifty Years of Polish Painting, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva, 1959.
Teresa Pągowska. Exhibition of paintings, 13th Visual Arts Festival, CSWA Sopot, 20.08-11.09.1960
Literature
Teresa Pągowska. Exhibition of Painting, exhibition catalog, Sopot 1960, cat. item 30, p. nlb.
Biography
Graduated from the Poznan State Higher School of Fine Arts - painting and wall techniques under Waclaw Taranczewski and Eustachy Wasilkowski. During her studies, she was an assistant to Jacek Piasecki. From 1950-64 she was a teacher at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Gdansk, after which she moved to Warsaw. After a break of several years, she continued teaching: in 1971-73 at the PWSSP in Lodz (now the Academy of Fine Arts), and then for many years at the Warsaw academy. In 1988 she was awarded the title of full professor. The artist has always betrayed an uncommon color sensitivity, developed under the influence of the art of Piotr Potworowski. However, she focused on the human figure. In the 1960s, her paintings were dominated by the motif of a highly deformed human (mainly female) figure, treated in an abbreviated manner, often shown in unexpected, dynamic, often dance-like, arrangements. Since then, the human figure has been present in this painting as a compact, strong silhouette devoid of individual features. The artist readily operated with violent clashes of summed shapes and contrasts of patches of uniform color. Through this conventionality, she deprives her characters of unambiguous character.
