Source

Today let's move to Poland in the 1960s!

The Source, a cosmogonic depiction that speaks to the artist’s fascination with the elements, is the largest painting by Erna Rosenstein in Zachęta - The National Gallery of Art in Warsaw's collection. She pursued that theme in another painting owned by Zachęta, the Burning of the Witch, where she alluded to the element of fire. Both works were shown at the artist’s solo exhibition at Zachęta in 1967. The exhibition was designed by the famous Polish artist Tadeusz Kantor; inspired by the title, he placed the Source on the floor in a black frame that resembled a well or crater (the ocher shapes in the painting look like a lava flow).

Averse to all canons and conventions, Rosenstein infused her paintings with her emotions and associations and used them as a record of her creative process. Her art stems from an avant-garde movement that had Symbolism as its source, which is why her work from that period brings to mind the paintings that followed Witkacy’s concept of Pure Form, or canvases by Tadeusz Brzozowski and Jerzy Tchórzewski (both members of the Grupa Krakowska collective, along with Rosenstein). Art critics highlighted the affinity of Rosenstein's art to Art Nouveau and the Young Poland movement, and the artist’s remarkable sense of color (the painting described here includes surprising combinations of red with ocher, pink, and blue). Immensely personal and poetic, Erna Rosenstein’s art also falls within broadly-conceived Surrealism.

We present today's work thanks to Zachęta - The National Gallery of Art in Warsaw.

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