We meet at the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko on the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of the most interesting Polish sculptors of the 20th century, Maria Papa Rostkowska (1923-2008). Until now, her biomorphic sculptures have been shown mainly in the male circle of artists such as Joan Miró and Jean (Hans) Arp. In Orońsko, Papa Rostkowska’s oeuvre was innovatively confronted with the works of women artists as Magdalena Abakanowicz and Iwona Demko. By juxtaposing the works of female sculptors from different generations, curator Marta Smolińska reflects on the issue of sisterhood in art, the relationship between female artists of different generations, and the phenomenon of haptics of matter.
Woman of marble
Most of Papa Rostkowska’s works in the exhibition strongly correlate with the artist’s biography, shaped, both by the traumatic experiences of the Second World War and life outside Poland. Rostkowska began as a painter and, in the first half of the 1950s, she created socialist realist works. When the political ‘thaw’ came, then she moved to Paris, and turned to sculpture, which has shortly become her main medium. Initially, she created mainly in clay and terracotta. Reliefs and sculptures from that period were presented in Orońsko alongside the abstract works of Więcek and Abakanowicz. However, in the 1960s she discovered Carrara marble, since then her favourite material to create with. It was the only medium that provided her with adequate resistance. Art experts admired Rostowska’s bravery to use such original material in that time distinguishing her oeuvre from other contemporary artists who mostly worked in plaster.
Although marble is regarded as a material that requires both perfect sculpting skills and great strength, for her it became a sentient, sensitive material. Papa Rostkowska, despite its heaviness, was able to bring out its delicate transience. Thus, her sculptures seem to be a visual reflection of what is alive, organic and bodily. The works presented in Orońsko are a celebration of touch and matter. These transforming impressions are closely related to the arrangement of the exhibition itself. Papa Rostkowska’s sculptures are placed close to each other, which makes the recipient immediately engage haptically, and the process of viewing the exhibition mobilizes multiple sensory registers. Thus, viewers are challenged not to be tempted to interact more closely with the presented sculptures.
It was the emphasis on the important role of the sense of touch and the hapticity of Maria Papa Rostkowska’s sculpture that was the main purpose of the exhibition in Orońsko. Hapticity is a phenomenon that stimulates the whole body, embodied perception and matter as an actant that not only collaborates in the process of creation, but also resonates with its vitality during contact with the works. The teasing of the sense of touch makes Papa Rostkowska’s work more and more relevant over time.
Joy of life
Viewing the exhibition, it is clear that an important theme for her work was the human figure. Maria Papa Rostkowska’s marble classical female nudes, with their delicacy, resemble busts of goddesses, known from ancient Greece. The classical approach to art, attention to detail, harmony are not accidental in her case. Papa Rostkowska modelled her work on the sculptural technique of Michelangelo, who was one of her greatest authorities. On the one hand, she used Renaissance-era tools, while on the other she finished her sculptures with electric grinders. This classical-contemporary dualism in Papa Rostkowska’s work is also evident in the way she depicts the sculptures themselves. From one side, her work is part of the contemporary biomorphic, classical trend, while from the other, she was interested in haptic somaesthetics, neuroscience and neuroaesthetics. In her sculptures, anthropomorphism seems to be only suggested. Highly transformed figures such as ‘Greek Warrior’ are only evocative of human figures. The abstract forms in the her work allow the physical properties of the material from which they are created to resound. The successive “growths” and shapes growing out of the core of her sculptures enigmatically titled ‘Freedom’ or ‘Smile.’ remain the characteristic features of these forms, giving them an original character, which is the hallmark of her work. The concept of biomorphicity in women’s art is seen as a natural phenomenon. Judy Chicago in her book ‘Through the Flower. My Struggle as a Woman Artist’ describes it as a symbol of the liberation of female nature from the rules and rigors of the male world.
Maria Papa Rostkowska saw marble as a stagnant life that she decided to restore. By using different types of this materials, she consistently deepened the physicality, the eroticism of her sculptures, which haptically stimulate and engage all the visitors’ senses. In addition to abstract, biomorphic figures, the exhibition featured classical female torsos, but also statues of horses and an image of her granddaughter. Despite the difficulties of fate, Maria Papa Rostkowska had the courage to redefine herself several times as an artist and as a woman. The exhibition in Orońsko is a celebration of her joy in life.
One poster attracted a lot of attention among Warsaw residents. It featured a woman with a partly covered face, evoking anxiety and at the same inviting viewers to Królikarnia – the Xawery Dunikowski Sculpture Museum, to visit an exhibition entitled “Wanda Czełkowska. Retrospection”. At the end of 2016, the exhibition not only reminded us about the creative work of a unique independent artist but was also an opportunity for a wider audience to get to know her works.
Women’s party
Until now, Maria Papa Rostkowska’s work has been shown mainly in the circle of the artist’s male friends, such as Lucio Fontana, Joan Miró and Marino Marini, who were associated with the prestigious Paris gallery XXe Siècle. The exhibition at the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko is devoted exclusively to women. Curator Marta Smolinska, on the 100th anniversary of Papa Rostkowska’s birth, invited female artists of different generations, but with a similar sense of the haptic resonance of matter.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, artists gradually turned away from figurative painting toward abstract sculpture. The tour’s direction begins with the works of female artists representing this particular generation. The early terracotta sculptures of Maria Papa Rostkowska correspond in form to the minimalist works of Magdalena Więcek, and in color to the sisal fabric of Magdalena Abakanowicz. Meanwhile, the idea of perceiving corporeality as the most important source of experience connected Papa Rostkowska with Alina Szapocznikow. Szapocznikow’s 1971 ‘Self-Portrait,’ presented in Orońsko, exposes the most important features of the artist’s work. The sculpture is a compilation of tensions and contrasts existing between beauty – ugliness, joy – sadness, inner energy – decay, vitality – bodily infirmities.
Going further, it is impossible to miss the sculptural correlations between Papa Rostkowska, Maria Jarema and Katarzyna Kobro. Minimalist, completely abstract approach to the female figure and, at the same time, treating matter as a field for experimentation was the doctrine of these three avant-garde artists. They treated the creative process as an intense act of struggle against their own perceptual habits, established gestures, habitual images and associations, but also as a confrontation with the uniqueness of the material, which requires an individualized, contextually variable response.
The highlight of the exhibition is the so-called ‘erotic corner’ – a collection of works by contemporary women artists who enter into relationships with their predecessors. At the floor, placed without a pedestal, Martyna Pajak‘s ‘Pillow’ (2017) resembles human ribs. The delicate and softly detailed back seems alive and breathing. Barbara Stanczak‘s abstract, colourful sculptures are reminiscent of Papa Rostkowska’s works in their technical perfection, and thus seem transparent and even luminous. The erotic haptic resonance of matter in a contemporary way can be seen in the soft sculptures of Maria Pinińska-Bereś and Barbara Falender‘s ‘Erotic Pillows’ (1974).
The tactile resonance of the matter of the above mentioned works makes the temptation to touch gradually increase. That is why the soft pink works of Iwona Demko, are worth leaving for the very end of the tour. The artist’s sculptures, refer by their form to the experience of femininity, vitality, and also feminism. Made entirely of fabric, they allow the fulfilment of the haptic desire that arose while viewing the exhibition. Direct contact with Demko’s work brings relief, allowing one to arrange the most mundane sensations into a sensory whole.
The jubilee exhibition ‘Haptic Resonance of Matter. Maria Papa Rostkowska and female guests on the centenary of the artist’s birth’ is a story of celebration and enjoyment. It is a kind of aesthetic experience, during which the viewer not only encounters sensual stimulation, but learns in detail about the life and work of Maria Papa Rostkowska. The works on display prove that Papa Rostkowska was able to express the indefinable experience of corporeality through marble. It is corporeality itself, transformed by all cases and stimulated by sensual, haptic experiences, that constitutes the main structure of this remarkable exhibition. These transforming impressions are closely related to the display. The sculptures of Papa Rostkowska and the other female artists are placed close together, making the viewer immediately haptically engaged, and the process of viewing the exhibition mobilizes multiple sensory registers.
