Henryk Musiałowicz (1914-2015), FROM THE CYCLE: REMINISCENCES, 1982

own technique/fiberboard, 50.5 x 37.5 cm (framed)
signed in composition on the right: MUSIAŁOWI [...]
signed, dated and described on the back:
Z CYKLU / "REMINISCENCJE" / 1982 / 52 x 39 / MUSIAŁOWICZ

The head/bust motif is a hallmark of Henryk Musiałowicz's work. It appears in the "Portraits" series, initiated in 1957, to the "Reminiscences" series, where the images are symbolic. Only the outline of a silhouette remains. Faces deprived of eyes, nose and mouth, became universal portraits.
"Portraits (1957) are symbols of the changeability of nature. They are not people concretely defined, taken out of the surrounding crowd, but a synthesis, an idea of man, his painterly sign entangled in the inner tensions of the drama taking place inside and outside him. [...] My painting is the result of what is most important in me, what is my essence. I try to imbue it with subjective feeling, purity of form, to paint what I feel and not what I see, to record those things and phenomena that I think can move the mind. For all that remains of an artist's activity is that which inspires thought and evokes emotion."