Anna Szpakowska-Kujawska (1931), Love of centipedes, oil painting on canvas, 60x80 cm, 1979
Artwork information: Anna Szpakowska-Kujawska (1931), Love of centipedes, oil painting on canvas, 60x80 cm, 1979 oil on canvas, good condition. Light cracks in the paint layer in the left part of the painting. A surreal composition on an ellipse plan, the painting was created during the artist's stay in Africa (1977-1984). Intense colors, red and blue, emphasize the symbolism of love, while the biological forms of the centipede's legs/legs intrigue with disturbing associations of energy exchange between loving beings. Anthropomorphic elements emphasize the metaphorical message. Composed with an inverted perspective, the bleached center of the painting suggests the depths of the sky at dusk or dawn. The juxtaposition of a lofty sentiment with the image of a crustacean, usually unsympathetic to humans, builds surreal intrigue into the narrative layer of the work.
Anna Szpakowska-Kujawska (1931) received her diploma from the Wroclaw State Higher School of Fine Arts (now the Academy of Fine Arts) in 1956, and from 1961 she was a member of the Wroclaw School (later the Wroclaw Group), which brought together the most outstanding young artists in Wroclaw, most of them students from Prof. E. Geppert's studio. In 1968, the artist presented works from her "Atoms" series at the legendary "Under the Mona Lisa" gallery in Wroclaw, run by Jerzy Ludwinski. She was a participant in the Wrocław '70 Art Symposium, as an artist and co-organizer in Marian Bogusz's team. From 1977 to 1984 she lived in Nigeria, where she taught painting and drawing at the Kwara College of Education in Illorin. Her stay in Africa, as well as numerous other trips, had a great impact on the artist's work, resulting in successive series of works. Versatile in her use of materials and forms of work, she expresses herself in drawing, painting, reliefs, sculptures, objects and spatial installations, using natural materials (calabashes, plant fragments), ceramic techniques and her own techniques. Her painting and other forms fall into several currents of contemporary art from expressionism and magic realism to painterly conceptual forms. It is noteworthy that the expressionism and surrealism in the artist's works stem from the intellectual subjugation of emotions and awareness of the creative process. The artist's works can be found in museum collections including the National Museum in Wroclaw, the Art Museum in Lodz, as well as in private collections at home and abroad.
