STEFAN GIEROWSKI | Painting CXXXV

Desa, Warsaw
Purchased from the above on 22 June 1973 by the present owner

Paris, Galerie La Cloche, 1965, (as Douze possibilités de la surface) 
New York, D'Arcy Galleries, 17 Polish painters, 1966-67, illustrated in the catalogue

The canvas is original and has not been lined. Ultra-violet light reveals no visible sign of retouching. This work is in good original condition and is ready to hang. Presented in a simple wooden frame.
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‘A line has an element of substance within itself, I would say so, it describes something, prescribes something; it is a line going towards something or a line that circumvents a space; a line that cuts through space; lines that are repetitive, multiplied- each one has a separate substance.’ Stefan Gierowski Stefan Gierowski is regarded as one of the most important representatives of the abstract movement in Poland. Having first experimented with figurative art, Gierowski’s abstract compositions resonate with both geometrical and Op-Art. In 1957 the artist executed his first painting titled in roman numbers I, a practice he would continue in time and which marked his full commitment to non-figurative art and optical effects.

Acknowledging the concreteness of materials and colours, Gierowski is mostly intrigued by line and the dual nature of light: how light is enclosed within a painting and yet somehow escapes it, and how lines can be used to set the directions of light. According to Gierowski, each painting has a structure and a framework based on physical laws until it leaves the studio and becomes an enigma, at the disposition of the viewer, who discerns its content through a combination of emotional response and introspection.

Stefan Gierowski was born in 1925. For many years he was a professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and garnered numerous artistic distinctions. He abandoned 'matter painting' midway through the 1950s and devoted himself entirely to abstraction and optical effects.