DOI Heft:
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DOI Artikel:Ławniczakowa, Agnieszka: In the Mirror of a Well: On Jacek Malczewski's self-portraits
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18904#0062
16. Jacek Malczewski, Bach to the Natife Parts, ca. 1911, Cracow, Muzeum Narodowe (Photo.
Poznań, Muzeum Narodowe) .........
a complcte work, alienates itself from its maker and undergoes objectivation'*6. It becomes an
element of the entire world of culturc, tlie spirit, thoughts, ideas, and art. It enriches this world,
enters in relations with it and, while yielding to interpretation, becomes differentiated. It reveals
to its maker unintended effects of his work alongside intcnded oncs. Now, alienated from the
artist and objectificd, it may again affect. him and prompt to new solutions. This is actually the.
case. Studying Malczewski's paintings, for instance, and especially his self-portraits, we are at
times struck that his image, so frcquently repeated, at a certain point can no longcr bo verified
in the mirror or in photographs, but should be referred back to his earlier paintings. This is
confirmed, among other things, by the same clothing persisting for many years, which seems
improbable considering his intensc work as a painter. This quality certainly bas other mani-
festations, not only as simplc as this.
The possible differentation of a work of art, its unprediclible links with the whole world of
culture, the reality of ideas and worldviews, creating the ground for continual rc-interpretation,
strikes not only the independent spectator, but also the artist, especially one who employs
symbolic imagination. It has been obscrved that evcry symbol contains, as it were immanently,
certain ambiguity; it is an attempt at reconciling contraditions and oveicoming them, a poetic
46. A. Abecassis, InMuliori ii ki pratique de la thśohgie, Paris, 1902. The guestioli of Łbo alicnation óf the artisl'e producl and
ile objcctivisation is devc!opcd by K.R; Popper in his dieeuesion of the so-called third world in Objectwe Kno\<-le.dge, Oxfurd,
1972, rhnpt. 3. ... ' :-' ... ,
52
Poznań, Muzeum Narodowe) .........
a complcte work, alienates itself from its maker and undergoes objectivation'*6. It becomes an
element of the entire world of culturc, tlie spirit, thoughts, ideas, and art. It enriches this world,
enters in relations with it and, while yielding to interpretation, becomes differentiated. It reveals
to its maker unintended effects of his work alongside intcnded oncs. Now, alienated from the
artist and objectificd, it may again affect. him and prompt to new solutions. This is actually the.
case. Studying Malczewski's paintings, for instance, and especially his self-portraits, we are at
times struck that his image, so frcquently repeated, at a certain point can no longcr bo verified
in the mirror or in photographs, but should be referred back to his earlier paintings. This is
confirmed, among other things, by the same clothing persisting for many years, which seems
improbable considering his intensc work as a painter. This quality certainly bas other mani-
festations, not only as simplc as this.
The possible differentation of a work of art, its unprediclible links with the whole world of
culture, the reality of ideas and worldviews, creating the ground for continual rc-interpretation,
strikes not only the independent spectator, but also the artist, especially one who employs
symbolic imagination. It has been obscrved that evcry symbol contains, as it were immanently,
certain ambiguity; it is an attempt at reconciling contraditions and oveicoming them, a poetic
46. A. Abecassis, InMuliori ii ki pratique de la thśohgie, Paris, 1902. The guestioli of Łbo alicnation óf the artisl'e producl and
ile objcctivisation is devc!opcd by K.R; Popper in his dieeuesion of the so-called third world in Objectwe Kno\<-le.dge, Oxfurd,
1972, rhnpt. 3. ... ' :-' ... ,
52