‘Sun’s Afterimage‘ Władysław Strzemiński Pocket Square

A pocket square depicting a masterpiece by Władysław Strzemiński, one of the most important polish avant-garde painters.

You can read more about his life and art here.

Artwork: Sun’s Afterimage, 1948

Author: Władysław Strzemiński

Source: Łódź Art Museum

In the post-war years, Władysław Strzemiński analysed how the phenomenon is perceived, both in his paintings and theoretical works. In his book with the significant title A Theory of Vision, he attempted a synthetic explanation of the issue, but interpreted it on different levels. He showed changes in perception as the outcome of changes in the mentality of society, with economy and politics as their main factor. But apart from those theoretical circumstances, Strzemiński also took the trouble of actually explaining and analysing the mechanism of sight, using terms such as binocular vision, contrast, composition keys, and sight zones.

An afterimage is an internal picture that appears on the retina after a moment of gazing at an object reflecting light or at a source of light itself. Strzemiński underlined the importance of the eye’s movement, which creates a vibrating line, as a result of a moving glance.

In afterimage painting, the aforementioned line is filled with a clear tint in contrasting settings, to give an effect of a pulsating rhythm of different colours and forms. Powidok Słońca (Sun’s Afterimage) is a two-part composition, where the border line runs through the vertical axis leaving about a third of the canvas on the right hand side. In its bigger part, on the left, the artist used vivid shades of red and blue, evoking the feeling one gets after looking directly into the sun. The right, with toned-down colours, is dominated by orange and light blue. The contrast between the two parts is deepened by a difference in the texture – the left side shows thick impastos, the right – delicate brushwork.

The two parts of the painting seem to be representing two phases of perceiving an afterimage. Initially, while directly observing the sun, it has been transformed, according to the laws of optics, into its complementary colour – blue. With time, the vivid picture starts to dissolve, as the colour’s intensity changes accordingly to the amount of light passing through the less or more opened eyelids.

Source: Culture.pl