Chauffeur

Chauffeur appears several times in the works of Andrzej Wróblewski (1927–1957), one of the most notable painters of the 20th century. The painter, together with director Andrzej Wajda (1926–2016) and sculptor Alina Szapocznikow (1926–1973), is one of the heroes of the Perspective of Adolescence exhibition, which can be viewed in the Silesian Museum in Katowice until the end of September 2018. The three artists share not only a similar date of birth and an early loss of a father, but also the fact that the period of their adolescence was spent during World War II, which left a mark on their life and work.

The blueish silhouette of the driver is presented on a large canvas (132 × 200.5 cm or 52 x 79 inches), shown from the back in a mirror image. In a narrow frame, limited by the window of the car, he sees a colorful abstraction that is compositionally inscribed in the linear perspective of the road, and contrasts with the grey landscape visible through the rest of the window. Blue silhouettes served the artist to depict dead people, which intensifies the effect of a journey into the future.

Who is the chauffeur and where is he driving? Is this, as Anda Rottenberg (the curator of the exhibition) suggests, an artist who is so focused on art that he does not see the real destination of the vehicle? And maybe the abstraction he sees in front of him is not a better world but “a vision of the same nothingness marked with optimistic intentions—a deceitful mirage?” Is this the final destination for the dead chauffeur?