Alicia Wahl, WE!, 1990

25,5 x 19,0cm - pastel, watercolor, paper

Signed l.d.: We!, p.d.: A WAHL 1990

Alicja Wahl (Warsaw 1932- Konstancin Jeziorna 2020) and her twin sister Bożena studied under Eugeniusz Eibisch at the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw from 1952 to 1957. In the 1960s, the sisters exhibited together, showing drawing and graphic works at, among others, the Krzywe Koło Gallery in Warsaw (1961), the Gallery of Modern Art there (1965, 1966), Galerie Le Ranelagh in Paris (1968). In the 1970s, they collaborated with the weekly magazine Kultura and with publishing houses as cartoonists and illustrators. They also designed sets for TV Theater productions. In 1979 they jointly founded Alicja and Bożena Wahl Gallery in Warsaw, one of the first Polish private galleries. It specialized in presenting artists who paid homage to the widely understood stylistics and poetics of surrealism and expressive and metaphorical figuration - which also reflects the artistic interests of the gallery's founders. The paintings of both artists represent similar stylistics and concern similar spheres of experience - the sense of loneliness, the drama of existence, the mysterious forces of nature. Alicja Wahl's canvases and cartons are populated with figures formed with nervous, fading lines and light patches of delicate colors. The artist doesn't seem to be interested in space or landscape; she focuses on the inner drama of individuals. Nor does she shy away from solutions reminiscent of turn-of-the-century symbolism.