In 1962, Picelj initiated a series of his self-published “Edition a” art booklets, having released a total of seven publications up until 1964. Each issue of “Edition a” featured the work of one artist —mostly of a colleague whose work he admired.
In 1962, Picelj initiated a series of his self-published “Edition a” art booklets, having released a total of seven publications up until 1964. Each issue of “Edition a” featured the work of one artist —mostly of a colleague whose work he admired.
2014
oil on canvas
100 x 80 cm
Estimate: €500,000–800,000
Record: Ewa Juszkiewicz is currently the highest-selling contemporary Polish female artist. Her painting Portrait of a Lady (After Louis Leopold Boilly) from 2019 achieved nearly €1.4 million at Christie’s in New York in 2022.
The work of Ewa Juszkiewicz is based on reworking historical models and questioning the objectivity of female representation in art history. The artist opposes the conventions and rigid schematization to which images of mothers, wives, and daughters were subjected over the centuries, seeking to grant them a new, authentic individuality. She creates surreal versions of her prototypes by removing their most important element – the face – along with the hairstyle and makeup, which are in fact only a costume, a mask.
Created in 2014, Grove is an example of the artist’s mastery in rendering complex plant structures. Unlike many of her other works, rich in clothing detail, here the figure’s torso is almost invisible. The woman wears a plain garment that merges with the background. This minimalist gesture directs attention to the lush vegetation concealing her identity.
Juszkiewicz proposes a fantastical alternative to the decorum of the period and its social conventions in the form of faceless portraits. She creates a new art history from the perspective of a female artist.
Ewa Juszkiewicz (b. 1984) is currently one of the most recognizable Polish contemporary artists on the international stage. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, she obtained her doctorate at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków.
Since 2012, Juszkiewicz has created paintings based on old master art. Observing the schematization of female representations in art history, she naturally stands against it. By concealing the sitter’s face in various ways – from wrapping it in a veil or lace, to covering it with hair, to painting in its place an organic composition made of plants, shells, or mushrooms – she paradoxically attempts to restore to women their due individuality.
Despite her young age, Juszkiewicz has received numerous important awards and distinctions. She is, among others, the winner of the Grand Prix of the 41st Painting Biennale Bielska Jesień 2013 and of the 5th Kompas Młodej Sztuki (2015), as well as a finalist for the Vordemberge-Gildewart Foundation Award (2018). In 2014, she was also included in the list 100 Artists of Tomorrow, published by the British curator Kurt Beers. Her works form part of many important institutional collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (Warsaw), the National Museum in Gdańsk, Zachęta of Contemporary Art (Szczecin), and Bielska BWA Gallery (Bielsko-Biała).
Since 2020, she has been represented by the American gallery Gagosian, where she had an exhibition, as well as by the French gallery Almine Rech
