Jerzy NOWOSIELSKI (1923-2011), Nude in the Interior, 1996

oil, canvas; 55 x 38 cm;
Signed and dated on reverse: JERZY NOWOSIELSKI 1996;
The painting is certified by the Jerzy Nowosielski Foundation.

For Jerzy Nowosielski, the figure and corporeality of a woman was one of his most inspiring subjects. Woman appeared in his works from the beginning. At first, there were dark, sadistic erotic drawings, which evolved to the form of naked, twisted female bodies, often restrained by lines (e.g. Hanging Nude, 1953, Women on a Ship, 1953), to then move on to the famous series Swimmers or Gymnasts. The figure of a woman became more and more static in Nowosielski's work, fitting into the clarifying style of the "contemporary icons" he created. Janusz Bogucki wrote the following about Nowosielski's similar Nudes, "The hierarchical shaping of women at the toilet, gymnasts or swimmers does not dampen their contemporaneity, does not obscure the irritating eroticism of the figures - but, on the contrary, enhances even more by contrast these features, gives their reality a special perverse seriousness." (Janusz Bogucki, [in:] Jerzy Nowosielski, exhibition at the KMPiK Ruch Contemporary Gallery, December 1969-January 1970). On the other hand, Jerzy Nowosielski himself wrote the following about his interest in the figure of a woman "(...) the full synthesis of spiritual matters with empirical reality takes place precisely in the figure of a woman (...). If a painter is interested in the problem of corporeality, some way of combining spiritual matters with the world of physical entities, it is only natural that he becomes interested in the appearance of a woman."