Wojciech WEISS

PAUSE, ca. 1920
Oil, canvas; 73 x 47 cm
Signed l.d.: W.Weiss
On the back stamps: 0688 / WW; Three exhibition paper stickers filled in pen: 1. Towarzystwo Artystów Polskich "Sztuka" w Krakowie / Author W. Weiss / Title of work "Pause" / Type of work oil; 2. 16532 Author Weiss Wojciech / Title Pausa II execution ol./ Price Owner Date; 3. Weiss / 51 Pauza
Stanislaw Swierz, in an article discussing and characterizing the paintings of Wojciech Weiss, including, among others, his nudes, of which the artist painted particularly many in the interwar period, wrote:
...Weiss does not dictate the model's pose, does not bend or twist his members in search of unusual movements. He looks at him. He observes him. He is inspired by him. Beauty is always natural. The most immortal poses are those created by nature itself.
Often, during a pause, when a bored model is flipping through a newspaper, not paying attention to whether anyone is looking at him, Weiss takes a piece of paper and starts sketching in a corner... This is how Weiss' happiest nude inspirations were created, where the arabesque, the ornament of the body, dictates its own melodious rhythms.
Weiss seeks in the nude neither philosophical meditations, nor geometric considerations, nor architecture ... he does not turn women into columns - he simply wants to paint them in the splendor of their bodies - like a flower picked, like a ripe fruit tossed between clouds of matter and the whiteness of batiste. ... Create more and more orchestrations of body colors and harmonize them together with the surroundings of the drapery /.../.
From these movements lying down, lazy and soft, from the rest of the bodies slender and flexible / .../ Weiss extracted an infinite wealth of motif ...
S. Swierz, Wojciech Weiss, [in:] "Fine Arts", R. 2, 1925-26, pp. 145-163
Asking price 40000
Estimate 50000 - 60000