Dimensions: 130 x 110 cm
signed l.d.: 'K.HopE'
signed, dated and described on the reverse: 'Katarzyna Chmiel | Physical Form - Muses | ZOFIA STRYJEŃSKA | K.Hope /2023/'.
Biography
The work was inspired by the figure of Sophia Stryjeńska.
What connects Herstory's project with the Physical Form series is the story of a female rebel, visionary, individualist, risk-taker who goes through life despite adversities.
In the painting we see Sophie, dressed in highlander costume, inspired by the costume designs for the ballet Harnasie.
A key element related to Herstory's design is the placement of a man's hat worn by Harnasie on Sophia's head - a tribute to her story. The artist, in order to study painting at a university, shaved her head, dressed in men's clothing and entered an art college meant for men only.
"(...) I shaved my head to the skin and, wearing Tadzio's men's clothes and following his papers, I went to enroll in the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, as this academy was then considered to be the most difficult and the best, and my masquerade was necessary insofar as neither in the Munich Academy, nor in universities in general, were women admitted at that time."
