Objects

An illustration in the book "Ręka umarłej" (Hand of a Deceased), with short stories by Maria Zarębińska-Broniewska and poems by Władysław Broniewski, precedes the introduction by Seweryna Szmaglewska. Its title, "Wołanie wiatru" (The Call of the Wind), is taken from Broniewski's poem "Maria", a fragment of which serves as the motto for the introduction:

"I cry to you, my love,

with the call of the wind".

The work depicts a pen with a flag amidst abstract figures reminiscent of ruins that stretch around a perspectively captured street. The drawing is painted on all sides, rectangularly, with black ink, the painting creates a frame of similar width at the top and sides, larger at the bottom, its inner edges are straight, the outer edges are irregular (which was related to the illustrator's lack of need to take care of closing the outermost elements of the composition whose artistic processing was to be handled by the publisher's graphic designers).

The motif of ruins recurs in various works of the project.

At the time the object was donated to the Museum, the object was (with additional backing) in a passe-partout probably made by Olga Siemaszko, with marks on the part with the window: bottom left: "1.'' – and on the right at the bottom: "Ręka umarłej" (Hand of a Deceased).

Przemysław Kaniecki