It All Depends on the Point of View

Franciszka Themerson’s It all depends on the point of view is a painting that immediately points to its message: what we see is never absolute. Our gaze is shaped by perspective, habits, and the frames (both literal and cultural) through which we look. Themerson—painter, illustrator, and stage designer—who, throughout her life, accompanied her husband Stefan in avant-garde artistic experiments, from the very beginning used the language of images as a tool of analysis and intellectual play.

It is no coincidence that this work opens the new (Inaugurated today on 17 October 2025) permanent exhibition, Ways of Seeing, at the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź. Placed right at the entrance, it sets the perspective from which the entire journey through the collection begins—it reminds us that looking is never neutral, and that our gaze is always shaped by experiences, knowledge, and habits.

The work is one of many examples of Franciszka Themerson’s distinctive style, combining simplicity of form with philosophical inquisitiveness. Its subject is the act of looking—its relativity, conventionality, and the need to question assumptions once adopted. The titular “depends on the point of view” is both a warning and an invitation: to embrace a multiplicity of perspectives and thus to resist the temptation of simple divisions and unequivocal interpretations.

P.S. There are many perspectives on what a work of art can be. For instance, Roman Opałka painted numbers from zero towards infinity, creating a monumental, abstract life’s work.