In one of many work in Ewa Juszkiewicz’s new Venice exhibition, a girl in a protracted black robe and crimson scarf perches on a rock, a lyre resting beneath her left hand. For these acquainted with Nineteenth-century French portraiture, this work by the Warsaw-based artist—and up to date market sensation—may seem acquainted, and so it ought to. Juszkiewicz’s oil portray, which sits at virtually 9 toes tall, is impressed by an 1804 portrait by the French painter Francois Gerard.
But whereas each depict the identical topic—Countess Katarzyna Joanna Gabrielle Starzenska, a distinguished determine in Polish aristocracy—there’s one distinct distinction: in Juszkiewicz’s model, the topic’s face is totally coated by wraps of crimson, white and black material. This aesthetic machine has turn out to be one thing of a trademark for Juszkiewicz, who makes use of concealment as a way of drawing consideration to, and critiquing, historic depictions of ladies. As she tells The Artwork Newspaper: “I wish to construct my very own story of those ladies, and undermine magnificence conventions and idealisations, particularly within the artwork from the 18th and Nineteenth century.”
Locks with Leaves and Swellings Buds at Venice’s Palazzo Cavanis (till 1 September) exhibits how she has progressed on this mission over the previous 5 years, by means of a wide range of approaches to a topic. Included among the many 15 works, all accomplished between 2019 and the current day, is Untitled (after Joseph van Lerius) (2020), the place thick locks of blonde hair obscure the feminine topic’s face. There’s additionally Fowl of paradise (2023), the place the central determine is nearly fully engulfed by foliage. And Woman with a Pearl (after François Gérard) (2024), the place a girl is enveloped by a vibrant crimson fabric, a single pearl dangling from her head.
Ewa Juszkiewicz, Fowl of paradise (2023)
Courtesy of the artist and Almine Rech. Picture: Serge Hasenböhler Fotografie
In every portray, Juszkiewicz hopes to spotlight the methods by which the portraits she is referencing did not do their sitters justice. In Woman with a Pearl, for instance, “I made a decision solely to maintain the pearl and canopy the entire portrait, which was very idealised,” she says. In her reimagining of Gerard’s 1804 portray of the countess, in the meantime, she hopes to attract consideration to the “passive” and “expressionless” depiction of the lady within the authentic work, regardless of her being “a star of her time and position mannequin for different ladies.” She additionally needs to convey to the fore the contradictions inside ladies’s style of the time, which whereas “lovely”, was additionally “uncomfortable” and “oppressive”.
Every of Juszkiewicz’s work have been chosen with the setting of the palazzo, constructed between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries on the Giudecca Canal, in thoughts. “The unique components [of the building] like marble are actually hanging, and I believe they’re in a fantastic dialogue with my work,” she says. What’s extra, she provides, Venice extra broadly gives an appropriate backdrop, stuffed with artwork and structure that mixes the “modern with the normal, like in my work.”
Ewa Juszkiewicz, Untitled (after Joseph van Lerius) (2020)
Courtesy of the artist and Almine Rech
The present comes after a interval by which demand for Juszkiewicz’s work amongst collectors hit heady heights. In 2022, her Portrait of a Woman (After Louis Leopold Boilly) (2019), offered for $1.5 million at Christie’s—far surpassing its excessive estimate of $300,000. Curiosity has remained excessive, albeit with costs settling, for now, inside six-figures.
However this sharp rise to fame “hasn’t actually influenced the best way I work”, Juszkiewicz says. “I simply deal with the work and what I wish to say.”
