July 8 – July 31
Blue Dress is a curatorial project created by women and about women, featuring two strong and distinctive artists. Tamara de Lempicka’s sketches are juxtaposed with the latest paintings by Helena Stiasny, who used the drawings of the Art Deco icon as a starting point for her own paintings and the entire exhibition. The Lempicka drawings presented in the Blue Dress exhibition come directly from Chacha Foxhall, the artist’s granddaughter. All were created around 1928. The exhibition will showcase eight works: four drawings by Lempicka, brought from the United States, and four paintings by Helena Stiasny, an artist who has made femininity the central point of her artistic activity, as emphasized by curator Katarzyna Rij when discussing the exhibition.
In her paintings, Helena Stiasny explores the theme of women and their image in art. The issue of the body and its cultural dependencies is particularly close to her heart. Very often, she herself is the protagonist of her canvases. She refers to classical painting motifs, cultural archetypes, myths, and beliefs of ancient civilizations. Her painting is constantly evolving.
As Aleksandra Kamińska writes: “Stiasny paints women who are close to her: a friend shortly after childbirth, an acquaintance who is a lawyer, a drag queen. In her paintings, there is a need to break away from the internalized male gaze – easily found in Lempicka, with whom Stiasny enters into dialogue – and to present the models from a feminist perspective, with tenderness, but in a way free from infantilization of femininity.”
Julita Deluga also emphasizes the importance of femininity in this painting: “Stiasny aims to shift the focus, wanting to show women as the main protagonists of the story, not as objects of desire. The models are ‘strong’, they have character, they look boldly ahead. Before our eyes, the act becomes an artistic manifesto.”
Katarzyna Rij highlights the importance of color and mood in Helena’s paintings: “Contemporary feminism aims to redefine the role of women in a society dominated by patriarchy for centuries. Striving for balance and recognition of women’s achievements in all aspects of life is key to changing cultural and social norms. However, every struggle for change has its price. Does this price have a blue color?”