Alfred LENICA (1899 Pabianice - 1977 Warsaw), Biological engine, 1962

oil, canvas; 100 x 134 cm;
Signed p. d.: lenica;
signed, dated and author-described on the reverse: A. LENICA / 1962 / WARSAW / "BIOLOGICAL ENGINE" / 134 x 100;
on the reverse:
- marks on canvas: 15/13, 13 (in circle);
- Museum in Olomouc exhibition sticker: Abstrakce.PL / Abstrakce v polské malbé 1945-2017 / 20. dubna - 19. srpna 2018 / Muzem uméní Olomouc, Denisova 47, Česká rep. / [...] / 16 Alfred Lenica, Biological Engine, 1962;
- Museum sticker: MUZEUM NARODOWE / W WARSZAWIE Inv. no. 3168Tc/72 / Cat. no. / 1598/On/59;
- pastedown on loom with marking: 2982/13/8

Provenance:
- from the artist's legacy
- private collection, Warsaw (since 2000).


Image exhibited:
- Alfred Lenica, Krzysztofory Gallery, Cracow, March 1965.
- Exhibition of 17 Polish painters, D'Arcy Galleries, New York, December 1965
- Alfred Lenica, Galeria de Arte Galiano y Concordia, Havana, July 1970.
- Alfred Lenica [retrospective exhibition], Central Bureau of Artistic Exhibitions "Zachęta", Warsaw, March 1974.
- Alfred Lenica [solo exhibition], National Museum in Wroclaw, 3.09.2014-19.10.2014
- Alfred Lenica, Museum Umeni, Olomouc, July 2015.
- Alfred Lenica 50 years later, Krzysztofory Gallery, December 2015.
- Abstrakce.pl. Abstraction in Polish painting 1945-2017, Museum Umeni, Olomouc, 20.04.2018-19.08.2018

Literature (reproduced/mentioned image):
- Alfred Lenica. Painting, Central Bureau of Artistic Exhibitions "Zachęta", Warsaw 1974, cat. 354
- Alfred Lenica [exhibition catalog], ed. by Beata Gawrońska-Oramus, National Museum in Wrocław, Wrocław 2014, p.170 (color ill.)
- Alfred Lenica. Painting, Bosz Publishing House, 2016, p.48 (color ill.)
- Abstraction in Polish Painting 1945-2017, ed. by Beata Gawrońska-Oramus, Museum of Art in Olomouc, 2018, p.170 (color ill.)

Whether art as an engine of biological life, as a religion, as a social and political function in the conditions of modern civilization has a raison d'être - I don't know. I paint because I would like to know.
Alfred Lenica

Repeatedly appreciated in museum institutions and cited in the literature, the painting "Biological Engine" seems to be the perfect answer to Alfred Lenica's doubts, revealed in the above statement. The work of this outstanding avant-garde painter proves how deeply rooted, including in the modern world, is the need to saturate aesthetic and metaphorical content. His paintings, with their characteristic vibrant weave of shapes and colors, well reflect the vitality and dynamism of our times. The language of abstraction, which the artist skillfully used, and the surreal forms that accompany it, are not overdone.

The offered painting is the quintessence of the artist's fully formed style. It combines inspirations from the natural world, energy flowing from biological existence with expressive rendering of emotions and inner experiences of the artist. The color scheme of the work also corresponds with this, harmonizing juicy greens, toning patches of white and the dark background so typical of the artist. Lenica, being a painter and musician, naturally combined these fields of art, transferring to the canvases of his works a specific harmony in the construction of the composition. Although the forms emerging from the painter's canvases are unpredictable, undefined, difficult to define, they form a coherent, extremely rhythmic whole. He said: "music made it easier for me to learn about color and sound. After trying to use Cubism, then Expressionism, I referred to the methods of the Surrealists. I am convinced that only here, in the metaphorical concept it is possible to combine color (paint) seizing space, and tone (sound) rhythmizing time."

The painting "Biological Engine" has been exhibited almost since its creation, which proves how representative and important it is in showing the artist's work. The first half of the 1960s, the period from which the work comes, went down in the painter's biography with a number of significant exhibitions, including abroad, such as at Galerie Ferrero in Geneva, New York's D'Arcy Galleries and Galeria de Arte Galiano y Concordia in Havana. In Poland, in 1962, he was awarded the Grand Prix at the First Festival of Polish Contemporary Painting in Szczecin, and presented his works, for example, at the Arsenal in Poznan, the Krzysztofory Gallery in Krakow and during Warsaw's Confrontations 63.