oil, canvas; 27 x 41 cm;
Signed and dated on verso: JERZY NOWOSIELSKI / 1984 (in pen)
On the reverse, inscriptions:
- Purchased from the author / in a bar / autumn 1985
- W. to Mr. Wieslaw [?]wskie / author 1985 - September 30 (partially legible)
Provenance:
- private collection, Poland
Bibliography:
Jerzy Nowosielski, Starmach Gallery, Nowosielski Foundation, Cracow 2003.
A collector's unique depiction of a female nude in slippers. This characteristic shot also appears in works on paper (watercolor - in 1983 or ink - in 1996). An expansion of the motif can be found in the oil composition "Humiliation of a Slave" from 1994.
The female figure in a kneeling position-shot in a deep bow-remains anonymous. We don't see her face or features - except for her red slippers. Attention is drawn to the artist's typical way of accentuating the knees or shoulders, as well as the color scheme of the figure - fiery red and orange. The offered composition bears an interesting annotation suggesting the purchase of the work directly from the artist only a year after it was painted.
The female body in the artist's painting canon remained extremely plastic. Nowosielski unnaturally elongated them, distorted their proportions, and even "subjected" them to deformation and torture, as in a series of works from the 1950s with bound female figures.
In 1984 Jerzy Nowosielski participated in a number of individual and group exhibitions (at the National Museum in Warsaw, the Krzysztofory Gallery in Cracow or in Budapest). This is an important year for the artist's sacred projects - for example, the polychrome of the Uniate Orthodox Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God in Lourdes is created.
