Wilhelm Sasnal

Born in Tarnów, Poland, a small industrial city nestled in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, Wilhelm Sasnal has emerged as one of the leading figures of contemporary Polish art.  Growing up in the shadow of the Berlin Wall, and its subsequent collapse, provided the artist a rich source of cultural imagery and iconography from which to draw inspiration. In fact, while studying at the Krakow Academy of Fine Art, Sasnal co-founded The Gruppa Ladnie, a student collective that experimented with various subjects and forms of media previously considered taboo by the communist regime.  During this time, Sasnal arrived at the semi-abstract, flat and largely non-specific style that distinguishes his work.

The present work depicts an indoor and an outdoor scene, sparingly painted, one on top of the other. The composition is evocative of portholes on the side of a luxurious cruise ship. All the more so considering the top is a beach scene and the bottom is a figure being served while lying on a bed.  However, the juxtaposition of the two images does not necessarily provide the viewer with an obvious narrative or even a discernable correlation.  Furthermore, although Sasnal’s works are almost entirely inspired by photographic material, the style is reminiscent of Wesselmann's Great American Nude paintings from the 1960s, while the bottom image references Manet’s Olympia.  Consequently, we are left unsure the source of Sasnal’s inspiration for Untitled and the degree to which it has been manipulated.